HDD Causes Stop Error

[Blackspeech]

Hi - my primary PC will not boot using it's normal system drive. It tells me 'PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA'.

It will not boot into any Windows XP mode and using XP CD and selecting any of the two options (Repair and Load XP) causes a BSOD with same error msg.

I transferred the HDD to my second PC and set jumpers for a MASTER & SLAVE config. The machine will not boot with the HDD connected and gives same STOP error.

Whilst the drive spins up I think it must be knackered and I think un-recoverable. Any thoughts on what is happening here would be really appreciated. I will take a hammer to the drive and dispose if I cannot resolve the issue.

Cheers all.

[sitalchauhan]

I transferred the HDD to my second PC and set jumpers for a MASTER & SLAVE config.

Im not quite sure what you meant by this. But if you havnt tried this, give it a go. Put the messed up hard drive as slave in your second pc, leaving its original hard drive as master. It should boot up into windows as normal and the messed up drive should show up in windows xp. You should be able to copy the files over from it if there are any that you want to save. If it is quite badly messed up, there are a few programs on the internet that help you to recover data from a corrupted hard drive.
If you manage to get everything off it that you need, reformat the messed up drive and put it back into the first pc. Try reinstalling XP and it might be ok after that again...

[Blackspeech]

Thanks for the reply mate.

I have tried exactly that (which is what I meant) but my 2nd PC will not work with the faulty drive as Slave (or Master).

I would have thought that it would just boot using the Master Drive and then find the Slave Drive. At that point I would do as you say and copy my Oblivion Saves and other bits.

I cannot access either PC when that drive is attached in any set-up.

Dumbfounded

[streetster]

why dont you disconnect your cd/dvd drive and put the second harddrive on a cable all by itself..

this means you dont have to worry about master/slave or the position the drive is on the IDE cable..

Once this is done, go into the BIOS and make sure that the drive is being found, and then if it doesnt show up in My Computer, you'll have to go to Computer Management (Control Panel->Administrative Settings) and assign it a Drive letter...

After you've done this you should be able to copy all the stuff off without issue

[Blackspeech]

why dont you disconnect your cd/dvd drive and put the second harddrive on a cable all by itself..

this means you dont have to worry about master/slave or the position the drive is on the IDE cable..

Once this is done, go into the BIOS and make sure that the drive is being found, and then if it doesnt show up in My Computer, you'll have to go to Computer Management (Control Panel->Administrative Settings) and assign it a Drive letter...

After you've done this you should be able to copy all the stuff off without issue

Hi and thanks.

I tired doing just the drive on secondary IDE channel but on either connector, with no CDROM connected the PC BSOD.

If I put the drive on the cable with the CDROM connected I can boot and the BIOS is listing the drive. However I cannot see it in My Computer or on Device Manager.

How can I get the drive in Windows?. Thanks.

[streetster]

The fact that you can see the harddrive in the bios but its not showing up in device manager is odd - I assume you've tried rebooting the machine just incase it needs to install drivers/crap for it?

Does it not show up in Computer Management (within control panel -> administrative options) ie:



(^^ think that will work)


Otherwise you can download tools such as ntfs reader

which you can download the bootable ISO, burn that to a CD and then boot that and might be able to take some files off... Tho i think you have to have a fat32 partition available to copy stuff to (you *may* be able to do this if you just have a usb pendrive plugged in but im not 100% sure)...

If you can get the drive recognised in windows then that is the better bet...

[Blackspeech]

The device is not being detected in Device Manager and XP is not requesting drivers or anything else. The jumpers are set Master/Slave on the secondary IDE with the HDD as slave but neither CDROM or HDD show up.

Just plain weird - I think I have to accept that I am not going to be able to get anything off this drive. I have Acronis true Image but it is not installed At the moment.

[streetster]

If I put the drive on the cable with the CDROM connected I can boot and the BIOS is listing the drive. However I cannot see it in My Computer or on Device Manager.

is different to

The jumpers are set Master/Slave on the secondary IDE with the HDD as slave but neither CDROM or HDD show up.

you want to have this:

IDE1========HARDDRIVE 1 (MASTER) (the working one)

IDE2========HARDDRIVE 2 (MASTER) (the faulty one)

and nothing else connected. ie dont connect the CDROM.

make sure you've plugged the molex (power) connector into the harddrive, I've stressed for ages about a harddrive not getting recognised due to simple user error.


If you plug the harddrives in like the diagram above:

1. are they both detected in the bios?
2. what is the boot priority, make sure the FIRST harddrive is being chosen, not the faulty one otherwise this will simply BSOD


maybe take a picture of the computer and the bios, and upload to somewhere like imageshack just to make sure you're not doing anything wrong


oh and for future reference, if you want to have the two connected on the same channel you want to do something like this:



where the harddrive is master, and the CDROM is set to slave

[Blackspeech]

Hi streetser - and thanks for the replies.

I ran a Western Digital Diagnostic tool today after speaking to them. The drive turned up error free. I deleted all data (after previously trying all suggestions).

However something went wrong and I enede up losing all the data (Over 3000 photos and videos) of my kids and family from my other error free drive. Gutted. Not sure how it happened.

I am running PC Inspector File Recovery now to get the photos back.

Anyway - as far as the HDD goes I reloaded XP and all looked ok until after a few installs and restarts and then the drive would not boot. I swapped drives and installed XP again and I now have the iffy drive running again.

Needless to say I ain't going to use it after tomorrow when my new drives arrive from Ebuyer.

what a kerrfuffle!

Thanks for you help.

[streetster]

That sucks about losing all your data... did you have both harddrives plugged in when you ran the WD diagnostic?

i guess you cant RMA the drive back to WD if it doesnt show any errors


sorry I couldnt solve the problem buddy, good luck getting the stuff off your drive!