computer doesn't boot!

[crisscross]

guys, I have a Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 60 40GB. Yesterday when I tried booting my pc. I just got a blank screen with a cursor blinking. no prompt though. I tried booting from the WinXP CD. it started the installation but asked me if I wanted to repair the installation. When I selected Yes. It started copying new files. once the file copy process was over it rebooted the pc and then I got the same blank screen! What do I do?? Please help. the file system is NTFS.

 

[Catchen22]

do you have any kind of start up disk? Cause I had the same problem with windows xp. I inserted a Windows 98se start up disk and it loaded for a couple of seconds and it will ask you if you want to start the computer with cd support. Say yes and from there re-format your hard drive.

 

[crisscross]

I am not sure if I could use a Win98 disk as I have a NTFS Partition. Win98 wouldn't recognise the drive. any other ideas?

 

[crisscross]

guys. I ran the Maxtor Hard Drive Check utility and it came out clean. Could it be a virus or sth? can I run a virus scan program from a floppy to check? Please help!!

 

[risen]

I am not real familar with the NTFS partition however, if you use the maxtor disk (that came with the drive) to low level format the drive you will be in a postion to start over (the drive will be like it came from the factory). If it is not on the maxtor disk that came with the drive, it is usually available from their website. Any time I have had trouble that cannot be fixed I low level format and it seems to help. My understanding of ntfs is that it gives you more security options. If this is not important to you, then use the win 98 disk as suggested in a previous post to fdisk and reformat. Otherwise just do what ever you do to setup the ntfs partition. Hope this helps.

 

[BCYL]

Do u need to save any data on your drive? If not, then just format the drive and reinstall... it will probably take u much longer to find out what the problem is and correct it...

There are also utilities that let u read a NTFS partition in DOS if u need to save ur data...

 

[Catchen22]

<< I am not sure if I could use a Win98 disk as I have a NTFS Partition. Win98 wouldn't recognise the drive. any other ideas? >>



Thats not true. I have a windows 98se start up disk and my Partition is also NTFS and it works just fine.

 

[DeathLiRE]

I'll tell ya what....get rid of WinXP all together......and go with Win98SE.....format.....and redo it with 98se
and you'll be nice and safe