Drive not ready-system halted

[2000Problems]

My system is an IBM IntelliStation, 256 Ram..... Scsi drive.. P 4 1.7 gig (I think) 2000 pro

When I boot I get the following message : Drive not ready-system halted

I can use the 2000 cd to boot from and it loads fine, but when I boot alone I get the message.

I have tried the following things:

1) I took out all the scsi cards and tried to boot
2) Ran the win 2k repair form the CD... both the console and the repair utility
3)replaced the MBR

I am out of ideas and I am pulling my hair out...

any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[CrashAbbott]

Just a thought,, i see you can boot from disk,,

during the installation in NT,, you are asked at one point to hit "s" i think to install SCSI drivers,,

since you have a scsi drive, i am thinking that you are not reading this part..?? maybe?? it is one of those windows where once you are in the groove of installing you just keep hitting the enter key, however in this case, you must do it,,

download the scsi drivers to a floppy,, then at that screen that asks for drivers for RAID, or SCSI or PERIPHERALS hit "s" (i think) do so,, you will be prompted to insert the disk to A: ,, and drivers will be loaded,,

after that I think that the issue should be resolved,, (fingers crossed)

 

[spyruler]

I got the same error message "Drive not ready - system halted".

I start my computer, before window xp home edition could finish loading, it suddenly gives me a blue screen with these errors message "error in cluster volume.." "error cannot be fixed.." (can't remember what is the exact error message) then the whole system hang. I tried to reboot the PC, then the "Drive not ready - system halted" appeared. I reboot again and again, still the same. I even check the hard drive connection, everythings normal. Finally, i decided to change a new hard drive for $120 - 40 GB. I still kept the crashed hard drive, so can the hard drive still usable? Is there ways to restore the data in it?


My PC specification:

Compaq Presario 7103 AP

Intel Pentium 4 1.3 Ghz 850 chipset
384 MB RDRAM
ndvia RIVA TNT2 M64 Pro 4x AGP
Creative Sound Blaster 128..
LG CD-RW Drive 32x12x8x
56Kbps internal modem


Window XP Home Edition

 

[devlish96]

I got the same error message "Drive not ready - system halted".

I start my computer, before window xp home edition could finish loading, it suddenly gives me a blue screen with these errors message "error in cluster volume.." "error cannot be fixed.." (can't remember what is the exact error message) then the whole system hang. I tried to reboot the PC, then the "Drive not ready - system halted" appeared. I reboot again and again, still the same. I even check the hard drive connection, everythings normal. Finally, i decided to change a new hard drive for $120 - 40 GB. I still kept the crashed hard drive, so can the hard drive still usable? Is there ways to restore the data in it?


My PC specification:

Compaq Presario 7103 AP

Intel Pentium 4 1.3 Ghz 850 chipset
384 MB RDRAM
ndvia RIVA TNT2 M64 Pro 4x AGP
Creative Sound Blaster 128..
LG CD-RW Drive 32x12x8x
56Kbps internal modem


Window XP Home Edition

correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like you got BSOD. if you had 2 partitions in that drive,..you can still get the data in the second partition. however,..if you only have 1 partition,...then its byebye. you can opt to have the datas restored..but this will costs so much that its better to just forget about it.

to get the data off the second partition,..just connect the old drive to the secondary ide and set it as slave or just remove the jumper to allow cable select. when you boot ,...you'd see additional drives..now you can get the data from your old disk,..althou you may never get the data from its primary partition.

you can still use the old drive for additional storage, just by formatting.

anyway,..if you have a scsi drive,...then forget everything i said.

i learned in tech tv that there's actually a workaround to get data from a dead drive.....but this does not work 100% of the time,...they said that you'd have to put the dead drive inside your freezer for an hour. i don't know whats the principle....but it allows parts to stick or something like that and data can be retrived from it. anyway,..after an hour,...you can get the data off of it for just a few minutes. again,..i'm not totally sure if this would work,...but that girl in tech tv,..said that most were able to retrive data from dead HD with this method

 

[spyruler]

Thanks for your help, both MicroBell and devlish96.

It does not solve all my problem, at least I know my crashed hard drive still can use! I intended to install it with Red Hat Linux 9.

Thanks again.

 

[sPlAtOiD]

There is a iso file out there called superwin PE that is a group of tools that will allow you to boot from CdRom and recouver your data before reformating if you have a way to download it it will help.