Argh! What just happened?

benjo

benjo

benjo

Soldato
Joined
4 Sep 2005
Posts
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Location
London
Hey all,

I was sat on my pc about 5 minutes ago, listening to some music. For no apparently reason, my pc froze.. (hardly ever does this) my music was skipping, mouse froze.. and then my pc restarted itself.

Upon boot i got an error message:

"NTLDR Is missing, Press Ctr+Alt+Del to restart"

Now i can remember this error message from when i was building a server pc out of some scrap pc parts. I got it when the hdd wasnt plugged in.

I went to my pc and checked out all the cables, re-moved ide-cables and replaced them etc. But i still get the same message.

The hard drive in question is a Maxtor 80gb IDE (says it all?) I'm guessing its dead.. and i've lost all my stuff? LUCKILY i read a thread about backing up, so i copied my documents onto another 80gb maxtor lol.. well atleast its backed up.

So does anyone know whats happened here? :(
 
JRS said:
Does your bios still see the drive during POST? Also, are you running your comp overclocked or at stock speeds?
Click to expand...

Well during post where it checks the memory, it can detect the slave drive.. but no master. For some reason i cant get into bios..

And my pc is running stock cpu speeds on spec in my sig
 
benjo said:
Hey all,

I was sat on my pc about 5 minutes ago, listening to some music. For no apparently reason, my pc froze.. (hardly ever does this) my music was skipping, mouse froze.. and then my pc restarted itself.

Upon boot i got an error message:

"NTLDR Is missing, Press Ctr+Alt+Del to restart"

Now i can remember this error message from when i was building a server pc out of some scrap pc parts. I got it when the hdd wasnt plugged in.

I went to my pc and checked out all the cables, re-moved ide-cables and replaced them etc. But i still get the same message.

The hard drive in question is a Maxtor 80gb IDE (says it all?) I'm guessing its dead.. and i've lost all my stuff? LUCKILY i read a thread about backing up, so i copied my documents onto another 80gb maxtor lol.. well atleast its backed up.

So does anyone know whats happened here? :(
Click to expand...

This happened to me last week, It's the damn Maxtor HDD. Burn it.....Burn them ALLLLLLL!!!
 
So do you lot reckon its dead? I need to know really because i'm going to the ocuk shop this weekend.. looks like i'll need a hdd now..
 
benjo said:
So do you lot reckon its dead? I need to know really because i'm going to the ocuk shop this weekend.. looks like i'll need a hdd now..
Click to expand...

I have 2 Maxtors, 1 IDE133 (lasted 11 months) 1 SATA (lasted 6 months)

My brother in law's PC had the same error message as your 2 weeks ago, and that's a maxtor!

My father in law's PC stopped working last week HDD clapped out, when I opened the case "Maxtor"

In total I have replaced 13 maxtor HDD's in the last year in Friends and Family's PC's. IMO Avoid like the great plague itself. I will certainly never be going anywhere near one again.

2 large computer company's (Who I can't mention) have also reportedly given Maxtor an ultimatum because of drive failiures in countless PC's.

Personally I can't understand how they are still in business and i'm rather suprised that OCUK still sell them!
 
BTW, as someone else mentioned, with the error message you have got your data is not lost....So don't put petrol on it just yet!

Just plug it back in later after installing a proper HDD and take your data off it before you BURN it!
 
I had this the other day.

Use the XP CD to get to RECOVER mode.

Get to the Dos Prompt after logging on, use blank password.

Search google and find the command to rebuilt the boot file.
It's something like bootcfg /rebuild

If this doesn't work, manually delete the boot.ini file beforehand on your HD and then rebuild it.

Good luck!
 
Tommy B said:
I had this the other day.

Use the XP CD to get to RECOVER mode.

Get to the Dos Prompt after logging on, use blank password.

Search google and find the command to rebuilt the boot file.
It's something like bootcfg /rebuild

If this doesn't work, manually delete the boot.ini file beforehand on your HD and then rebuild it.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
You could do that, but IME with maxtors it's hadly worth it. Cos it'll happen again I promise!
 
Tommy B said:
I had this the other day.

Use the XP CD to get to RECOVER mode.

Get to the Dos Prompt after logging on, use blank password.

Search google and find the command to rebuilt the boot file.
It's something like bootcfg /rebuild

If this doesn't work, manually delete the boot.ini file beforehand on your HD and then rebuild it.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the help. It could work, but to me it seems more hassle than its worth. I've got back ups of my stuff, so i dont think i'll trust another maxtor hdd. I'll be getting a hitachi drive this weekend.. should be more reliable
 
It's not always the HD, if there's a power spike or you suddenly turn your HD off it happens. I just installed a new WD Caviar, and I didn't realise the power connector was loose and all the HDs were turning on and off like a bulb about to blow.

I don't know why people hate Maxtor. I've had a 160GB HD for 2 years and it has been excellent. Touch Wood!
 
i had a right carry on with a 80gb sata drive a couple of weeks ago had exactly the same symtoms as you turned out for come reason the hdd was totally corrupted, it seems that when there dieing they just corrupt your data totally including all partitions etc, i had the exact problem you have
 
I must be lucky,I have been running maxtor since 1999. Tha same one in one machine and never had a problem, i defrag regularly and never let it get too full.
 
I have three maxtors, an 80Gb ide, a 200gb sata and 250Gb sata and they are all doing good service so far

Maybe maxtor has gone the way of IBM deathstar though.......
 
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