Primary master drive fails

[ck_gr8]

Hi, wassup? I am in a big trouble now. Earlier today I installed Windows XP. It happens to be that after I finish installing, the pc was OK. And then, I restart the PC. Then not long after that I went online with my XP OS. I still have the windows ME in the HD,
I only got one HD so I put XP in another partition.
My antivirus isnt up to date so I go to scan my PC online at www.trendmicro.com and to my "amazement", they are able to detect more than 1000 files infected by redlof virus. Emm, I am sure most of the antivirus can detect this right.so this proves how lowsy was that PC. (It's a P4 tho)
I was a lil glad cos finally I can get rid of those virus. The PC was operating very fast even when I am scaaning the PC cos I manage to surf some webpage at the same time without much distraction. So, I felt thirsty and get some drinks. It was less than 5 minutes. When I am back, I saw that the PC has restarted. I don't know what's the reason. It says that primary master drive fails. which is indicating my HD. Ugh.. I need help here. Anyone, if possible add me in ur messenger or ICQ,k?
my MSN messenger is :ck_chen84@hotmail.com and my ICQ is 161925584 . Pls help....

 

[StormBringer]

Check the cables on your HDD, also check the jumpers, you can also try booting from the XP CD and use the console to run some checks on the drive, if that doesn't help then try running a drive diagnostic.

 

[ck_gr8]

can you give some simple guide? I dont really know how to do that... Thanks in adavnce.

 

[ck_gr8]

now...

seems like the Hard disk cant detected by the pc. What should I do now? I try everything, the pc cant even detect it.

 

[StormBringer]

did you try disconnecting and reconnecting the cables attached to the drive? If there is a bad connection there, it can cause the drive to become lost. Does the drive show up in the BIOS?

 

[ck_gr8]

yup

yea i did disconnect and reconnect the cables. The hard disk shows up in the bios but it's not working. When i try to use start up disk and type autoexec[enter] and then c: , it says that it is not valid. same thing hapen when i typed E:
any solution?

 

[StormBringer]

Try booting from the XP CD, see if you can use the repair console.

 

[ck_gr8]

u mean the one that i used to install the XP OS? It can't run. Only can use diskette.

 

[StormBringer]

Well, it sounds to me like you possibly have a corrupted or mission MBR and/or Partition table. Either or both may have been damaged by a boot sector resident virus(you did say you had to remove a bunch of virii)

You may be able to use the set of XP disks to fix this(go to the bootdisk link in my signature) you may also be able to enable booting from your CDRROM drive in the BIOS and then use the console to fix it.

More info about the mbr and partition table: http://www.ntfs.com/partition-recovery-concepts.htm

I may be wrong here, but from what you have said, thats the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[ck_gr8]

emmm..ok..i'll try this first. I will tel if it works or not.
Thanks. But, I will only start doing that tomorrow morning cos got some "distraction"...

 

[taylor]

hi, i got the same problem.

would u pls tell me how to do?
thx.