BleepingComputer.com: hard drive boot problem

I have searched around this forum but did not find any previous posts like my problem so here goes....I am having a issue with my new hard drive not booting up windows at all and and an old drive not going straight to boot. Here is the machine and background info. My computer is an E-Machines with Intel Celeron 2.93ghz, 1.48 GB Ram,and XP Home edition service pack 3. This all started out when my original 80 GB western digital IDE hard drive that came with the computer started to making clicking sounds and would not boot. I researched and discovered the clicking death syndrome. I then bought a new Seagate 500GB SATA drive and loaded windows and relative programs on it from the 4 E-Machines restore boot CD's. Everything was working fine till about a two weeks ago when I got infected with some sort of Rootkit. I ran Avast boot scan and it picked it up. It was a Win32 rootkit. I deleted the file which might have been a mistake, but it would not go away. Every time I would run ADVAST it said it was there so I decided to reformat the drive and start from scratch. I loaded in the restore CD's that came with the computer and after they formatted the recovery partition the blue screen of death popped up and said..(sorry but i don't remember exactly what the screen said) check for virus, newly installed hardware and to run CHKDSK /F. I tried to reload and reformat but every time i did i got the same blue screen. I got a SeaTools boot disk and ran diagnostics and it found nothing wrong with the disk and ran the Zero out function to erase drive also. After trying to load windows again with out any luck I contacted Seagate support thinking there was a problem with the drive. During my discussion with tech support I was advised to do two things. 1. Run CHKDSK /F from my wife's computer that has Vista since it was asking to run that. I did it and CHKDSK/ F found nothing wrong with the drive. 2. Since I did not have a true Windows disk but instead these 4 Restore CD's to use an old 20GB Seagate IDE I had lying around and load windows on it and then clone that drive to the Seagate 500GB SATA. I loaded Windows and related software on to the 20GB IDE without any problems. I then used the Diskwizard boot CD to clone the drive like tech support said. The 500GB SATA is now cloned. I booted up with the 20GB IDE as boot drive and checked The 500GB SATA to see if all the files transferred which it looks as if they did. I then removed the 20GB IDE and started up again with the 500GB SATA. Here is where the drive problems started!!!..... Instead of booting up the 500GB SATA goes to a black screen that lists computer hardware such as Ram, USB, Hard drive, etc. and on the bottom of the screen says...Enter F4 for Setup. I went into setup and checked everything. Looked good so I exited BIOS and then it goes to an all black screen with only a small blinking line in top left corner of the screen. I tried it a couple of times and get the same thing every time. The 500GB SATA will not Boot at all. Assuming that the clone did not work properly I put the 20GB IDE back in and now when it starts it goes to the same black screen with the F4 setup situation, but with this drive if you exit BIOS and don't make any changes windows boots up fine but it does this every time you boot up. I am assuming there is nothing wrong with the 500GB SATA since it passed SeaTools and CHKDSK/ F and probably there is something else going on. Sorry about the novel but I figured the more information the better. Has anyone ran into this problem and or know what is going on??

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
mcq360

Go to the emachine site & download the manual for your model.
Look in the manual for the BIOS setup
Locate the section on how to set the BIOS to use the SATA properly.

[Where ever it is listed it should have an option to treat SATS drives as IDE , that is what you want]
Then locaye the boot order, or booy priority, & make sure it is set to boot from the CD drive first & the Hard drive second
Rxit the bios saving the changes.

Try doing a repair installation.

Note: The system repair function will remove any updates you have previously installed that are not included on the CD. Drivers will also be reverted to their original XP versions, as well as some settings (network & performance settings may sometimes be reset to their defaults). It may be necessary to reactivate your Windows XP as well. When finished, you will have to download all of the updates from Microsoft Windows Update, because they are all replaced during repair.

Boot the computer from the XP CD. You may need to change boot order in the BIOS so that the CD-ROM is the first device in the boot order.

When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

To setup Windows XP now and Repair Install , press ENTER.
You do not want to choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R.

Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair isn't one of the option end the installation, this will mean that you will need to do a fresh installation of XP.

The repair will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot, the repair installation will continue after the reboot.

A black screen with cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner...typically can be overcome by running the fixmbr command from the XP Recovery Console.

Black Screen (fixmbr) - http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;314503

You can download an .iso file of the RC...burn it to CD using an .iso-burning program...and then reboot the system (with the CD in place) and access the XP Recovery Console and run the fixboot command.

