HD Mix up, PC Won't Boot

[sprandel17]

Alright guys, let me know if you can follow this... *Deep Breath*

I went away to Colorado for 9 days, my mom used my computer while I was gone. She's usually pretty good with computers and stuff but it's not working right now. What she said she did was

"I logged on to AIM, everything froze and I couldn't even get into task manager, so I hit the manual reset. It reboot and it checked for boot record on IDE-0 and it said 'none' then the computer restarted itself and did it all over again."

I have 2 HD, IDE-0 [C:, 40GB], IDE-1 [D:, 200GB], and windows is on C:. I pop in the windows install CD and look to do a repair install and what I get is...

38163 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi
<Setup Cannot access this disk.>

194475 MB Disk 0 at Id 1 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition1 [NTFS] 194475 MB <49826 MB Free>

(Also on the 2nd drive it says windows is already installed)

But the 200GB on IDE-1 IS NOT MY C:, IT'S MY D:, and SHOULD NOT have WINDOWS ON IT!!

There is NO option to do a repair installation... And I'm just very confused at what happened to my computer.

 

[kimsland]

Unplug the IDE1 and also the CD/DVD drive (from Motherboard end!)

Reconnect IDE0 on both sides (also having a quick look at the data cable)
What I mean here is (although you sound like you know) is just unplug/reseat IDE0

Turn On (ie no IDE1 or CD/DVD <- which is probably on IDE1 <- I hope!)

Did it work? (actually unplug the floppy, m/b end too)

And while your there, reseat the Ram

Please let me know this innitial outcome

pull pull pull

 

[sprandel17]

I can't just unplug one HD, they're connected with one IDE cable.

 

[gniw]

I can't just unplug one HD, they're connected with one IDE cable.

you can, just do it. if the two harddisk use a cable, you can unplug one from harddisk end.

however, I think the problem is the jump line on harddisk. pls set one as primary, another as slave.

 

[sprandel17]

I think I broke it...

I no longer have a master, only a slave and it won't let me continue with that configuration, it won't let me reassign the drives, something is ticking like a clock and you can hear it in another room, I can't even get to the boot select screen to get into the windows xp setup disk anymore... I just get

SYSTEM HALT! You must set the stand alone IDE device as the master

Or something.

EDIT: I pressed F4 to skip the master HD check and then I pressed F11 to get to the boot select, and it said
Primary Master: Not Detected
Primary Slave: Maxtor

Pri Slave Failure!
Press F1 To Continue

And now my boot select screen is narrowed down to DVD-RW and floppy.

 

[CCT]

With newer 80 wire 40 pin cabling for IDE, the Master is connected to the black end and the mobo to the blue end.

It is easy to dislodge the blue connector so check that it seated (press squarely down) - these connectors require that they be aligned to start with such that you don't bend pins.

 

[kimsland]

Well I think it's master fail at this point!

Anyway, I went away and now I'm back (CCT won't be happy!)

Well if you're still working on it

All IDE cables out!
Set the Main HardDrive as CS (Cable Select) On the little jumper at the end of the HardDrive
Plug in the single (80wire) IDE cable to the Main HardDrive and to IDE0
Turn on
Check CMOS if it's connected

If it starts being noisy again, or comes up HDD0 fail
Then guess what, it's failed

Now to set the other drive as master at last!
You'll need the Windows CD...
And by the way, you can remove that faulty HardDrive (if you dismantle it, you can get the super magnet inside!)

 

[CCT]

'CCT won't be happy!'

Not so!

Anyway, if that 200 Gb drive was storage that you want to recover then leave it be (and disconnected). IF you DO need a new drive, buy one and install to it. Once you are up and running, then connect the storage drive again.

 

[sprandel17]

But the 200GB on IDE-1 IS NOT MY C:, IT'S MY D:, and SHOULD NOT have WINDOWS ON IT!!

It's not as bad as I thought it was. I think it IS a master fail, my mom hid from me that she tried to install windows on that HD but something happened and it went wrong or she got scared of breaking my computer or something I guess... So My master failed, now it thinks the 200GB is C:, cause it's the only drive in there, and there is half a copy of windows on it!

So right now I'm looking to try and save my data off the 200GB, I got a new processor that I'm gonna have installed for me because I'm terrified of doing it myself so I think I'll let the guys at the shop try and figure out the best way to do that for me.

Thanks for all of your help!