Planetarion Forums

Androme · 6 Dec 2006, 16:31

Ok, I've gone through ALL the steps suggested by the Microsoft article on the subject matter (replaced IDE cable, checked BIOS settings, repaired windows installation, reinstalled windows, fixed the boot config and master boot record, copied over ntldr and ntdetect from win cd) but none of it has helped because everytime I load up the PC, I get the error message "NTLDR is missing" again.

HOWEVER, when I have the Windows recovery cd in the drive at startup it'll come up with the "press any key to load cd" thingy and if i don't press anything therefore not loading the cd... Windows FOR SOME REASON STARTS TO LOAD UP. Without the disk in, it won't.

Confused!!! Quite annoying. Any suggestions? Thanks.

meglamaniac · 6 Dec 2006, 17:32

If you've done all those things then I'm afraid it's probably either the drive dying, or the drive controller on the motherboard dying.

Androme · 6 Dec 2006, 17:36

Thanks. Does that mean my computer now has to live on a CD?

meglamaniac · 6 Dec 2006, 18:01

I'd start keeping an eye on your files.
If you notice some going missing, reverting to earlier versions or things like that then it's definately time to replace some hardware. Drives are cheaper than motherboards so I'd start with that.

Also, look in Event Viewer (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools) to see if there are any errors about drives.

Androme · 6 Dec 2006, 23:44

Yeah. I noticed like half of every compressed file on my machine f'ed up - 60% of all zip files were corrupt, EVERY EXE program kept giving me the "Program too big to fit into memory" even although I googled this and tried the various approaches the only reason was it being corrupt.

Now I've noticed a few images here and there as I'm going through are corrupt.

The problem is I don't want to backup corrupt files. Is there no easier way than having to go through them ONE-BY-ONE like I have been doing? I've got a big drive and loads of images and compressed files :|

Thanks meg.

djbass · 9 Dec 2006, 08:38

Effectively no, there's no real way to verify data inside files are in their original integrity unless there were valid data or some form of crc files to check against.

I've been in this situation before and look, you are probably better off backing up everything, wiping the entire lot and doing a clean installation. If you HDD is borked then you're going to run into further problems. It could also be your RAM, which makes things extra difficult as it randomly currupts data making it an uphill battle to try and fix things. After the fresh install you can tediously go through each file from your backup and restore any that are still intact.

meglamaniac · 9 Dec 2006, 14:05

If you want to check the memory, go here:
http://www.memtest.org/

Download the pre-compiled bootable ISO and burn it with Nero or similar, then boot off the CD and leave it for a while (an hour or more). If it comes up with errors then the memory is having issues.

Given that your machine doesn't seem to be 100% reliable at the moment, I'd download and burn it on another PC.

Ramihyn · 9 Dec 2006, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by djbass

Effectively no, there's no real way to verify data inside files are in their original integrity unless there were valid data or some form of crc files to check against.

Another way is parsing the file structure to check for corrupt entries.

A batch conversion of all images to another format would be one way. Try Irfanview and either convert the images twice, or just erase the converted images plus the ones in the original folder which couldnt be converted.

Phil^ · 9 Dec 2006, 17:49

Try putting the drive in another machine and getting the data off it that way.
If its corrupted for the other machine too, then you know its the drive which is at fault

meglamaniac · 9 Dec 2006, 18:56

Not necessarily Phil - if it is a faulty drive controller on the motherboard or dodgy memory then it will screw up writes as well as reads.

Granted, if that's the case then any files created with the drive in another machine should stay uncorrupted and no more corruption should occur. However, files already corrupted will obviously stay that way.

I'd advise running memtest, and if that passes then it's almost certainly the drive at fault. If it was the motherboard you should experience issues with other drives too. As a test, are you able to watch a DVD ok?

Androme · 10 Dec 2006, 21:16

memtest came out with no problems. Guess my drive is borked. Thanks.

Btw, I bought a WD 250GB external hard-drive and it comes up with new drive found but then it asks me for a driver "USB Mass Storage Device". I've looked through google and there is a driver that exists called usmss or something but it's only for win98 and didn't work. Eh?!

Phil^ · 11 Dec 2006, 05:46

windows xp doesnt need drivers for usb disk drives, or shouldnt.

djbass · 11 Dec 2006, 11:46

I'm not so trustworthy on the accuracy of memtest anymore, i've had it give me clean results on known faulty RAM. I more use it as a guide than solid proof these days.