Failed Hard Drive After Windows Update??? Please Help!!!

This message was also posted in Windows XP Help and Support Newsgroup-

I have a Windows XP Home PC that has the symptoms of a hard drive crash
after installing Windows updates. This is the second time in about 4 months
this has occured. The first time I wrote it off to the age of the hard drive
because the PC is about 6 years old and the drive that failed was the drive
that came in the PC. This time I am almost positive that it is related to
the update.

I did not run any updates on this computer after purchasing and installing a
new hard drive for a little over 5 months just in case it was related to the
update. Then after it ran fine for all this time I forgot about my problem
and when the update reminder came up I downloaded the updates and proceeded
with the install.

After restarting as recommended the PC comes up to an abort/retry/fail
screen, as it did the first time this happened, where the PC appears is
trying to boot off the floppy drive with no disk. On a subsequent restart it
did come up to a Windows XP screen that just said "Welcome" but froze there.
It hasn't gotten there again since that time.

When I boot with a Windows XP boot disk and try to see either of the 2 hard
drives on the system it's like neither of them are there. The XP boot disk
reports that "drive C: doesn't have a valid fat partition". It's almost like
there is a hard drive controller failure. The CD/DVD drives on the secondary
controller are still working.

When I removed the drive and put it in another PC the last time this
happened the drive was dead. I suspect the same will be true of this one but
I hesitate to put this drive in my primary PC in case there is a virus.
Before I proceeded I thought I might ask some of you kind folks if you have
any suggestions. It just seems like too much of a coincedence that both
times right after this update the primary HDD failed. By the way, I have not
used this machine on the internet except to register it when I installed XP
on the new drive and when downloading these "killer" updates, so I am pretty
sure it was virus free before downloading the updates. Also, I searched for
anything relevant on the web but haven't located anything specific to updates
killing hard drives yet.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Doug

Dell Dimension 4100 P3
1 GHz 133 Bus
1 Gig Ram
Primary HDD Maxtor Diamond Max 80 Gb 7200 RPM Purchased 5/13/06
Secondary HDD Maxtor 160 Gb

Other system details available upon request

Can you tell if either of the drives are seen in the bios - or do they
even power up? - the upgrdae process does work the drive quite hard so
if it's on its way out the chances are the additional workload that the
upgrade would have placed on it might have killed it.

Maxtor dont make the most reliable drives, we see many fail well within
a year of first use.

Neither of the hard drives are visible in the bios, but the CD and DVD drives
are.

Thanks for your reply.

Doug

"" wrote:

> Can you tell if either of the drives are seen in the bios - or do they
> even power up? - the upgrdae process does work the drive quite hard so
> if it's on its way out the chances are the additional workload that the
> upgrade would have placed on it might have killed it.
>
> Maxtor dont make the most reliable drives, we see many fail well within
> a year of first use.
>
>

Neither drives are visible in the bios, but the CD and DVD drives are.

Thanks for your reply,

Doug

"" wrote:

> Can you tell if either of the drives are seen in the bios - or do they
> even power up? - the upgrdae process does work the drive quite hard so
> if it's on its way out the chances are the additional workload that the
> upgrade would have placed on it might have killed it.
>
> Maxtor dont make the most reliable drives, we see many fail well within
> a year of first use.
>
>

Last night I appear to have had a similar problem with my Dell. It is also
running
XP home. My son had booted the machine and it failed to get through the
welcome screen. From then on it gave an appearance of a primary disk
controller failure because when I went into the bios it did not recognize
either of the primary drives. I assumed hard drive failure but it was unlike
any previous failure that I had ever had. The drive was only 2 years old so
I pulled out a spare drive and plugged it in. The machine booted fine. Hard
drive failure right? Wrong. I put the failed one back in and this time the
system prompted me to use the "Last good configuration" to boot. When I did
the "failed" drive booted normally. When I looked at the Event viewer the
machine had just accepted a windows update prior to the problem occuring.
Right now I still have no idea what happened. However, the machine appears
to be working fine. I'm trying to decide if I need to turn off automatic
updates.


