[thekeeperofham]

Hi i'm having a problem, when i turn on my computer it goes through the normal screens(video card, mobo,etc..) after it shows the mobo screen(the one where it says like press f10 for boot menu) it comes up with this blank screen with a blinking cursor thing. I have XP installed, I'm thinking it is something to do with the MBR, but I have gone into recovery console on the win xp disk and done "fixmbr" but that didn't work.
Computer Specs
----------------
118GB Harddrive (unknown type)
Intel Celeron D Processor 356
3GB RAM
Intel mobo (unknown type)
Nvidida XFX 9600 GSO Graphics card

If you have any solutions please say so!!! :smile:

 

[manic]

Has the machine ever worked? Has there been any changes made
lately?

 

[Captainmark]

Hey keeper welcome to the Forum,

This can happen when the file system needs repair you need to run a chkdsk /r on the disk.

Best way I have found is by attaching the disk as slave to another system and when you can see it as drive d: you issue a command chkdsk d: /r

Another is to boot to one of the many boot cds like Super ERD or the windows recovery on the windows XP CD and run it from there.

Here is a nice link to instructions from University of Wisconsin..
http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=5097

If this solves your problem please use the Thread tools to mark this thread solved.

 

[thekeeperofham]

@Manic Yes this machine has worked before and no i havn't added any new hardware recently

@Captainmark I tried a windows repair it did the first part, but at reboot still gives a blackscreen before the windows boot screen. I going to try Super ERD.

 

[Captainmark]

Yes but did you do a windows repair or did you do a chkdsk /r

 

[thekeeperofham]

Ok I got windows to boot and do the Windows repair after reboot I now get this error "A disk read error. Press ctrl + alt + del to restart" is this harddrive failure should i try chkdsk?

 

[Captainmark]

Yes..I have seen the black screen with cursor in top left many times. Chkdsk can fix it but if your disk is very bad you may want to slave it to another machine and start copying data off it.

If there are to many bad blocks the disk may be stuffed. You could try manufactures hard disk tests instead you would need to find out make and model and download the program form their web site.

 

[Captainmark]

Yes..I have seen the black screen with cursor in top left many times. Chkdsk can fix it if there are only a few bad blocks but if your disk is very bad you may want to slave it to another machine and start copying data off it.

If there are to many bad blocks the disk may be stuffed.

You could try manufactures hard disk tests instead you
would need to find out make and model and download the program form their web site.

 

[thekeeperofham]

I'm going to do chkdsk /r in recovery console I'll post again when it is done with the results

 

[thekeeperofham]

Well, I did chkdsk it got to 56% then it says "the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." Is this certain hard drive failure?If it is, is there any way I could get my data back!!!

 

[Captainmark]

Sounds like disk problem. Best way to recover your files is by copying to another disk.

What type of disk is it IDE or SATA.?

If you can install it as a second disk in a working machine you can copy the files.

You could boot to Super ERD and plug in a USB external drive (I think that will work) and copy to that.

Here is a great tool for reading sata disks.
YouTube - Thermaltake BlacX SATA to USB Hard Drive Dock
I bought something similar for $32AUD

You could install a new drive in your machine and build it then attach your old one as slave to try copying data.

Good luck....Im off to bed soon..

 

[Captainmark]

One more thing now that you know its a disk filesystem problem its probably worth downloading the manufactures tests for the disk and running them to confirm it is hardware and not just coruption. But Id try to backup first if I was you.

 

[thekeeperofham]

One more question where do you download Super ERD?