Hardware problem hurts Windows not Linux

In which disk you have the linux partition?

If its on the 300Gb disk, then you have a faulty master HDD.

If its on the 120Gb, then you have a crushed windows partition. Either way, the master HDD must have a hardware problem. Remove it and try to boot again.

P1zz4

Since you can boot to UBCD, use the Harddisk tools on it to test them. You could also test your memory using one of the memtest on the CD.

could not load any hard disk tools.  they all caused a low level dos memory error.  also, linux (reiserfs) is on hdb, the 300gb, but it mounts and can read the 120gb one just fine.  i ran memcheck from a suse disk.  all tests threw no errors.  all cables were verified.  i tried disconnecting 1 hdd at a time, but booting to things never improved nor changed (except i couldn't boot to hdd without both present for the first has GRUB and the second has suse).

The only thing that I can think of is you have a problem with the CPU. It looks like it will only work in 64 bit mode (I guess your SuSE is 64 bit and the windows your using isn't any Beta 64 bit version)?
As far as I know the UBCD is also based on linux and may also run in native 64 bit mode.
Maybe your CPU can't switch down to 32 bit mode? Is there a BIOS setting which might prevent the CPU from running in 32 bit mode?

So I recommend you checking any special athlon 64 settings in BIOS, maybe try "failsafe mode". Make sure the heatsink is secured correctly on the CPU etc. You could also slave the disks into another systems, don't boot from the disks, just use the UBCD to test them in there.

Good luck.

unfortunately, it is suse x86 (32-bit) edition.  the boot disk even gives me a warning because of this every time (i heard suse x86_64 didn't have great application support).  i'm going to later check if swapping memory changes anything and also disconnecting everything except floppy from ide channels until i get my floppy booting correctly.

tried booting to norton.  it asked me if i wanted to boot from hdd or cd.  it failed to boot either.

i did find the floppy version of xp boot on 6 floppies.  amazingly, it actually booted.  as i normal, i told it to fixmbr and ran checkdisk.  aparently it found and repaired a few errors... maybe a few too many.

on reboot, it still won't boot to anything (it destroyed grub, so i expected this).  i inserted my suse 9.2 cd as usual to have it redo grub... but found a new error... it could not find any linux partition for the root... nothing... it found my swap, but no root.  this disturbed me.  i booted into the recovery console and found the file system to read aemeoba (or something similar)... it used to be reiserfs... um... i just gave up then.  upon reboot, i did notice something:  lba for my 120 gb was coming up off.  bios setting is either auto (as it was set) or disabled... maybe it's failing again.

Does your BIOS have any SMART settings you can turn on or off? If Smart is turned on you might get some messages of a disk going bad before it goes bad, giving you some warning, to get a new disk and save your data, before it actually stops working...

smart has always been on and never reported an error.  i finished retrieving all the data i cared about from the drive via a usb drive kit now, so i'll work on attempting to low level format the drive.  the problem remains that it does not want to boot when that drive is present (but is fine without obviously showing the drive to be the cause).  if it cannot be fixed by formatting, i hope to have a warrenty left.  hdd's aren't too expensive even if it must be replaced.

Here's another thing to check....perhaps your IDE controller settings were set to 'Bit Shift' instead of 'LBA' mode.  Here at work we work with HP computers alot.  The default setting is 'Bit Shift'.  The Job that we use most of these on had a requirement that they all be in LBA mode, so we change it.  However, if the CMOS resets, for any reason, it defaults back to 'Bit Shift'.

Now, these drives are dual-boot, as well....Windows 2000 and Suse 7..something....  If the Controller...and/or drives...are set to 'Bit Shift', Linux will boot...but Windows won't.  Sound familiar?  Your description adds alot to this that steers me away from this thought, but this is definitely worth looking at.

Good luck!

Would like to see your partition layout of your boot drive. Are you using grub as your boot loader? your disk layout would be a help..
maybe try making a boot floppy for SUSE, If you can try loading the XP CD and selecting the first repair option (login as administrator) and do a fixmbr (this might destroy the grub loader and you will have to fix it.  

is your system setup as HD0 partition 1 (XP) partition 2 SUSE, partition 3 SWAP ?? is the windows boot.ini saying the following
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

do you have any fat32 partitions larger than 136G?  Verify your GRUB loader perhaps it has been hosed. Where did you put the GRUB loader? in the MBR?

I know too many questions but it helps in the diagnosis

BTW if you can boot into the first repair option of WINXP you can issue the command fixmbr and see if that allows you to boot into XP.. Personally I believe that GRUB is hosed

Try resetting BIOS to defaults (complete clear, not just from menu). If still no-go, try failsafe defaults. If you still have problems may be a hardware failure in HDD0, sounds like HDD1 is still ok.

