Bootable HDD diagnostics

gaz_jones

Hi all,

I've got a users computer that refuses to boot up. It just gets passed the BIOS, begins to load the OS (XP) then restarts. I disabled automatic restart and I'm getting the BSOD with 'Unmountable Boot Volume'.

I am looking for some HDD Diagnostics software (Freeware) but I'm not having great luck. I can find lots but not for HP's. Does anyone know of a universal one or maybe link me to the HP one?

The PC is an HP DC5700 with an 80GB SATA drive.



Thanks for the help everyone.


Gaz

Marty_J

You could give the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows a try.

[Deleted User]

Have you got your Windows CD?

AirCooledHeaven

I'm assuming the bios is recognising the drive OK?

My first port of call would be the drive manufacturer's website where you should find some low level diagnostic software to test the integrity of the drive.

ghale

Sounds like there might be a sector of the boot-up it doens't like, try putting in the OS disk and selecting a "repai" rather than a clean install, this generally puts all the OS files back in place without losing any drivers or applications. It could possibly because the OS was installed with a different motherboard in the PC so the chipset which it has been installed on doesnt match what the OS is looking for

AirCooledHeaven

Marty_J wrote: »

You could give the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows a try.

Thanks for the link. I've seen this selling on ebay and never realised it was freeware...

gaz_jones

Marty_J wrote: »

You could give the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows a try.

Thanks I will download and give it a whirl

anewhope wrote: »

Have you got your Windows CD?

Unfortunatley not. We get all our hardware from Germany and it comes preinstalled. They keep the disks. We then just use an image to set them up.

AirCooledHeaven wrote: »

I'm assuming the bios is recognising the drive OK?

My first port of call would be the drive manufacturer's website where you should find some low level diagnostic software to test the integrity of the drive.

Yes BIOS recognises it no problems.
I've had a look on HP but can't for the life of me see any HDD diagnostic software. Only one I found had to be ran from windows.


Thanks for the quick replies guys.





E2A: The problem occured after the users foot pulled the power cable out :rolleyes: It had been working fine before this.

ghale

try re-imaging it, its possibly that a system file has gone AWOL and it just need putting back into place

failing that get a copy of Hiren's Boot CD, probably have to Torrent it to get it downloaded, that has a version of MiniXP bootable from the CD or pen-drive you put it on which will allow you to access areas such as windows device manager and storage manager

gaz_jones

ghale wrote: »

try re-imaging it, its possibly that a system file has gone AWOL and it just need putting back into place

Hopefully that is my last resort as I don't want to lose any files the user had saved to local machine instead of server.

[Deleted User]

gaz_jones wrote: »

Unfortunatley not. We get all our hardware from Germany and it comes preinstalled. They keep the disks. We then just use an image to set them up.

In that case you need to use what Marty has linked too and attempt to run chkdsk /r, as the error could simply be caused by corruption as a result of whoever tripped on the cable.

I assume SMART is enabled in the BIOS and not indicating any physical errors?

The big HDD manufacturers will have some kind of tool that can be ran from a CD/DVD to test the drive.

AirCooledHeaven

gaz_jones wrote: »

Yes BIOS recognises it no problems.
I've had a look on HP but can't for the life of me see any HDD diagnostic software. Only one I found had to be ran from windows.
.

Get into the drive bay and see if you can identify the manufacturer of the HDD, I doubt it's actually an HP drive