Computer Crash and Burn

[BloodRaven]

i knoew this was coming, my computer was really acting up lately and i somehow knew that it was going down pretty soon. ok, im going to try to explain what happend as much as i can. (running winxp) first i was in the middle of playing duneon siege and all of the sudden my it sounded like my hard drive was having a hard time with something, it sounded like it was starting up and powering down many times in a row. then, smack! right there in the middle of my game i get the blue screen saying that there is a physical memory dump, but this wasnt the first time i have seen this so i wasnt all that freaked out, but this time i knew it was bad because my computer all of the sudden shut off right after that. so i turned it back on and it did not recognize the hdd being there, this has also happend before so i knew how to fix that. i simply unplugged the hdd and turned on my computer untill it got thru wuth the post screen and it said it could not find a boot device, then i turned it off and plugged the hdd back in and it recognized it again. but when i went to go to start up windows it goes thru the start up screen and righ when its about to get to the desktop the blue screen with the physical memory dump flashes on the screen and it auto resets and goes thru a continuous loop. i dont know what is wrong. im thinking it is either the memory or the hard drive. the hard drive because of the wierd sound it was making when it did the mem dump. and the memory for the "physical memory dump" part. do any of you know what is going on here!? i need help!

 

[foulsoul]

its sounds like the harddrive is dodgy. maybe you should plug it into someone else pc and try it out, and if it fails in there try as hard as you can to get whatever data you want off it and buy yourself a brand new spanking harddrive.

 

[Masque]

Also, if you've got any critical data on that hard drive, now would be an excellent time to back it up. It really sounds flaky to me as well.

 

[Rick]

The electronics in your drive could be bad. I also think there is a good probability this is because of your power supply too... Since your entire computer shut off.

To be certain, I would try connecting your hard drive to a different power cable if you have not already. Also, try disconnecting extra devices, such as extra CDROMs, extra fans... etc... Your power supply may not be able to provide enough power for your system and this would account for why it shut down as well. If you happen to have a spare one, it may even be a good idea to replace the power supply entirely.

 

[BloodRaven]

ok now i know that i have a bad harddrive because i have had problems with it before. and i odnt think i t is the power supply buecause i once had a 400w in it and it barely powered it so when i got my new case it came with a 420w and im using that now...oh yea and when it shut off like that i meant it shut off to auto reset because it does that for some reason every time a blue screen pops up. ok so can i use that hdd for a secondary with another computer to get all the data off? because it starts up and everything but it just wont go into windows.

 

[Masque]

Yes, you can boot it as a slave to another system, provided that you're not trying to look at a NTFS partition from a FAT partition. Get the data off and get rid of the drive.

 

[Charles Hammond]

What about your Power Supply? A hard drive will fail if it does not have a large enough power supply or if the RAM is substandard Generic.

 

[BloodRaven]

the ram is a trusted brand but the powersupply could be a factor i will take in mind because like i said before my 400w could barely not power it and now im running it with a 420w. so what im hearing is i need to invest in a new hard drive and a more powerfull power suply. this was that hard drive i was looking at, tell my if it a good buy. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=22-145-049&depa=1