"doug" wrote:

> This message was also posted in Windows XP Help and Support Newsgroup-
>
> I have a Windows XP Home PC that has the symptoms of a hard drive crash
> after installing Windows updates. This is the second time in about 4 months
> this has occured. The first time I wrote it off to the age of the hard drive
> because the PC is about 6 years old and the drive that failed was the drive
> that came in the PC. This time I am almost positive that it is related to
> the update.
>
> I did not run any updates on this computer after purchasing and installing a
> new hard drive for a little over 5 months just in case it was related to the
> update. Then after it ran fine for all this time I forgot about my problem
> and when the update reminder came up I downloaded the updates and proceeded
> with the install.
>
> After restarting as recommended the PC comes up to an abort/retry/fail
> screen, as it did the first time this happened, where the PC appears is
> trying to boot off the floppy drive with no disk. On a subsequent restart it
> did come up to a Windows XP screen that just said "Welcome" but froze there.
> It hasn't gotten there again since that time.
>
> When I boot with a Windows XP boot disk and try to see either of the 2 hard
> drives on the system it's like neither of them are there. The XP boot disk
> reports that "drive C: doesn't have a valid fat partition". It's almost like
> there is a hard drive controller failure. The CD/DVD drives on the secondary
> controller are still working.
>
> When I removed the drive and put it in another PC the last time this
> happened the drive was dead. I suspect the same will be true of this one but
> I hesitate to put this drive in my primary PC in case there is a virus.
> Before I proceeded I thought I might ask some of you kind folks if you have
> any suggestions. It just seems like too much of a coincedence that both
> times right after this update the primary HDD failed. By the way, I have not
> used this machine on the internet except to register it when I installed XP
> on the new drive and when downloading these "killer" updates, so I am pretty
> sure it was virus free before downloading the updates. Also, I searched for
> anything relevant on the web but haven't located anything specific to updates
> killing hard drives yet.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
>
> Doug
>
> Dell Dimension 4100 P3
> 1 GHz 133 Bus
> 1 Gig Ram
> Primary HDD Maxtor Diamond Max 80 Gb 7200 RPM Purchased 5/13/06
> Secondary HDD Maxtor 160 Gb
>
> Other system details available upon request
>

Thanks for sharing this information. I haven't attempted to do anything
with mine yet. Please, let me know if you learn anything new.

Doug

"Mark" wrote:

> Last night I appear to have had a similar problem with my Dell. It is also
> running
> XP home. My son had booted the machine and it failed to get through the
> welcome screen. From then on it gave an appearance of a primary disk
> controller failure because when I went into the bios it did not recognize
> either of the primary drives. I assumed hard drive failure but it was unlike
> any previous failure that I had ever had. The drive was only 2 years old so
> I pulled out a spare drive and plugged it in. The machine booted fine. Hard
> drive failure right? Wrong. I put the failed one back in and this time the
> system prompted me to use the "Last good configuration" to boot. When I did
> the "failed" drive booted normally. When I looked at the Event viewer the
> machine had just accepted a windows update prior to the problem occuring.
> Right now I still have no idea what happened. However, the machine appears
> to be working fine. I'm trying to decide if I need to turn off automatic
> updates.
>
>
> "doug" wrote:
>
> > This message was also posted in Windows XP Help and Support Newsgroup-
> >
> > I have a Windows XP Home PC that has the symptoms of a hard drive crash
> > after installing Windows updates. This is the second time in about 4 months
> > this has occured. The first time I wrote it off to the age of the hard drive
> > because the PC is about 6 years old and the drive that failed was the drive
> > that came in the PC. This time I am almost positive that it is related to
> > the update.
> >
> > I did not run any updates on this computer after purchasing and installing a
> > new hard drive for a little over 5 months just in case it was related to the
> > update. Then after it ran fine for all this time I forgot about my problem
> > and when the update reminder came up I downloaded the updates and proceeded
> > with the install.
> >
> > After restarting as recommended the PC comes up to an abort/retry/fail
> > screen, as it did the first time this happened, where the PC appears is
> > trying to boot off the floppy drive with no disk. On a subsequent restart it
> > did come up to a Windows XP screen that just said "Welcome" but froze there.
> > It hasn't gotten there again since that time.
> >
> > When I boot with a Windows XP boot disk and try to see either of the 2 hard
> > drives on the system it's like neither of them are there. The XP boot disk
> > reports that "drive C: doesn't have a valid fat partition". It's almost like
> > there is a hard drive controller failure. The CD/DVD drives on the secondary
> > controller are still working.
> >
> > When I removed the drive and put it in another PC the last time this
> > happened the drive was dead. I suspect the same will be true of this one but
> > I hesitate to put this drive in my primary PC in case there is a virus.
> > Before I proceeded I thought I might ask some of you kind folks if you have
> > any suggestions. It just seems like too much of a coincedence that both
> > times right after this update the primary HDD failed. By the way, I have not
> > used this machine on the internet except to register it when I installed XP
> > on the new drive and when downloading these "killer" updates, so I am pretty
> > sure it was virus free before downloading the updates. Also, I searched for
> > anything relevant on the web but haven't located anything specific to updates
> > killing hard drives yet.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
> >
> > Doug
> >
> > Dell Dimension 4100 P3
> > 1 GHz 133 Bus
> > 1 Gig Ram
> > Primary HDD Maxtor Diamond Max 80 Gb 7200 RPM Purchased 5/13/06
> > Secondary HDD Maxtor 160 Gb
> >
> > Other system details available upon request
> >

