System fails to boot up (GPU or HD?)

[Matty D]

Well I have a strange problem with my computer. It has ran fine for almost two years now.

Turned off my fully functioning computer. Next day I go to turn it on, see the Bios splash screen, loads some items and before getting to any windows loading screen it states something about boot disk not found, please insert OS disk to continue. Strange I thought but I have 2 hardrives, a new 500gb and a 160gb that is older and houses the Windows XP. I hadn't touched anything recently and the hardrive had been in place and functioning for over a month. I did get a bios beep code while loading. I put the Win XP disk in and tried the recovery console. I don't really know how to use it but I tried the DSKCHK command and it said disk has a big error. I don't reall buy that as everything sounds fine with the hardrive and had no issues up until this.

I thought I should try disconnecting the new hardrive as I have heard sometimes the bios can get confused and look at the wrong hardrive. Before I got a chance though I tried booting up again but now this time I got no signal to my monitor. Tried a different monitor, same thing. Tried different DVI output, noting. Re seat card, nothing. I found out that the BIOS beep code indicated a video error and everytime now I turn it on, every thing powers up fine, and the harddrive loads, video card fan is spinning but I get nothing on my monitor. The computer sounds like its loading things fine and all things are powered up fine.

My next step is to try my card out in another system. Is it possible to take my hardrive with OS on it and plug it into another computer to retrieve data from it, or will the two OS conflict?

Any thoughts or ideas?

System Specs:
DFI Lanparty Ultra D (2.5 years old)
AMD64 3700 @2.9Ghz " "
2x1gb OCZ platinum ram " "
Corsair 620HX (6 months old)
8800GTS 640mb (1.5'ish years old)
Hitachi deskstar HD 160gb (age ?)
WD cavier 500gb (1 month old)

[magictorch]

Yes you can use a hard-drive with an OC system on as a slave drive in another system, just dont boot from it-all the files can be retrieved.

I did that when a psu blew on my emachines taking down the MB. The blown psu was the catalyst for my interest in DIY computers (last year).

[Matty D]

Thanks magictorch. Do I need to go into the bios of the machine and set it up as a slave? I don't think mine has any jumpers that I can remember (not at home currently)

[Jack Rabbit]

If it is a SATA drive you should be to just plug it in to an available port and it should show up in Winblows when you boot. (You do make all your hardware changes with the power off, right :P .) If it is a PATA drive then there are a lot of options depending on wether you plug it in on the primary or secondary channel and master, slave, or master with slave. Not knowing exactly how your system is set up I would guess you will probably need to change a jumper setting to move it to another computer.

Another option is to just buy a cheap external USB enclosure; you can get them for <$30. Make sure you get the right kind for your drive. Stick the drive in the enclosure, plug the enclosure into the a friends computer (whatever, OS X, Linux, or windows), it should mount and you can copy whatever you need.

[Matty D]

Sorry for the late reply, yes it is sata and I got it to work on my friends computer.

I checked both my card and hard drive in his computer and both are fine. I tried putting my video card into the second pci-e slot on my comp and was able to boot into windows. However the slot is only x2 instead of x16 and it really slowed my games down so it isn't going to work. Im reseting the bios and hoping it gets things back on track. If not time to upgrade, bad time to do it.