i am new, but please help soon. HD on the line

aznsoccerstar11aznsoccerstar11
edited November 2004 in Hardware
Alright I was referred by a friend who said that you guys were the best at this stuff. Basically i have looked all over the internet and my problem can be found only so far in its entirety.

To start I have a simple dell dimension 2400 512 ram 80gb hd simple simple....no complaints from me.

I had windows xp professional installed on my computer. It was an upgrade from windows xp home that came with the computer. One day the computer was left on overnight....NOT GOOD I KNOW.....in the morning my mom tried to shut it off and it froze therefore she did manual shut off.....seems like something got overheated or whatever. Well upon turning the computer back on it was a blue screen saying

Unmountable Boot Disk error.....if you havevnt seen this before restart and so on...it still came up

Next I changed the boot sequence to get my cd rom to load abd I inserted the Windows XP cd. I then went to command prompt and did a chk dsk /r which took forever but repaired mistakes as it said...

Next I restarted and windows wouldnt load again after changing the boot sequence back.

So I then inserted the windows cd once again in order to reinstall windows as an upgrade not as an reinstallation to reformat. This is because I have tons of useful utilities and such on my computer. Over 60 gb's worth. YEs it is possible to get it all back but it took months....I now have an external 200 gb hard drive ready to back up my files.

Well upon windows installation and "repair" it started off fine. 34 minutes 33 minutes it aked for product key and information...27 minutes....27 minute....27 minutes and still going....staying at 27 minutes....the screen is switching and the bottom right is moving, but still 27 minutes and hours later 27 minutes still...i restart and same thing happens.....

I have already done the hard drive test and it passed, so I think I am safe.

Upon restarting without the windows cd it goes into setup still. This time it says previous setup can not complete due to the fact that there are security errors and it gives a list of missing files...like 10 or so...

I don't understand why since I have installed this windows time and time again. Basically I just want to get out of the setup in order to get into safe mode in order to backup my files to the external....

I called DELL they are sending me a brand new hard drive by Friday. For free, I can't complain. Can I install the new hard drive on a new partition where I install windows....( I will install the first one the computer came with this time ) Then can I get into my computer and when I go into the MY COMPUTER on the new hard drive will I be able to transfer the old hard drive files to my new hard drive or possibly the external?

I did some research as you can tell, but no FULL answers someone please help THanx in advanced.

Comments

  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited November 2004
    you will need to remove the old drive and install the new one in its place. You will then need to use your restore cd's to restore the OS and redo the upgrade. Dell is going to want the old HD back. You have probably lost all the data that was on the other drive.

    Sorry.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    If you are lucky you can remove the old drive, install the new one, and then install XPpro. Then you can rejumper your old drive as the slave and install it (provided the slave connection is open on the cable). If this works then you might be able to copy over files onto your new drive. You wont be able to move programs and expect them to work, but if you have the intall files saved you could move those and then reinstall them.
  • aznsoccerstar11aznsoccerstar11
    edited November 2004
    I have 2 hard drive bays...therefore can I not just load the new one into the new hard drive bay? I heard that I could just transfer as if it was an extra hard drive or an external hard drive. The files are sitting there, they arent corrupt or anything, there has got to be a way in order to save my stuff....there is no DAMAGE done....I dont understand it, it just wont complete my windows installation. Why cant I just stop the new repair installation. It just says security files missing what is that all about? I just want my files thats all....
  • pokesquid808pokesquid808 SO CAL
    edited November 2004
    yeah i think you might be able to just transfer the files over by installing xp on the new harddrive and slaving the old one. from what i'm readnig it looks like windows just crapped up. so the windows install is jacked but the rest of your files still should be intact. another way if you have two computers is to use norton ghost and make a ghost image of your drive and then on the computer where you dumped the image to you can use ghost explorer and drag everything off that you want to keep then just redo the whole machine. i had to do that for a client before. takes forever but you know you'll get everything off:)
  • aznsoccerstar11aznsoccerstar11
    edited November 2004
    ya I understand the slave drive part....instead of another computer I have an external hard drive can I use that norton ghost thing with the external....save plenty of time.
  • leishi85leishi85 Grand Rapids, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    when u reinstalled windows, did u do a format???

    if u did, then it will be a lot harder to get your old files back.
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited November 2004
    I had windows xp professional installed on my computer. It was an upgrade from windows xp home that came with the computer. One day the computer was left on overnight....NOT GOOD I KNOW.....in the morning my mom tried to shut it off and it froze therefore she did manual shut off.....seems like something got overheated or whatever. Well upon turning the computer back on it was a blue screen saying
    I know this doesn't help solve your problem, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with leaving your computer on all night. the fact that it had crashed in the morning exposes either a software fault or a hardware fault, that should probably be examined more in depth.

    quite a few of the members here participate in a project called folding@home, which keeps our computers running at 100% at all times (thus maximum heat, but no excess cycles). it also has the added benefit of providing cancer research... so you know
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited November 2004
    on a more helpful note, if you bought a new maxtor hdd they come with a utility that will attempt to duplicate everything thats on one drive onto another drive. its quite useful, and managed to yank everything off a very very shady IBM drive
  • pokesquid808pokesquid808 SO CAL
    edited November 2004
    i've never tried dumping to an external drive before, but as long as ghost can see the drive it'll dump to it. just make sure you are dumping the image not loading an image or else by by files.
  • aznsoccerstar11aznsoccerstar11
    edited November 2004
    I only have a dimension 2400, these computers are MADE to be left on, I know it should be somewhat harmeless, but there are definately computers that can be left on all night even for days weeks or years....it oesnt seem like my DELL is made for that, yet it is possible.

    I never reformatted the hard drive yet, It shows the partition and everything when I try to repair windows....it shows all my memory and so on.

    So can I hook my external to the slave drive? s there even a connection to do so?
  • pokesquid808pokesquid808 SO CAL
    edited November 2004
    you need to pull the drive the enclosure. the connection should be the same unless it's a laptop drive. if so you need the cable that converts it to a regular ide connection. fairly cheap.
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