Hi,

am I right that your problem isn't solved yet?

If your problem hasn't been solved yet, you might have the same problem as I had, which was the power supply or better the higher need for energy which the PSU couldn't provide.

I also encountered the effect you are talking about that Windows is failing and Linux running fine.

The description of your problem sounds to me like the same I had when I put more devices into my PC. I even had this kind of problem several times and allways when I put more devices into the machine. When I encountered it first I put a new and later a bigger PSU into my box. Lately, when I put another device into it again, it appeared again. This time I couldn't and can't afford a bigger PSU which led me to the only solution for me - take the devices out again. But I have to check another solution, which is to use an additional PSU to drive the additional devices.

Since I corrected it this time I haven't been encounting any problem anymore. It just runs fine.

Let me know if it helps!

By the looks of all of the symptoms you descrbie, here is my input.

Your very first symptoms - "All was working fine, until I brought it to my friends house" certainly points to an HDD failure. (Bumped the box taking it from the car or something like that.)

Now onto suggestions if it's NOT that problem: By looking at the input(s) and what  I see suggested by the others, I would try these, in this order.

1) Go To BIOS - set it to "Fail Safe" mode, and be certain you "Reset" all configuration params.
   (Just by setting it to "Fail Safe" mode alone will still leave any of the other mods you made)
   (to the BIOS the same. THUS, remember to _reset_!)

2) Remove ALL USB devices plugged into the unit. Serial/Par devices if you still have any of those.
   Why THIS suggestion? I have a similar problem with an ASUS mother board if my scanner
   is plugged into a USB port and turned on. - That's an ASUS thing. I'm wondering if you may have either
   plugged a device into the box when you got to your friends house, or weird enough, left a device home
   that WAS plugged in when you were at YOUR house.

   In this area too - might your network adapter be somehow partial to your network configuration vice your
   friends network? (Thus a NIC problem/conflict during the boot process.)

... Why (now!) remove any USB devices, cause it was working before? We wish to use the process of elimination.

You mentioned you can indeed boot from CD, correct?

3) Last but not least, and with all obvious "make a back warning" use FreeBSD's "install" cd, but don't perform an install of course. The menu that comes up with "Options" - find the "FDISK" utility and it's from there you'll have to use your experience to poke about the Hard-drive's parameters. (Why a short description here? There isn't enough room on EE to begin explain HDD MBR technology.)

Items to keep in mind:  FreeBSD's FDISK utility will *NOT* write until you tell it to. BUT, you MUST pay attention to the prompts. If you leave the utility - and WISH to have FDISK perform a "WRITE" to the MBR, you HAVE to explicitly hit the "W"rite key before you exit FDISK. (FreeBSD wil indeed prompt you that you either have or have not made changes, too.)

Good Luck with your problem.

hi there,
did you consider any variation in temperature? did all work fine at your place, just to fail you completely at your friend's? same comfig, nothing added or taken out, you didn't fiddle with the HDD boot order in your desperation? reset the BIOS? I guess you did all that already, you should have by now. ok, what do you have in there, in terms of PCI dev? it's been my experience that sudden temperature changes, and the ensuing phenomena, (think of condensation, for one, but there are some other even more damagind ones) in older systems can force it to an utterly eerie and apparently unexplainable halt. you have one or more power downs, plug-ins -and outs, you may even have done everything by the book, as far as you know, it is still possible to have fried something that now is strangling your system. why don't you just try juggling around a little bit, get out some PCI card or other, and boot the system hard drive and lose the others for this try; look, I got grub too, it is a bitch sometimes. how does it work with partition magic? this is definitely a hardware failure, and you should work around it empirically. been there, believe me. come back with feeds to these many suggestions, we may need to know more.. really hope to have been there for you. take care

Hey

I think your MBR is courrpted somehow.  You need to clear your master boot record on the drive.

1) Since you say you can't acces the low level format it... load the 120 gig drive onto a spare computer as a slave drive and format it windows.  Then put it back in your computer and format the mbr

2) Get a dos bootdisk (bootdisk.com) or whatever and boot into dos and at the dos prompt ... format c: /mbr

3) Give me an email and i'll send ya microscopr 12 (its a diagnostic tool used by all us great techies)
cam.lee@cogeco.ca

4) In Microscope ... there is an option to erase the Master Boot record.

Windows won't boot on your computer because its messed up in th master boot record.  I immediately thought of this as soon as you said you had linux on there because once you have a loader like GRUB or somethin and windows won't boot its due to the MBR bein corrupt.  So the only way to get linux off of there to reinstall widnwso is to format the mbr ... I hope this helps you out

Cam