What caused this crash? Strange boot issues now.

[bruder]

Gigabyte GA-7N400L1 Bios is F12, 512x2 dual channel memory and WD160GB 7200 drive NTFS, WIndows XP pro, TrendMicro PCCillin antivirus.

PC started acting strangely. Keystrokes/mouseclicks felt lost. Virus scan was clean. I decided to book into safe mode and run another scan. PC would not boot properly. It would always go display a boot menu (Safe Mode, Safe with Networking, Last Good Config, ect). No matter what I selected it restarted.

1st try:
restored by backup to an external WDC drive using PowerQuest. Restore appeared to work fine. However, the sys would not boot from the external drive even though it offered USB-HD as a boot device.

2nd try:
restore by backup to another HD -- this time a Maxtor 7200 IDE which was formatted using FAT32. Worked OK, but did required an XP Repair run.

So, I'm up and running clean on the Maxtor on IDE1. I put the WDC on IDE2 and run a checkdisk on it. I think some errors were found. Back up my recent changes. At this point I can boot off the Maxtor on IDE1 or the WDC on IDE2. I ran a virus scan on both drives in safe mode -- clean sys.

Next, remove the Maxtor and put the WDC on IDE1. System will not boot! The IDE detect in the Bios takes a long time, then the sys can't find a boot device. If I put the Maxtor on IDE the bios rips through the IDE detect and boots normally. If I put the WDC on IDE2 the bios detect is still slow, but the system does boot.

Questions:
1 - any idea why I can't boot with the WDC on IDE1? Why is the detect so long?

2 - what caused the crash? Did the hard drive become corrupted somehow? Do I -still- have a virus that I'm unaware of?

3 - Why couldn't I boot off the external USB drive?

4 - WHat do HD0, HD1, HD2, and HD3 mean in the bios boot order. Is it Primary IDE master (HD0), slave (HD1), Secondary master (HD2), slave (HD3)?


Thanks!

[myPCrocks]

Sounds to me as if the Hard Drive is failing. Run the Diagnostic disc and see if you receive a error code.

[jlreich]

I agree with myPCrocks. Sounds like the drive may be failing.

3 - Why couldn't I boot off the external USB drive?
Booting from a USB drive is not as simple as setting the BIOS to boot from it. It takes several other things, and it is difficult at best to get it to work right.

[bruder]

I ran the Western Digital Diagnostics in both quick and extended modes. Both passed.

I edited my original post to include more details.

[bruder]

Oops, can't edit the orig.

PC would not boot properly. It would always go display a boot menu (Safe Mode, Safe with Networking, Last Good Config, ect). No matter what I selected it started Windows then very quickly displayed the Blue Screen of Death before restarting.

[jlreich]

Hmm, that is very odd. From a hardware standpoint the only thing I can think to do at the point is clear the CMOS.

From a software standpoint I don't have many ideas either. Since the WD can boot from the secondary IDE but not the primary IDE. But the Maxtor can boot from either. How odd. :confused:

Any reason you wouldn't want to apply the backup you put on the Maxtor to the WD? Like important files you haven't backed up recently? I'm just thinking that windows on the WD drive may have become corrupted, and it's booting on the secondary IDE is possibly coincidental.

I would try resetting the CMOS first and putting the WD back on the primary IDE so it can be detected agian. It's easy and doesn't pose any risk.

[Paleo Pete]

check the jumpers on the problem drive. Most newer drives work best if set to Cable Select, I occasionally find one that works best set to Master.

BIOS drivedesignations:

HDD0: Primary Master
HDD1: Primary Slave
HDD2: Secondary Master
HDD3: Secondary Slave

Drive jumper, if not Cable Select, usually needsd to match the BIOS position. If Cable Select, place any drive used by itself at the END of the IDE cable, not the middle connector. And make sure the cable is oriented correctly, the longer section should be connected to the motherboard. That part is probably OK if one drive works fine and one doesn;t, on the same cable. Also make sure the connections on both ends are secure.

The drive could also just be going bad, especially if the earlier scan turned up bad clusters.

[bruder]

Bingo. The WD requires no jumper when it's the only drive on the IDE. I had it set to master. Works fine now!!!

Thanks.

[jlreich]

Well that would explain why it would only boot from the secondary IDE. :p

One thing I don't understand though. How did it get that way? Was it always like that or did you add a drive recently etc.?

That's just another reminder to check the simple stuff first. No matter how obvious it may seem. :p

[bruder]

I'm a dope. The system crashed so I installed another drive in order to preserve my data. When I re-setting up the system I noticed that the jumper was set in a horizontal position (I put it that way a year or so ago). Like an idiot, I thought this isn't right, and set it to master.

[jlreich]

Hehe. Well don't feel too bad. I wouldn't have learned half the stuff I have if I hadn't messed up all the stuff I thought I was doing right. :p :D

Or something like that.... :D