Unable to boot

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

I was trying to install Windows XP on my WD 1TB Caviar Black that has Windows 7 on it. I was going to dual boot them.
Now i have installed dual boot setups before and have never had any problems.

So i popped in the xp disc and started up the install on my 20gb partition for it.(Windows 7 was on its own partition of course.)

As the install process went on it was going fine until it reached the part where it was installing network components. Then the computer restarted.

So i figured lets try again and when it went to the boot menu it had 2 entries Windows XP professional (which i was installing) and WIndows XP home edition.

Weird. I hit professional and it started installing again until it got to the same spot and restarted. I thought never mind i’ll just forget it

I knew i needed to fix the boot record as the xp one usually overwrites the 7 one.

Pop in my 7 disc and it wont boot from the cd just has a blinking cursor then goes to the boot menu.

I made sure my bios settings were correct and tried a different 7 dvd. Same problem.

Tried a Linux mint disc and it brought up an I/O error saying that that the computer could not communicate with either the cd drive or the the hard drive.

Thought what the heck maybe i should try my brothers external dvd burner.

Plugged it in set it up in the bios and put the 7 disc in there. Starts loading the files and right when it got to the actual setup menu i get a Blue screen saying something about the partition manger is incorrect or something to that effect

Last resort, i put my hard drive in my friends old computer and booted off of his hard drive.

I can access my hard drives files and everything but all i want to do is fix my boot record any ideas?

When i tried to run the Windows 7 disc again on my friends computer it gave the same I/o error.

What can i do to get the hard drive working again? I am fine with losing the data on it

2

Try writing zeros to the drive and than reinstalling from there. That will totally wipe the drive and force the boot sector etc. to be recreated.

3

Will something like http://hddguru.com/software/2006.04.13-HDD-Wipe-Tool/ work?

4

Well i used Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows from the WD website to write zeros to the drive and after that was finsihed I booted from a Windows 7 dvd.

It started loading files then hung at the very end popping up with same message that it could not communicate with the hard drive.

I just dont understand what could be wrong with this hard drive.

5

Anyone else have any ideas on what i could do?

And if this is unfixable do you guys know if WD would return this on warranty?

6

Use the same diagnostics program to run an “extended test” on the drive. If it comes up with any kind of error than there is likely something wrong with the disk. I would also try replacing the SATA cable between the drive and the motherboard as these go bad very easily. If all else fails you can get the drive replaced right on WD’s website (if its under warranty)- no need to even call support.

7

Bill would remember better than me, but we have seen something similar here in the past. The advice given on the cable is sound - that has definitely worked here previously.

Probably not relevant but there have been problems with certain motherboard I/O chips, I’m pretty sure the VIA chips have given problems on some drive / OS combinations, but can’t find my notes. Anyway,

Here are some notes I do have around HD recovery:

-  free prog Eraser : http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/

In my friends old computer and booted off of his hard drive I can access my hard drives files and everything but all i want to do is fix my boot record any ideas?

When i tried to run the Windows 7 disc again on my friends computer it gave the same I/o error.

That is very confusing. Your mate’s PC can access the drive and read files. I would try, if you can, using another PC (e.g. your friends) and disconnect his hard drive for safety and try doing erasers and install there.

I have ended up with about five 10GB or 20GB hard drives which are perfect for this sort of diagnostic work cos I can put XP on them and use them as worker boot drives. I’d give you one if I could :slight_smile:

Let us know how you get on.

8

i used Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows from the WD website to write zeros to the drive

I’ve seen in these forums that DLG does not write zeros to the whole drive for some unknown reason. A guy was able to use a recovery utility to get things back after doing that. Try using Eraser (sourceforge) instead.

9

Well i decided i had it with the thing so i went out and bought a cheap hard drive for the time being.

After getting it all setup i popped in the old drive as well and transefered some backups to the new drive and as i am doing this the drive starts to make clicking noises.

So after all the trouble i guess it was just a mechanical problem.

I am going to send it in on warranty. thanks for all your help though guys.