Booting probs

[Trudibabe]

Hi and can someone please help. I have been using my computer without a
problem for goodness knows how long and then out of the blue on the boot up
screen that the 3rd hard drive is incompatable and has these letters after it
ATPAPI. I thought okay just some glich , so i re booted and now it
freezes when it is trying to detect this 3rd hard drive. I am not all that
technically minded and it took me into the bios set up page which i looked at
scratched my head and then did a F10 which took me back to the start up again.
Any help please?

 

[Malke]

Trudibabe wrote:
> Hi and can someone please help. I have been using my computer without a
> problem for goodness knows how long and then out of the blue on the boot up
> screen that the 3rd hard drive is incompatable and has these letters after it
> ATPAPI. I thought okay just some glich , so i re booted and now it
> freezes when it is trying to detect this 3rd hard drive. I am not all that
> technically minded and it took me into the bios set up page which i looked at
> scratched my head and then did a F10 which took me back to the start up again.
> Any help please?

Sounds like the third hard drive has died. Remove it and see if the
computer boots. You can try and test the drive (while it is still
connected, of course!).

Test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility downloaded from the drive
mftr.'s website. You will create a bootable CD with the file you
download. You will need third-party burning software to do this such as
Roxio, Nero, or the free CDBurnerXP Pro.

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

Boot with the CD you made and do a thorough test of the drive. If it
fails any physical tests, replace it.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[RajKohli]

I will advise you to try an another Hard Disk Data Cable. As you said it
shows "ATPAPI", it should be ATAPI. According to my knowledge, if at the boot
screen if you see some improper or strange characters with your IDE devices
name then mostly it is caused by bad data cable.

If you want to make sure that if your data cable is bad then I will advise
you to unplug your 2nd hdd drive and plug the 3rd one on the cable used by
your 2nd hdd.

Hope this help, let us know!

"Trudibabe" wrote:

> Hi and can someone please help. I have been using my computer without a
> problem for goodness knows how long and then out of the blue on the boot up
> screen that the 3rd hard drive is incompatable and has these letters after it
> ATPAPI. I thought okay just some glich , so i re booted and now it
> freezes when it is trying to detect this 3rd hard drive. I am not all that
> technically minded and it took me into the bios set up page which i looked at
> scratched my head and then did a F10 which took me back to the start up again.
> Any help please?