posted
Hey guys. I'm trying to fix an issue with my wife's laptop (Valentine014) and thought I'd ask you guys before giving up.
What started happening was that Windows refused to boot up. After it doing a lot of nothing, it would show the "System32 Corrupt or Missing", which seems pretty common.
I figured something was probably corrupt with the operating system, and that I'd just reformat. I have a full version of Windows XP from my other computer purchase a while back that I was going to load.
When trying to boot from that disc (and enter the Windows setup), however, I kept getting errors that halted the windows setup from fully loading. I took some pictures on my phone that I could dig out if needed. The laptop also was making horrible grinding and clicking noises before the errors would occur. I thought maybe the Windows XP disk was the problem (it is old and somewhat scratched), but when I tried booting to this disk from my desktop, it worked without issue.
I took the laptop to a computer repair place, and they diagnosed the problem as being a bad hard-drive. They offered to order a new one and re-install windows for me, but the charge was something ridiculous for labor, so we decided I'd do it myself.
My first replacement hard-drive I mistakenly got a SATA when I should of gotten a PATA one. After finally getting the correct type of drive, I replaced the old one in the docking tray and closed it up.
However, now the BIOS isn't recognizing that it has a hard drive attached to the system. When I start it up it says "Internal HDD Error!", or something to that effect. When I go to the Device Info on the BIOS it says "Primary Hard Drive = {none}". I don't remember what the exact error message was when trying to boot to the Windows XP disk, but it wouldn't let me do that either.
So now I am thinking it's one of two things:
1) I need to do something to get the laptop to recognize the new hard drive is docked.
2) It wasn't the hard-drive that was the problem, but rather the motherboard (or some connecting component) recognizing the hard-drive.
Any assistance would be appreciated. It is a Dell Inspiron 6000. The hard-drive is a WD800BEVE (both new and old I believe). Any more specific info on error messages (descriptions above are from memory) or trial and error steps can be provided. Thanks!
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Hmm... That ought to work, assuming the BIOS isn't expecting Reduced Power Spinup or something.
Ideally, there would be another laptop hanging around that you could try the new hard drive out in to isolate whether the problem is the drive or the computer, but I know that isn't that common.
I presume you've physically examined the thing to be sure there isn't anything funky with the connection points.
The only other thing that leaps to mind is to re-examine settings in the BIOS in the off chance that having a hard drive failure trips some sort of safety.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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