This hard drive indeed failed on the first boot after an update. It was 5
months old. I have returned it to MAxtor for warranty replacement.

"doug" wrote:

> This message was also posted in Windows XP Help and Support Newsgroup-
>
> I have a Windows XP Home PC that has the symptoms of a hard drive crash
> after installing Windows updates. This is the second time in about 4 months
> this has occured. The first time I wrote it off to the age of the hard drive
> because the PC is about 6 years old and the drive that failed was the drive
> that came in the PC. This time I am almost positive that it is related to
> the update.
>
> I did not run any updates on this computer after purchasing and installing a
> new hard drive for a little over 5 months just in case it was related to the
> update. Then after it ran fine for all this time I forgot about my problem
> and when the update reminder came up I downloaded the updates and proceeded
> with the install.
>
> After restarting as recommended the PC comes up to an abort/retry/fail
> screen, as it did the first time this happened, where the PC appears is
> trying to boot off the floppy drive with no disk. On a subsequent restart it
> did come up to a Windows XP screen that just said "Welcome" but froze there.
> It hasn't gotten there again since that time.
>
> When I boot with a Windows XP boot disk and try to see either of the 2 hard
> drives on the system it's like neither of them are there. The XP boot disk
> reports that "drive C: doesn't have a valid fat partition". It's almost like
> there is a hard drive controller failure. The CD/DVD drives on the secondary
> controller are still working.
>
> When I removed the drive and put it in another PC the last time this
> happened the drive was dead. I suspect the same will be true of this one but
> I hesitate to put this drive in my primary PC in case there is a virus.
> Before I proceeded I thought I might ask some of you kind folks if you have
> any suggestions. It just seems like too much of a coincedence that both
> times right after this update the primary HDD failed. By the way, I have not
> used this machine on the internet except to register it when I installed XP
> on the new drive and when downloading these "killer" updates, so I am pretty
> sure it was virus free before downloading the updates. Also, I searched for
> anything relevant on the web but haven't located anything specific to updates
> killing hard drives yet.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
>
> Doug
>
> Dell Dimension 4100 P3
> 1 GHz 133 Bus
> 1 Gig Ram
> Primary HDD Maxtor Diamond Max 80 Gb 7200 RPM Purchased 5/13/06
> Secondary HDD Maxtor 160 Gb
>
> Other system details available upon request
>

I have the same problem, but my hard drive is being read by the bios. It
even goes as far as loading my windows, and running my norton Go Back, but
then it tells me that (Windows)/System32/hal.dll is corrupt. When i then
try to reload my Xp I then recieve the message that I need to reload the
above file. It is not in the boot. I had my 60 gig Hard drive split into a
c and a d drive. Now it states that it needs to format my hard drive since
this is not an NTFS drive.


It also erased all my registry files, so they are no longer valid. My
computer is a Deminsion 2350 with a Seagate Baracuda 60 gig hard drive. I
actually don't mind formating my drive, but I need to recover some of the
work that is on it, as well as programs that I don't have cd's for. Does any
one know how I can save some of the info off my drive or recover it? Or is
this just an impossiblilty.

Shelaka

Hi there.

