One harddrive died, other harddrive's XP not detected

[Daave]

Hi,

This morning a fan in my case was making strange noises (either CPU or GPU fan I think) and so I turned my computer off. I turned it on a little later and the computer was making a really odd clicking noise, so I unplugged each harddrive in turn to see which was causing it. I removed the problem drive (not the one with my XP installation on) and then turned the computer on again. This time it just said could not detect boot disk. I've tried installing XP again, but it gets as far as loading all the setup files and then my PC reboots. The bios still detects the harddrive still in.

The harddrives are just normal IDE 120gb drives (the removed one is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 and the one still in is a Barracuda Seagate). I don't understand why the first stopped working (it is at most 6 months old) and why the 2nd one's installation is not detected (it is only a month or 2 old). Up til today, my computer was working perfectly. At the moment my whole computer is useless and the fan is still making the same weird noise occasionally.

Thanks.

 

[Liquidlen]

Welcome to Techspot

It sounds like the Drive you removed was the Primary, so the system can't find an MBR.
Also if that is right did you change the Jumper on the Slave left in your box?
Buy a new Fan, why take a chance ?

 

[Daave]

Thanks for the help. I changed the remaining drive to Primary, and the setup now works. Unfortunately it still didn't detect the old Windows installation. Hopefully though it'll work when its reinstalled.

Do you have any idea why the other harddrive stopped working? I'm quite annoyed at losing a bout 90gb of wanted files. I know I should backup but it used to be the backup drive til I got a new computer..and haven't had money to buy enough DVDs to back it up since then.

I think I will be buying a new fan, pretty sure its the CPU one thats the problem.

 

[lizannel]

Maybe I missed something here, but are you sure that drive doesn't work? Didn't you say that you took out the drive cause you thought it was making a weird noise, but now you think it's the fan? Did you try plugging the drive back in? If not, you could give it a try, but make sure that you have the jumpers set to slave if the other one is now the Master...(this has worked for me before when I thought a drive was dead)

 

[Liquidlen]

Thanks for the help. I changed the remaining drive to Primary, and the setup now works. Unfortunately it still didn't detect the old Windows installation. Hopefully though it'll work when its reinstalled.

Do you have any idea why the other harddrive stopped working? I'm quite annoyed at losing a bout 90gb of wanted files. I know I should backup but it used to be the backup drive til I got a new computer..and haven't had money to buy enough DVDs to back it up since then.

I think I will be buying a new fan, pretty sure its the CPU one thats the
problem.

CPU fan replacement is critcal immediate fix!
It probably won't boot because the MBR for that installation is on the drive C:\ that is gone now.
You did not say that your computer could not boot with it's original HDD configuration.
I am not sure the drive is DEAD, drives often make funny noises before they die. It might last long enough to save your data and do some other troubleshooting.
Try putting HDD's back the way they were ,if you can boot to xp you can prepare for a re-configuration by saving Data etc. and or try re-install a new XP on another partition etc. You could have a lot of choises.

 

[Daave]

I have tried the harddrive in my other computer, and the computer doesn't detect it in BIOS or Windows. It makes the clicking noise until XP loads and then is quiet but undetected. I might try to recover data but its unlikely I'll be able to.

All is fine on this computer now (except the fan, which I have ordered a replacement for). Thanks for all your help.