My computer is a dell l series with witha 590mhz processor, 192 mb ram, windows 98 se and xp are both installed on different hard drives. When I boot up my computer it makes a weird clicking noise. It loads the dell logo screen then it loads a blank sreen and clicking stops. nothing else happens. Whats the matter with my computer.
try booting from the other drive and seeing if you can access the malfunctioning one. as ddp said, odds are it kaput.
I have tryed booting from each hard drive with other one unplugged. no luck. Also the diagnostic lights said to reseat the ram. I did that and that didn't work either.
clicking noise.....your hard drive took a shit.... and its a dell??? theres a problem right there.... as a tech ive seen more dells take a crap, and have more recalled parts then any other manufacturer out there... i just fixed 600 computers for Wellpoint Health, because dell had to recall their Maxtor hard drives, and the motherboards inside as well.. thats just an example... but your hard drive is going out more than likely..
Ok since the clicking stops when I have the c: drive out is there any way to get the data from it since it crapped out?
it would cost you a pretty penny and it is not guaranteed by the tech that he will be able to recover the data from the drive..so if you decide to do that, your taking a chance....if you would like to do it yourself, look into some data recovery programs....
im telling you man.... you could try all you want but that hard drive is gone..... it sucks but it happens.... welcome to the wonderful world of PC's....
I mean to get my computer to boot off the new hard (the one that didnt crap out) with xp on it. I dont care about the old one anymore because i remebered that I backed that one up before I installed xp on the new one.
ok then...leave only the good drive in, and take the jumper off of it, and leave it as the only drive on the primary controller on the mobo, and then try to boot to the disc...of course, before your do that, make sure your bios is recognizing the drive.. try that..
the xp cd doesnt say anything I dont think the drive is reading it. Ever since I installed xp the original drive doenst read anyting, ny external cd burner only reads disks every once in awhile, and dvd burner will work all the time. It doesnt read the xp cd in any of the drives and how do I get into the bios.
to get to the bios...depends on what kind of machine you have....when you boot up your either gonna press f2, f1, or delete...u should be prmpted to press one of those keys during the boot...look out for it..
If you go into the bios and go one of the "cmos features" (or similar) menus and go to the boot sequence, set your cd drive (should be obvious by name) to boot first, save and exit the bios then restart. The PC should boot from the cd, and allow a reinstall of XP on the second disk drive.
Ill' try that but I downloaded these boot disks from the windows site and ran them and repaired the boot sector and when I start it up instead of a blank black screen it says the NTLDR is missing press any key to resart.