You could try this, it takes some time but might fix your problem:

Step One

1/ Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM and restart your pc
2/ At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen press R to start the recovery Console
3/ The Recovery Console will now open and the list of Windows installations
will appear
4/ As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number
which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will
typically be 1
5/ When requested type in your Administrator password. If you haven't set an
administrator password, then simply press Enter
6/ The Recovery Console command prompt window will now appear
7/ At the Command prompt type the following, pressing Enter after you have
typed each line.
md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
8/ Now type Exit to exit the recovery console
9/ Finally restart your pc

Step Two

10/ When the PC restarts log on as Administrator. if you are using Windows
XP Home you can only log on as Administrator via Safe Mode.
11/ The next step is to copy the registry files from their backed up
location using system restore. However, before you can begin you need to set
the folder options in Windows Explorer to Show Hidden Files and Folders
12/ Open Windows Explorer
13/ Click the Tools option on the main toolbar
14/ From the drop down menu click on Folder options
15/ In the Folder options window click the View tab
16/ Look down the file list until you come to a section marked Hidden Files
and Folders
17/ Click on the Radio button on the left of the option Show hidden Files
and Folders to enable this option
18/ Next move down two lines and remove the check mark next to the option
Hide Protected operating system files (Recommended)
19/ You will receive a message informing you that editing or deleting these
files could cause damage to your system. Click Yes to confirm that you want
to display these files.
20/ From the folder/directory list in Windows explorer click on the drive
where you installed Windows XP
21/ Open the System Volume Information folder (The folder appears dimmed) If
you receive a System volume Information is not accessible. access denied
Error message see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 309531
22/ Inside you will find one or more folders that look something like this
"_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}".
23/ If the folders are displayed as icons or thumbnails click the View
option on the main toolbar and click on Details to give a more detailed view
of the files
24/ Select a file that was not created at the current time and that starts
with RPx (these are Restore Points)
25/ Open one of these folders and look for a Snapshot folder - for example:
C:\System Volume
Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot
26/ From this snapshot folder copy the following files to C:\Windows\tmp
folder
_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
27/ Now rename the files as follows:
Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

Step Three

28/ You now have to delete the existing registry files and copy the system
restore registry files to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder: You can do
this either by using Recovery Console or (if you file system is FAT32) by
using a Windows 98 Start Up Disk) Whichever method you use you will be
presented with a command prompt. At the command prompt type the following,
remembering to press Enter after you have typed each line.
del c:\windows\system32\config\sam

del c:\windows\system32\config\security

del c:\windows\system32\config\software

del c:\windows\system32\config\default

del c:\windows\system32\config\system
29/ Now type the following, pressing Enter after you have typed each line:
copy c:\windows\tmp\software c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\tmp\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\tmp\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam

copy c:\windows\tmp\security c:\windows\system32\config\security

copy c:\windows\tmp\default c:\windows\system32\config\default
30/ Finally Exit Recovery Console and Restart your PC (If you are using the
Windows 98 startup disk simply press CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart your pc
Step Four
31/ After your PC has rebooted click the Start button followed by All
Programs
32/ From the All Programs menu click Accessories
33/ From the Accessories drop down menu click on System Restore
34/ From the System Restore window click on the Restore to a Previous
Restore Point option and restore your pc to a previous restore point

Best regards,
Michel Denie


"shelaka" <> wrote in message
news:77425E4B-6C97-4EEC-BCB6-...
>
> I have the same problem, but my hard drive is being read by the bios. It
> even goes as far as loading my windows, and running my norton Go Back, but
> then it tells me that (Windows)/System32/hal.dll is corrupt. When i then
> try to reload my Xp I then recieve the message that I need to reload the
> above file. It is not in the boot. I had my 60 gig Hard drive split into
> a
> c and a d drive. Now it states that it needs to format my hard drive
> since
> this is not an NTFS drive.
>
>
> It also erased all my registry files, so they are no longer valid. My
> computer is a Deminsion 2350 with a Seagate Baracuda 60 gig hard drive. I
> actually don't mind formating my drive, but I need to recover some of the
> work that is on it, as well as programs that I don't have cd's for. Does
> any
> one know how I can save some of the info off my drive or recover it? Or
> is
> this just an impossiblilty.
>
> Shelaka
>