[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I had a PC with WIn XP on it for a while... it stopped working about 5 weeks ago, it would freeze during start up, taking maybe a dozen attempts to get it going, then one day it wouldn't start up, it froze in the same place.

I've since managed to get an XP disc, put it in...it gave the option of repairing the installation, which it did - but not for long.

I used it over night,, next time i switched it on... it froze again, restarted and it worked.

It downloaded lots of software updates for XP, and kept bugging me to restart so I did. This is when it came up with BOOT DISK FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

So now i'm back to using my 8 year old Win ME PC again.

I have tried the XP disk, but im wondering if the hard drive is dead. If i select repeair installation...it eventually goes back to C/: After looking around on the internet, I tried a few things I found. Typing chkdsk came up with the ominous message "one or more unrecoverable problems" I also tried a re-install, i'm not sure if it even finds the drive.

Think it's completely dead?

[djellison]

I'd suggest a great IT forum like hardocp.com or similar..... but fwiw, I think your best bet is to get it the heck out of the machine and access it via a SATA enclosure or similar, to get the stuff of it.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I think the recycling dump is the best bet for it lol

[imipak]

If you've had any personal data stored on it (financial data, account details, passwords, personal email,.. ) make sure you make it irrecoverable before you dump it. Open the drive casing (the screws may be hidden below stickers), remove the platter and use whatever cutting, bending and/or grinding power-tools you can lay your hands on to damage it as much as possible. (Don't breath any dust!) Take care with the magnets, too, they are surprisingly powerful and can give rise to painful finger-crushing events (and of course they're not good for other magnetic media, credit card magstripes, etc, though Google can bring you some interesting projects to reuse them.)

[stevesliva]

I donated an old PC to charity, and given the amount of effort I went through to find a freeware data-destroyer, I wondered if it was worth it!

[imipak]

If the disk is still working reliably, Boot and Nuke is Free and easy - a lot less hassle than physically wrecking the drive (and the machine can be reused rather than recycled.)

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Ill take the hard drives out... there are 2 one 20GB one 80GB. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't install onto the 80GB one - maybe the version I have will only install if there's a previous version of windows already on the disk.

[remcook]

I had something similar and that was due to a hard disk failure. They could still get almost everything off though (I think) when attached to another computer. So there may be hope

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I had something similar and that was due to a hard disk failure. They could still get almost everything off though (I think) when attached to another computer. So there may be hope

There wasn't anything important on it, I only really used it for iTunes and my iPod... which don't work with Windows Millenium Edition lol. Probably better off ust getting a new computer - I hear there are supposed to be some new Macs on October the 14th..

[djellison]

Yeah - new Macbooks I've heard. VERY excited by that, as I've always been somewhat disapointed by my Macbook Pro compared to my old Macbook.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Yeah - new Macbooks I've heard. VERY excited by that, as I've always been somewhat disapointed by my Macbook Pro compared to my old Macbook.

Im still waiting for that elusive Mac Mini update.

[stewjack]

Ill take the hard drives out... there are 2 one 20GB one 80GB. Couldn't figure out why I couldn't install onto the 80GB one

I believe XP will only install on the master drive. At least using the standard installer. Your 80GB slave drive might still be good!

If you want to buy a better computer great, but you might want to have somebody knowledgeable look over your old computer. I haven't heard anything that "proves" your computer is totally trashed!

FOR EXTRA CREDIT
If you are familiar with partition managers such as PartitionMagic or gParted you might be able to create a 20 GB active partition on the front of your 80GB HD by shrinking the original partition or partitions.

Jack

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I believe XP will only install on the master drive. At least using the standard installer. Your 80GB slave drive might still be good!

If you want to buy a better computer great, but you might want to have somebody knowledgeable look over your old computer. I haven't heard anything that "proves" your computer is totally trashed!

It looks pretty old, someone gave me it, I can see why now lol.

It only has 2 USB 1 ports a CDRW and no sound of any kind.

Maybe i'll have another go with it. (i'll probably make it worse lol, if I haven't already )

[stewjack]

It looks pretty old, someone gave me it, I can see why now lol.

I wasn't trying to change your mind about getting a new computer. just suggesting that you might want to keep your old one to experiment with. I have installed PCI cards. memory, and hard drives, but that's about it for me. Sometimes I find out if stuff still works by installing it in computers that do work.

Jack

[tedstryk]

I believe XP will only install on the master drive.

There is a way around that. I made another drive my master drive, installed it, and then switched back to the original drive. That way if something goes wrong, I can switch masters.