Heeeelp ?[Resolved]

[Pirate]

I did nothing , my computer was running fine for the last two days , then I thought I would need to restart it since it became slower , I did restart it . After that , it won't boot . It gets stuck on the first logo of XP . did that for more than 10 times , it won't boot . I removed the hd , connected it to another pc , When I try to browse it , it tells me this :

C:\is not accessible
The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable .

C: is the partition XP on . It's 120Gb , nearly 2months old .

any thoughts , ideas , solutions , hints . I'm completely stuck .

Thanks guys .

[Pirate]

Safe mode won't work . I've just tried it . . The repair option won't work either .

[si_the_geek]

I don't know about XP, but with 2000 there are a few different repair options on the installation CD - two under an obvious "repair" menu, and a more effective one under "install" (it detects an existing version & asks if you want to fix it).

[MartinLiss]

Call MS support.

[Bloit]

Would the manufacturer of your hard drive be Maxtor. if so throw it at the nearest wall. they suck ass. i had one 40g one fail and then it's new replacement failed 2 weeks later. don't know why either.

By the way it sounds like you have a scratched fly which can occur by not shutting down properly. this ruins the read write head so you can't access the data on your drive. if i were you get your manufacturer on the phone and get a new one for free and then buy a back up hard drive that runs as a mirror so that you have all your files backed up.

the restore points on windows xp and 2000 will only work if you can boot your c drive which isn't happening in this case.

Good luck hope that helped

[Pirate]

Ok guys , Win2000 tells me after chkdsk that I'm having troubles with some orphan files on the C: partition . What the hell are these files ? Might be viruses ?

[si_the_geek]

Orphan files are files that exist but aren't listed in the File Allocation Table, so won't be found by Windows etc.

they could possibly be parts of viruses (unlikely, and they would need other files to do anything)... possibly files that have been deleted... possibly files that were being written when the computer lost power (won't happen if you shut down normally)...

[Pirate]

I'll try to scan it again (for orphan and bad sectors) It may slove the problem .
I'll tell you what happens ?

Thanks si_the_geek

[Pirate]

Bloit ,

my hd manfa. is Western Digial . I don't think it's a hardware problem . The restore point as you said , won't work either . gotta try other options though .

[Bloit]

Is there anyway of running a defrag program to get rid of those Orphan files? the problem could be something as annoying as you updating windows which then requires a reboot. as you are restarting and the updates are installing you lose power. thus orphan files. (and a dodgy drive)

I would have to say that si_the_geek is more than likely on the correct lines. im not 100% sure what to do in this situation

[Pirate]

I can't run defrag either . It says the drive is not accessible . I'm searching the web for similar problems , hopefully I can find one with the same problem .

[Bloit]

i only have one obvoius solution which you nodoubt might have to try. get hold of a ME or xp boot disk and format your C:\ drive. unfortunately you will obviously lose all your data.

if you do find a solution let us know.

[Pirate]

no way no way , I'm trying to get one of my proj written in C# , been working on it for months . I could formatted my hd but I would lose the data ... .Scandisk is running now (on the other pc) , I'm waiting for the result .

[Pirate]

Finally , I got my proj backed up . I don't care about other files though . I got to reformat my hd and reinstall XP again .

Thanks everyone for your help .

[Pirate]

I thought it's helpful to mention what was the problem and how it's fixed ?

The problem :
Some orphan files (described above) on the root directory . This prevent XP from booting . It halts on the XP logo . How these orphan files became harmful . I guess either by inproperly shutdown or a virus .

The solution :
I connected the hd to a win2000 partition . Did scandisk under DOS . It discovered those orphan files , fixed them (deleted or renamed them) . That's all . It's horrible . Back up your data regulary otherwise you'll get stuck one day .

[Bloit]

Cheers for letting us know how you solved it. no doubt it will happen to me. happy programming!!