Dell that doesn't want to boot up.

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Dimension 4300S, running XP SP3.

Will get to the "Dell" screen, screen goes black, makes a faint clunk (assuming it is the hard drive), goes back to the "Dell" screen, goes black, makes a faint clunk.... repeat... repeat...

Try booting it with a 3.5" boot disk? (yes, it has a 3.5" drive)...
 
Don't you mean *not* running XP SP3? Sounds like a hardware issue. Try unplugging and removing things one at a time until it works. Things like add-on cards, CD/DVD drives, USB devices, memory chips, etc., until you're down to the minimum RAM, the video card, the hard drive, and nothing else. Then swap the RAM chips if you can and try again. Try another video card. If all else fails, try to boot from a bootable repair CD with CHKDSK on it and see if it finds any problems with the boot sector or hard drive. Does it have the 4 lights that show the system status? (might be on the back panel) What do they do when this happens? Can you get into the CMOS setup? (try pressing F12 when you see the Dell screen)
 
Unplug the hard drive. Then what? It should still post.

Did you install new memory? Take out and re-install it either way.

No series of beeps?
 
On the Dell screen, push F10 to get to boot options and see if you can run the installed diagnostics. That will probably help you find the issue.
 
Open it up and put your hand on the drive, see if that's the source of the clunk. If so, the drive is probably dead.
 
Your HD is a goner. I sincerely hope you have kept up on your backups!
frown.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Open it up and put your hand on the drive, see if that's the source of the clunk. If so, the drive is probably dead.
+1
 
Sounds like the HD is a goner. On many of the P4 models (if yours even is a Pentium 4) the caps would cause weird problems at boot up prior to cap(s) completely failing. That may be part of the problem, too....
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Open it up and put your hand on the drive, see if that's the source of the clunk. If so, the drive is probably dead.
+1


+2
 
Originally Posted By: Not the Autorx Frank
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Open it up and put your hand on the drive, see if that's the source of the clunk. If so, the drive is probably dead.
+1
+2
+3 ... unfortunately.
 
Running chkdsk now, from the XP Installation CD. We'll see what it says when it finishes.
 
Here's the result:

Quote:
Windows could not start because the following files is missing or corrupt
\windows\system32\config\system


Now what?
 
Try a repair install of XP if you want to get your data off and don't have another system available to put the drive in.
 
I do have another system running XP Home, but I'm not sure if the system that is down was running XP Home or XP Pro.

Does it matter when installing the drive as a slave?

Should I do that, or just try to replace the system file?

I'm not an expert here, but I can follow good, clear directions.
 
Well, lets assume the drive is dying. Your best bet to recover the data is to just put it in the other system. Doesn't matter which ver of XP is on it.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
Your best bet to recover the data is to just put it in the other system. Doesn't matter which ver of XP is on it.


Is there a good "How to" on the internet that you can recommend, for setting the drive up as a slave?

Once it has been used as a slave on my XP box, can it be reinstalled in its original machine and used as before?
 
Assuming that your hard drive has failed, place the drive into a Ziploc bag, then place it in your freezer for ~1 hour. After this, reconnect the drive's data and power cables (do not take time to install in computer's case) and do the following:

Have an external USB drive of adequate size connected when you attempt to boot the bad drive after being in the freezer. If the failed drive manages to boot into Windows, utilize Windows Backup utility and immediately save a Complete System Image on the USB drive.

If the above works, you can purchase a new hard drive to replace the one that failed. Here is how I replaced an 80GB primary drive with a 320GB drive, then made the 320GB hard the primary and removed the 80GB.

1) Download the fully functional trial version of Acronis Migrate Easy from this link:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/migrateeasy/index.html

2) Follow instructions at this link (start at section 1.3 if you want to cut through the fluff). Make sure you create a bootable floppy or CD when prompted:

http://s4u.download.acronis.com/sl/fCmy5jVQl1kJtEpF2K1MyVO4j8zwTd(PnVnjRLZtoG4/p/pdf/migrateeasy7.0_ug.en.pdf

3) It took less than 30 minutes to complete this process.
 
Originally Posted By: Lyondellic
Here's a site about the freezer trick. Though old, the information still applies. In this example the drive ran for ~20 minutes after being the freezer for 24 hours.

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html


He's getting missing file errors when he tries to boot, meaning the drive IS spinning up and functional. I imagine it is just in the process of failing.
 
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