c00000221 unknown hard error

[smith04]

My mother-in-laws PC, a Compaq Preserio 7000, has been starting up, showing the "Compaq" opening screen, then the Windows XP logo then hanging up. It did that for many boots, now just the Compaq screen, then automatic reboot.

I followed Sylvesters flow chart, and followed it as best I could, disconnecting components, rebooting and checking them one at a time. I reseated the RAM, etc. Finallys I started a reinstall of Win XP. Now sometimes it goes into Windows XP, sometimes it gives me errors time and date not set, then gives me an error message

c00000221 unknown hard error
\systemroot\system32\ntddll.dll

Any suggestions on what to do next?

smith04

[ski]

It's caused by bad hardware. Either swap out components, or have them shop tested.

[saphalline]

Hard drive died.

[smith04]

Saphalline,

You hit it on the head. I replaced the hard drive and it runs again! Thanks to you and ski for the advice.

smith04

[joeups]

I had the same error message like above. After cross elimination process, I finally narrowed it down to bad CD/DVD drive. Once I hooked up another CD/DVD drive, I was able to install Windows XP fine. Of course, I ran the Hard Drive Diagnostic tools that came with Dell PC, it showed that the hard drive was good.