SATA HD problems - PC keeps rebooting after trying to boot WinXP

[maritrunks]

Hey all, I have a major problem. I recently bought a Western Digital 200GB SATA HD a few months ago. It seems to work fine, but every 2 or 3 weeks my system would go into this endless rebooting loop when it tries to start up Winxp. The reboot happens during the windows xp startup screen with the blue squares scrolling from left to right under the Windows XP logo. Iam sure I installed it properly since I used the Motherboard drivers and press F6 before the windows xp installation begins. Every 2 or 3 weeks all of sudden it stops loading winxp and starts rebooting. I also notice that everytime I boot up, Windows XP goes through a chkdsk for some reason all the time.

My PC was PERFECT before I switched to the SATA HD, so Iam pretty sure its the SATA HD doing this.... Iam also using NTFS, Iam not sure if thats the right one to use..

Most of the time when this happens I get pissed off, and end up deleting the partition and reformating/reinstalling winXP and then it happens again after 2 weeks or so. I just dont get whats wrong.

ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRIECIATED!!!

 

[xxsbrxx]

well

im new to this stuff this may work as soon as you put your pc on keep pressing f8 which will bring up a sub screen scroll to run windows normally that may work
good luck!

 

[whitesealstudio]

I'm not totally sure about this but when I was installing my system with just SATA drives I didn't need to hit F6 during install. Unless your running your drive in raid which you need 2 or more drives to do anyway. It doesn't sound like that is the problem though. I would check WD's site for their self diagnostic test that will load upon boot. Let it do the extensive check of your drive.

 

[zellyman]

Can you boot into safe mode?

 

[maritrunks]

Safe modes dont work. It just tries to load the basic system files and drivers and then freezes even before entering windows environment.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that when I tried to start the PC with the Partition Magic Recover disks, it showed as my C: Drive as "?????????" and file system as "Unknown" but my D and E partition showed up fine. Also I cant format the partition, it doesnt allow me for some reason (in Partition Magic Recovery Program) so I had to delete the partition and recreate a new one and assign it as my active partition.

So wierd, I just cant figure it out...
I do have lots of files on my D and E drive (movies/games/Music) and maybe thats why my file index might be messed up ? I seriously dont know, and I dont want to backup 120GB of stuff right now.

 

[zellyman]

Windows is very likely having trouble mounting your file system if partition magic is showing your C:\ like that. Does your Mobo have MBR virus detection? if so, try turning it on and see what happens (though that is retrospective and will do nothing as far as fixing the problem, it may give you a clue as to what happened if it finds something).
If you were using partition magic before the problem, is there a chance that you might have accedentally damaged the MBR? If so, you can fix it using the recoverey console, but we'll take that step as it comes, its 3:43 am here

 

[maritrunks]

I dont think the MBR is messed up, because now my PC is fine (after reformatting for the 5th time since I got my SATA HD)

But who knows how long this PC will be fine until, it starts the rebooting problem.

I dont usually use Partition Magic, but I usually just partition it during the WinXP installation wizard. I only use Partition Magic for resizing or troubleshooting my HD.

I think I do have the anti-virus for my Mobo, but Its on by default and I dont think that would help me....

I never delete my D: or E: partition cause it has all my movies/games/music on it so is there a chance that a virus could be in those partition instead of my C:? I also never install any programs or games on my D: or E: partitions.

 

[zellyman]

Nah, I was just concerned with the MBR (a special partition all its own), so I wouldnt worry about your other ones. When you do get it up and running and you expereince the problem the first time, (If you can get in again) right click My Computer > Manage > even t viewer look under system and application and whatever else to see if you find and red !'s with Alerts or any warnings

 

[HAMM-BONE]

i have the same problem

I have the same problem, my computer reboots right before xp logs on. I have two sata drives and it keeps saying the the drives are non-raid disks. To make it a raid disk, it would erase everything on the disk now. I dont want to format, i will lose all my programs and files. So what do i do.