SATA disk crashed Gway 838GM XP Media edition

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Ty - Jun 19, 2010 at 05:18 PM
 Ty - Jun 21, 2010 at 12:47 PM
Hello,

I am out of all answers. First let me say that I appreciate your time and everyone talent. I have a Gateway 838GM Desktop PC, 5 yrs old. My SATA drive locked up, then crashed after running a defrag.
I lost all data and cannot get my gateway recovery disc to read. I am out of warranty so of course GW is of no help at all.
So far I have performed the following actions.
Removed and reseated my memory.
Removed and reseated my PCI cards.
Attempted to run the "boot any computer" disk - No response
Attempted to wipe the drive and reinstall an OS clean, PC will not boot to the USB even though I selected it from the BIOS.
Tried the same steps with another Sata Drive / with an XP OS that came out of a desktop being used as a server, that one boots to the XP logo then goes to the OS selection screen, but will not boot.
I have attempted every action that I can think of or find - nothing works. I am totally stressed and baffled. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate trying them.

Thanks






Related:

2 responses

Clarify for me.

1. Your old hard drive was in, you tried formatting and reinstalling and it failed, did it actually fail in a windows install mode, or did it just not work at all.

2. Your other hard drive that was put in, did you just put it in, and turn on the pc, it will then loop because the system board drivers and such don't match.

3. Other info that I want...
a. hard drives rarely lock up and crash beyond recovery during a defrag so are we looking at a crash that will not let the PC boot at all, or does it boot up and give you a safe mode menu, or does it boot up to the XP Splash screen, and just hang up?

Be specific as possible with your answers, I'm going to be your expert in fixing this.
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Hi,

Thanks for responding, I really do appreciate your time. I'll try to be a bit more detailed this time.

1. The original failed to boot at all - still have a black screen and a flashing cursor.
(I looked at the drive on an enclosure and it appears to be blank now, no OS no data).

2. Second drive - Yes, I did simply insert the second drive and turn on the PC, and yes it boots to the XP splash screen and then it just loops.

3. The original HDD will not allow the PC to boot at all, a black screen and a flashing cursor is all that I get.

** I did perform a MB test yesterday, removing the memory and starting up the machine. I received three long beeps, indicating a keyboard card, port or system board issue. Replacing the memory, I received no beeps. The keyboard connection is integrated onto the board so I am thinking replace the MB?
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