[ryan]

I have two hard drives in my computer and I got a blue screen the other day, i went to restart and i got a blue screen right after, and so far. i checked the cords and i went to restart again but this time it said Press Ctrl+alt+del to restart. i tried only plugging in one of the hard drives and got this again. then i tried the other hard drive and it loaded windows 7, i went to install but it said no drivers were found, i checked my bios and it doesnt detect it there either. it was set to auto as well. any suggestions will be appreciated (:

[noop]

Welcome to the site Ryan!

If the drive is not detected by the BIOS it is either dead or not hooked up correctly. If you can get the drive with Windows on it, try running a scandisk on that drive if possible. This will tell you if the main drive is failing or not and will try to repair it if possible. To run scandisk, click Start->Computer. Right click on your C drive and click Properties. Click on the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button. Check both boxes and click Ok. When the scan is done, click on the See details button and please copy the results here so I can help analyze it (might be easier to take a screenshot so you dont have to write it down manually.)

If you unplug the drives and gently shake them do you hear a rattling noise? Are these SATA or IDE drives?

Looking forward to your reply,
noop

[ryan]

noop, on 28 May 2010 - 03:03 AM, said:

Welcome to the site Ryan!

If the drive is not detected by the BIOS it is either dead or not hooked up correctly. If you can get the drive with Windows on it, try running a scandisk on that drive if possible. This will tell you if the main drive is failing or not and will try to repair it if possible. To run scandisk, click Start->Computer. Right click on your C drive and click Properties. Click on the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button. Check both boxes and click Ok. When the scan is done, click on the See details button and please copy the results here so I can help analyze it (might be easier to take a screenshot so you dont have to write it down manually.)

If you unplug the drives and gently shake them do you hear a rattling noise? Are these SATA or IDE drives?

Looking forward to your reply,
noop

thank you =) but they are both SATA drives, I would run a scandisk but I cant even get the computer running functionally to get there. No rattling noises were heard with either of them, mayb a little in one but nothing too loud. Some1 suggested reputting the RAM in, I'll try that here in a second.

I cant get to my computer with either of the drives because one is not being detected, and the other gives me the Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart option everytime.

[noop]

Do you know which one has the operating system on it? If we can get that one started, we can trouble shoot that one, then move on to the next.

What is the error it is giving you when it tells you to press Ctrl+Alt+Del?

Can you boot into safe mode?

noop

[ryan]

noop, on 28 May 2010 - 04:18 AM, said:

Do you know which one has the operating system on it? If we can get that one started, we can trouble shoot that one, then move on to the next.

What is the error it is giving you when it tells you to press Ctrl+Alt+Del?

Can you boot into safe mode?

noop

yes i know which one has the operating system on it, and thats the one thats telling me " Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" on startup. it doesnt give me an error more or less just that. and i tried running safe mode, but it says the same thing. Someone told me that something is missing in order for that to happen so Im trying to make sure everything is properly in. I think this started happening after I removed the RAM, so im thinking its put in wrong?

[noop]

Usually when RAM is the issue you get a blue screen or the PC will freeze/restart. If you want, there is a RAM testing tool that should be included with Windows 7. If you tap the F5 key after the POST screen is done, you should get to a menu where you can use your arrow keys to select "Windows Memory Diagnostic" at the bottom. Once highlighted hit enter and the test should start. This tool will tell you if there are any issues with the RAM.

If the tool doesn't show up, we can try another program if you would like.
noop

[ryan]

okay ill try that right now ill get right back with you.

[ryan]

F5 doesnt open up anything for my computer, i have a xfx 750i sli nforce motherboard.

[noop]

It shouldn't matter what type of computer you have, as long as you have Windows Vista/7 you should be able to get to the menu.

If you want, we could download a program and burn it to a CD. Then tell the computer to boot to the CD instead of the hard drive so we can test the RAM.
Have any blank CDs?
noop

[ryan]

okay, yeah i got some blanks sitting around here. Do you think its possible both the hard drives are done for?

[noop]

Hard to say, I wouldn't give up just yet.

Download this program: http://www.memtest86...t86-3.5.iso.zip

Extract the file, and burn the image using a program like imgburn, nero, or if you are on Windows 7 you can right click on the ISO file and burn it.

Once you have the disk made, put it into the computer and tell the pc to boot to the cd.

After that, let the program run and it should tell you if the RAM is the problem or not.
noop

[ryan]

Sorry to make you go through all that trouble I finally got the windows memory diagnostics running, I'll let you know with the results =)

[noop]

No worries, let me know how it goes
noop