Could be the fluid in the bearings, it tends to degrade over time and then the rotors will be stuck.

 

I can feel the HDDs vibrate as the disk spins. That doesn't prove I can tell how fast it's spinning, but all of them spin.

 

I have two or three systems I have to pull out occasionally that have some old DOS programs I have for machine control systems I maintain, these are well over 20yrs old, they have been used very infrequently over the past few years, the last time I powered one up was last week in a storage shed that was -25° C, the LCD screen looked a bit ashen due to the temp , but otherwise came up OK.
Incidentally a couple of times I have had drives fail after under power after 5 or 10 minutes, I put them in the freezer for 15min and they stayed up long enough for me to clone them.
The Acronis programs have saved me on a few occasions.
Max.

.

 

Hello,

You can try to look at the status of an harddrive using the smartmontools:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki

In the live CD of knoppix there is a linux version available:
http://www.knoppix.org/

Bertus

 

Thanks. I'll try that on some of the HDDs that get detected when I plug them in.
I doubt it will do any good on HDDs that don't even get detected, but I have a lot to learn.

 

Thanks. I'll try that on some of the HDDs that get detected when I plug them in.
I doubt it will do any good on HDDs that don't even get detected, but I have a lot to learn.

I am with #12, if hd is not detected at POST, then there is nothing anyone at home can do.

For that matter, there is usually an option in the BIOS to detect drives like hd. If the BIOS drive detector and the POST (which is probably same thing just less visual) don't see the drive, then it is over.

I have read of people replacing circuit boards on the hd, that fixed things in some cases, meaning something broke on the circuit board and it was not a mechanical failure of hd. But I have never done that myself.

 

Aha. A workable theory. Took me a few days. The gamma rays that the government has been using to control my mind have corrupted the stored hard drives. I did not equip them with tin foil hats, and I knew better. Sorry. My bad.

 

Over the last week, I have tried almost everything I found on the Net to install and format this new SATA drive, and it's not booting.

Someone, besides Gates; should make a bootable HDD or flash, or disc, that will boot any HDD.
For any OS.

 

Anyone else have any tricks to get this new HDD to format and install Windows 8?
Or, any other OS??
The computer came with Vista Home Premium installed, then I upgraded to Windows 7, then Windows 8.....then Windows 8.1.

Worked great for 3 years, until I started it up, then black screen. I even tried to use the original Vista disc to re-install.....no luck.

When you take your computer to the shop......what do they use to make a brand new HDD work?

If they can do it, there must be a way for the home user to boot it up, and install it correctly.

Right?

 

Anyone else have any tricks to get this new HDD to format and install Windows 8?
Or, any other OS??
The computer came with Vista Home Premium installed, then I upgraded to Windows 7, then Windows 8.....then Windows 8.1.

Worked great for 3 years, until I started it up, then black screen. I even tried to use the original Vista disc to re-install.....no luck.

When you take your computer to the shop......what do they use to make a brand new HDD work?

If they can do it, there must be a way for the home user to boot it up, and install it correctly.

Right?

What are you talking about?

* Connect the new hd.
* Start comp, go into bios, set it to boot from cd/dvd, save and exit. Pop OS cd/dvd into cd/dvd drive.
*Restart comp, follow installation instructions.

 

Try setting up a Linux Live CD, and using the BIOS to boot up to it. The CD should recognize the harddrive. Many of them come with a program called GParted, that is used to partition and format hard drives. I would use this to firstly, install a partition table on the device, and secondly, format it to NFTS filesystem, which Windows uses. Then you should be able to boot up to the Windows install CD to install to the harddrive.

 

What are you talking about?

* Connect the new hd.
* Start comp, go into bios, set it to boot from cd/dvd, save and exit. Pop OS cd/dvd into cd/dvd drive.
*Restart comp, follow installation instructions.

Or buy a new computer. If it worked great for 3 years, how old was it total Metalmann?

I am guessing you would be stretching the limit on hardware for Win 8.1.

If all you get is a black screen then your issue is not the HD anyway. You are not seeing the OS boot or anything? Do you get a beep from the PC speaker?

 

Try setting up a Linux Live CD, and using the BIOS to boot up to it. The CD should recognize the harddrive. Many of them come with a program called GParted, that is used to partition and format hard drives. I would use this to firstly, install a partition table on the device, and secondly, format it to NFTS filesystem, which Windows uses. Then you should be able to boot up to the Windows install CD to install to the harddrive.

Thank you, I just downloaded the files. Hopefully it will work.....

 

Hello,

There is a large list of live linux cd"s over here:
http://www.livecdlist.com/

I have used Hiren"s boot CD in some cases:
http://www.livecdlist.com/hirens-bootcd

Bertus

 

Thank you, I just downloaded the files. Hopefully it will work.....

What does "until I started it up, then black screen" mean? Are you seeing nothing at all? Or are you at least seeing the BIOS booting.

If you are not seeing the BIOS boot then a boot CD is not going to do you any good.

 

From what I understand this is what I would do in the situation.
I don't know what type of windows 8.1 you have, if upgrade, or a full install.
If it's an upgrade, then you'll need your windows 8 disk, if that was upgrade you'll need the 7 disk, etc back to vista. If this is the case, and all are upgrades, you'll have to start with the vista or the latest full version you have, and go through until you get to 8.1. I have a feeling that being an older sytem that the 8.1 was an upgrade thing, you can't use an upgrade disk to reload the OS like if the drive failed. The upgrade process requires an existing OS to move from. This could be your issue, as required files to run would be missing.

If 8.1 is a full, it should be ok to install. Windows installation for the newer version's isn't that bad, and it usually detects if you mess something up by notifying you, or doing some default action. It sounds to me like the OS is loading, but won't run. Have you tried safe mode? press f8 while it's booting you should see a screen saying a bunch of options, select safe mode. I have a hunch it's a driver issue, because many laptops have stuff that needs drivers, sometimes they can be weird, that's why they say use the OEM CD, instead of a generic. Then go in device manager, and see if there is anything with like an ! point by it. right click that device, and if it's not a network related part say update now. If network you'll have to go to dell, and get driver then load, and then update the other devices.

I hope that helps, I have done many newer windows installs, to me it sounds like your doing the install fine, but it's not booting after. I could explain the install, but you said you did the upgrades, and it's not all that different for a full, I think looking it up on youtube if you have questions would be my best suggestion. Unless the disk isn't showing during the install then that is a driver issue, and you'll have to get a disk controller driver, and put on cd, or a usb, then tell the installer to load driver. (I believe that's under the advanced options on the disk screen.)

 

I solved that little problem, after frying my brain for a few weeks.:


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8563604


Now that everything is up to date, I had forgotten how fast a computer can be.




Thank you to the guys who tried to help!

 

I solved that little problem, after frying my brain for a few weeks.:


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8563604


Now that everything is up to date, I had forgotten how fast a computer can be.




Thank you to the guys who tried to help!

That's one way to fix it.