Computer wont boot

[CyberHawk]

My old Dell Precision 330 started having a problem after connecting to the internet. Specs are:

Intel P4 1.50GHz
512 Ram (I think)
Promise Ultra 100 PCI IDE controller ( for HDD3 and HDD4)
ATI Radeon 9600 Video Card
NEC 4 port hub 2.0
Generic Firewire card
56 K Generic modem
HDD1: 120 Gb
HDD2: 15 Gb
HDD3: 8Gb
HDD4: 4Gb
DVD Reader
Cd Burner
330 Watt PWSupply
Windows XP Professional

This computer worked fine, it had all my music, games, movies, pictures etc, but after connecting to ther internet through DSL on my onboard NIC, it lagged a bit, and after checking my mail, web surfing, etc, it slowed down and half an hour into using it it froze. I restart, and then, sum of all fears. It gives me a message "Invalid System Disk" and something else. I remove all disks and still gives me the same message. I check the BIOS and all my drives say "Unknown". but detects my drives that are connected through the PCI IDE controller. I dont know what is wrong, my guess is a virus but I cant do much despite the fact that I cant even go into safe mode. any ideas on how to fix this problem?? I really need this computer back for school, and all my iTunes stuff is in there, cant aford to loose it.

thx

[Richenstony]

Have a read of this http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000229.htm i hope it helps ....... 

and this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/128730

Sorry about that these links work now 

[Flip81]

Cyberhawk:  did you install anti-virus/spyware software before you activated your internet connection??

if not, did you wait a long time to do it?

[Flip81]

ok I see that you think that it's a virus.

It won't go into safe mode?  Did you try Last known good config? 

[Richenstony]

This issue can be caused by any of the following conditions:
•   Your computer may be infected with a boot-sector virus such as the AntiCMOS.A virus.
•   Your computer is running an anti-virus program.
•   Your computer is using hard disk management software (such as Disk Manager, EZ-Drive, or          DrivePro) for hard disk geometry translation. These tools provide support for large hard disks (more than 1024 cylinders) when your computer's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) does not support large hard disks.
•   Windows Setup was unable to copy the system files to the hard disk.
•   Security software has disabled access to drive C.

[CyberHawk]

it already had Symantec and SpySweeper but they were kinda old, I downloaded the updates but did'nt get a chance to do a complete search

[CyberHawk]

hmmm.. okay now after restarting again, it no longer gives me the "invalid system disk" message, but gives me the option of F1 retry boot F2 setup. BIOS still does not detect my main drives and cd rom drives, and i cannot boot by the windows xp cd. Another thing is that the HDD led stays on all the time, i dont know if that matters though.

[endlevel]

You have to check IDE Cables of CD-ROM and Hard Drive(s). unplug 1st from Drive then Motherboard & plug it again.

[PanFox]

Your hard drive may be broken and you have lost all your I tunes Music.

Sorry.

If you know some one else who has a PC Try your HDD in theres and see if you can access it, if you cant its mostlikely kaput

[patio]

There's been some wierd advice here so far...
The best thing to do at this point would be to hook up that drive in a known working machine as a slave drive and try to retrieve the data.
You may only get one chance to do so if the drive is failing so be prepared ahead of time...
Afterwards DLoad and run the diagnostics from the drive manuf. site to determine if it is in fact failing.
The more you try to boot that drive the less your chances for recovery become.

[CyberHawk]

ok after some poking and proding and analysing, it looks like something had exploded near the IDE connectors. As of now my mobo is officially dead......
I was able to save everything from hard disks and was able to save my PCi and AGp hardware so not everything died.

Will i be able to install the same copy of windows xp pro on a different computer and use the same cd-key or will i have to buy a new one........which i dont loook forward to.

[Chrisxs5]

There's been some wierd advice here so far...
The best thing to do at this point would be to hook up that drive in a known working machine as a slave drive and try to retrieve the data.
You may only get one chance to do so if the drive is failing so be prepared ahead of time...
Afterwards DLoad and run the diagnostics from the drive manuf. site to determine if it is in fact failing.
The more you try to boot that drive the less your chances for recovery become.

This is the best advice to follow on the post so far.

There is another thought that I haven't seen thrown out yet. That is the old IT freezer trick.
Follw the above advice first and when all hope is lost do the following:

Put the drive in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, immediately after pulling it out of the freezer, hook it up as a slave and pray it will run. If it does you have maybe about 20 minutes to copy over your needed files. If it works then take it outside, grap the nearest bat and then hammer the crap out of the drive for all the trouple it as caused you. I can vouch for this process it does work. It should only be used as a last resort IMO.

[Chrisxs5]

Will i be able to install the same copy of windows xp pro on a different computer and use the same cd-key or will i have to buy a new one........which i dont loook forward to.

Yes the license is transferable. After loading XP you will have to activate it again over the internet. You have 3 activations before you have to call in the activation. But as long as you have the license on the machine it is installed on, you are legal.