how very very odd

Zirax · 28-09-2007, 22:47

Just went to boot my main machine and its not even getting into windows. Even safe mode is having none of it. Was working fine yesterday so I'm really struggling as to what the hecks happened in a day of sitting there??

Just incase the overclock has become unstable, i've put back to stock and its still not doing it. The raid 1 arrays are fine, its just having none of it. How queer.

Literally just gone into safe mode. Now crashing going to desktop, something has royally fubared

Really really not what I need at the moment

Mark · 28-09-2007, 22:50

How old is the motherboard? My original P4 did the whole 'refuse to boot Windows' thing like yours. That turned out to be blown capacitors on the motherboard.

The same PC (with new motherboard) died again a few years later due to a capacitor exploding inside the PSU. That one also blew out a mains fuse and shut down my UPS, so there was no mistaking that.

Can you see a pattern here? (I get solid capacitor mobos now for a reason)

Zirax · 28-09-2007, 23:00

Its just so random thats thrown me. Normally windows gets clunky before giving up the ghost

Zirax · 28-09-2007, 23:05

Hdd gone, bloody brilliant that i'm not told what one has gone!!!!

edit: one of my old 160's looks to have gone, and some of the key windows files on the main hdds has corrupted.

Daz · 30-09-2007, 20:54

Was thinking hdd as I was reading, was gonna suggest booting a Linux kernel because....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zirax

bloody brilliant that i'm not told what one has gone!!!!

Windows sucks at handling dying/dead block devices, especially when the system partition is involved. The linux kernel won't work miracles, but it'll at least bitch at you with enough info to give you somewhere to start.

Hope you got a recent backup and/or you can get to your data through other means.

Mark · 30-09-2007, 21:45

Yup. Booting Linux and running 'dmesg' will in many cases tell you more than you probably ever need to know about your hardware.

As Daz says, hope nothing vital is lost forever.

Zirax · 30-09-2007, 22:20

Yep I had backups of the data. However I also now have post dieing backups from the raid 1 drives. It seems that somehow windows has nuked key files which will stop it from booting. Windows just has this ability. Hardware wise (clocking) its 100% solid as a rock as that will normally cripple things very quickly.

Now the mammoth task of rebuilding windows begins. Even after installing tonnes of stuff there will still be loads that you will have missed. Just found a FDD drive for the raid drivers. Hopefully Vista will have some way when installing of using USB sticks to install drivers seeing as FDD's are being phased out.

Daz · 01-10-2007, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zirax

Hopefully Vista will have some way when installing of using USB sticks to install drivers seeing as FDD's are being phased out.

It does

And on the fly as well, no more 'Press F6 to load drivers'. Think you can even mount a network drive at that screen, cant remember. You can certainly hot-plug storage though.

Admiral Huddy · 01-10-2007, 12:21

Damn hhds!!.. I've had on average one a year go for the last 5.

They maybe cheap as chips now but their realibilty has a lot to be desired.

Daz · 01-10-2007, 12:32

You say that, but I've not had a hard drive fail for years on my own machines (touches lots of wood (fnarrrr)). They still really don't like heat though ime, most of the server disk failures we've had at work over the past 2 years have been because of air-con failures.

28-09-2007, 22:47	#1
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	how very very odd Just went to boot my main machine and its not even getting into windows. Even safe mode is having none of it. Was working fine yesterday so I'm really struggling as to what the hecks happened in a day of sitting there?? Just incase the overclock has become unstable, i've put back to stock and its still not doing it. The raid 1 arrays are fine, its just having none of it. How queer. Literally just gone into safe mode. Now crashing going to desktop, something has royally fubared Really really not what I need at the moment

28-09-2007, 23:05	#4
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Hdd gone, bloody brilliant that i'm not told what one has gone!!!! edit: one of my old 160's looks to have gone, and some of the key windows files on the main hdds has corrupted. Last edited by Zirax; 28-09-2007 at 23:48.

01-10-2007, 12:21	#9
Admiral Huddy HOMO-Sapien Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Chelmsford Posts: 6,692	Damn hhds!!.. I've had on average one a year go for the last 5. They maybe cheap as chips now but their realibilty has a lot to be desired. __________________ I just got lost in thought.. It was very unfamiliar territory. Techie Talk \| My gaming Blog \| PC spec \| The Admirals log

01-10-2007, 12:32	#10
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	You say that, but I've not had a hard drive fail for years on my own machines (touches lots of wood (fnarrrr)). They still really don't like heat though ime, most of the server disk failures we've had at work over the past 2 years have been because of air-con failures. __________________ apt-get moo

28-09-2007, 22:50	#2
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	How old is the motherboard? My original P4 did the whole 'refuse to boot Windows' thing like yours. That turned out to be blown capacitors on the motherboard. The same PC (with new motherboard) died again a few years later due to a capacitor exploding inside the PSU. That one also blew out a mains fuse and shut down my UPS, so there was no mistaking that. Can you see a pattern here? (I get solid capacitor mobos now for a reason)

28-09-2007, 23:00	#3
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Its just so random thats thrown me. Normally windows gets clunky before giving up the ghost

30-09-2007, 21:45	#6
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	Yup. Booting Linux and running 'dmesg' will in many cases tell you more than you probably ever need to know about your hardware. As Daz says, hope nothing vital is lost forever.

30-09-2007, 22:20	#7
Zirax Goes up to 11! Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 4,577	Yep I had backups of the data. However I also now have post dieing backups from the raid 1 drives. It seems that somehow windows has nuked key files which will stop it from booting. Windows just has this ability. Hardware wise (clocking) its 100% solid as a rock as that will normally cripple things very quickly. Now the mammoth task of rebuilding windows begins. Even after installing tonnes of stuff there will still be loads that you will have missed. Just found a FDD drive for the raid drivers. Hopefully Vista will have some way when installing of using USB sticks to install drivers seeing as FDD's are being phased out.