Maxtor HD boot problem

Hi!
I bought my computer two months ago and today it stopped working. It happened while I was downloading some files and keeping the harddisk busy in general. The computer stopped responding so I restarted it: Then it wouldn't boot up. It just stopped with a blinking "_" after finding the IDE-devices. I could'nt even boot from floppy unless I unplugged the HD. So I plugged in an old HD with win98 on it (i use 2000 on the new one) and used that one as master and bootdrive. The computer booted up fine and I could access _both_ my HD's. Therefore I know my new HD works still since I can access it's files. Having scanned my new HD with scandisk (no cluster check) I hoped it would work but no. I simply canät boot from it. When I try to boot from my new HD with my old HD as slave it just comes to "Verifying DMI Pool data..." and then it stops. Have you got any ideas how I can make my new HD work again?
Thankful for any help,
Gustav, Sweden

1. RE: Maxtor HD boot problem
lbyard Mar-18-02 11:51 AM
In response to message 0

Scan both drives and any involved floppy disks for a virus. What operating system are you using? Larry

2. RE: Maxtor HD boot problem
Gnopps Mar-18-02 03:03 PM
In response to message 1

Well, I scanned the drive for virues and now I have also done a cluster check but both checks reported no damage. However my virusscanner noticed that os/fdisk.exe was damaged so I replaced it with a new one. It didn't help. I'm using Win 2000. The funny thing is that when my broken HD is master I can't even boot from floppy. Any ideas?

3. RE: Maxtor HD boot problem
lbyard Mar-18-02 04:58 PM
In response to message 2

Try the new drive without the other one attached. What exactly do you mean by, "virusscanner noticed that os/fdisk.exe was damaged?" did it have a virus? What virus scan program are you using? Is it up-to-date? Larry

4. RE: Maxtor HD boot problem
Gnopps Mar-18-02 06:08 PM
In response to message 3

I used AVGuard. Somehow FDisk.exe was only 32 kb instead of 64 kb I think. However, I've now given up and copied my stuff to my old HD, formatted the new one and installed Win 2000 all over and now it works. Thanks for your help!