Download Recovery Console, Bootable ISO - http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Iso-burn program I use: Active@ ISO Burner - http://www.ntfs.com/iso_burner_free.htm

Louis

First thank you all for replying and trying to help.

I tried fairjoeblue's idea about the manual and BIOS. The E-machines website has a user manual but it does not list anything about the bios. I called E-machines support but they won't give me the time of day because the warranty is up. I did look in the BIOS but I did not see anything like what you mentioned.

I then tried DC3's idea but the stupid E-machines restore CD's don't have that option available like a Windows CD would. I wish i had a real windows CD .It does give you the option to restore or reformat and reinstall which I will get into later.

Next tried hamluis's idea and downloaded the recovery console iso, burned to it to a cd and booted up the SATA. It goes to a black screen that says checking computer configuration and then it just goes to an all black screen. i tried a couple times and every time its the same. I decided to check to make sure the iso cd was good and loaded back in the old IDE drive. it came up and it went to the welcome to setup screen and i went throught the recovery console on the IDE with no problems so the recovery console cd works ok.

Finally i loaded the SATA back in and decided to try to start from scratch again and loaded in the E-machines restore CD's. To my suprise they started to load up and install. I got all 4 CD's loaded and when the computer went to restart to go windows setup all hope was then lost. Upon restart this black screen pops up and says" A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart. I said ok but when the computer restarted it goes to the same screen over and over again. I then ran Seatools on the Disk think there was a sector bad or something and it found nothing wrong. I don't know a whole lot about this but i think there is something wrong with this hard drive.

I am about all out of hope on this drive. Anymore suggestions?

Thanks again for you support,
Mcq360

It sounds like the HD is being recognozed OK .

You said there was a disk read error.
I think you may be suspecting the wrong drive !

Try this,
Wash the disks with lukewarm water & a litlle mild dish soap.
Dry the disks gently with a soft paper towel going from the center out in a straight line
[Don't go in a circle around the disk]
Then try them.
[I've had a fingerprint on a disk cause a read error]

If you still have a problem I suggest trying a different CD drive.

I'm not saying the new HD can't be bad , just that I'd suspect an old CD drive of having a problem before I would a new HD.

I have had the disk read problem more then once while installing a OS & it usually turned out to be a CD drive in the early stage of failore.

Did you install drivers for the SATA drive?

This post has been edited by dc3: 24 February 2009 - 03:19 AM

I will try a different CD drive after work. Thanks

As far as the drivers for the SATA should they be on the Seagate Disk that came with the hard drive?

Thanks again for your help,

Mcq360

The drivers are specific to the motherboard, so no the disk that came with the hdd will not have them.

I am sure thats the problem but where would they be? Aren't they on the Restore CD's which should have loaded them when i reformatted and reinstalled windows. I checked the emachines website and they only have the following:

PCI SoftV92 Data Fax Modem with SmartCP Modem Driver
Realtek AC'97 Audio Driver
Intel Express Chipset Family Video Driver
Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility
Intel Pro/100 and PRO/1000 Network Driver

thanks again

What is the model of your emachine?

Emachines T-3985

From what I see...that system has no innate SATA capability. Do you have a PCI SATA controller card installed?

http://compreviews.about.com/od/budgetdesk...chinesT3985.htm

Louis

Edit: Disregard, Fairjoeblue is correct. I see nothing in any of the eMachines documentation about SATA, but I find that any number of owners report that they have SATA drives installed.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 24 February 2009 - 04:05 PM

The drivers for your computer are here,

http://www.emachines.com/support/product_s...amp;model=T3985

Click the + to expand "Downloads" for all of your drivers.

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 24 February 2009 - 02:31 PM

I looked at the service manual & your computer does have onboard SATA.

You said when you tried booting the SATA drive you got a screen that said "...Enter F4 for Setup"

You got that screen due to a hardware change, a SATA drive instead of IDE.
You said you went in the BIOS & looked around & the exited.
When you closed the BIOS did you save the changes ?
If you can, go to the BIOS when you get the "...Enter F4 for Setup" & see if you can find an option to save the changes & exit.
If the option is there [it should be] use it & see if your SATA drive boots.

I have went from IDE to SATA on a lot of computers & have never had to load seperate ,or specific, drivers for SATA.