[dba-Tech] Windows won't reboot

Gary Kjos garykjos at gmail.com
Sun Jul 6 09:32:53 CDT 2008


Well always a CHANCE. Just like someone COULD die from a tonselectomy.
Opening the cover shouldn't be to risky though. It's possible the
cable is not connected properly or maybe the power wasn't connected.
There should be two cables connected, one for data and one for power.
The power one comes from the power supply and the data goes straight
to the motherboard. Depending on the type of hard drive, the data
cable may be a ribbon cable with about an inch and a half connector or
if it's a newer system it would have just a smaller connector about a
half inch wide connected to a cord about the size of a telephone cord.
The power cables are usually multi-colored individual wires with about
a 3/4 inch wide connector on the end for the older style or maybe a
little less wide than that for the newer SATA style cables.  And the
cable itself could have been damaged too. I've had bad SATA data
cables before.

Pull the cover off or open and have a peak inside. If it's a Dell
system you can go to their website and they will have a drawing of the
mother board with all the connections identified. Other brands
probably have that info available online too. There are usually two
hard drive connection ports and it might want you to use a particular
one for the boot drive.

This would be a little more risque but if it still doesn't boot or
recognize that there is a drive there, you might want to try to power
it up with the cover off and feel if the drive feels like it is
spinning up at all. If it' is not spinning or even trying to spin then
it's either dead or it's not connected to power correctly.

Anytime something isn't working it's a standard thing to "reseat the
cables" though, Unplug and replug each end of the cables for the
effected device to make sure they are fully connected.

Good luck. Once you have done it you will see it's not that scary
inside the case.

GK

On Sun, Jul 6, 2008 at 8:40 AM, Susan Harkins <ssharkins at gmail.com> wrote:
> If he were to check himself -- just open the case and make sure what's
> connected is in deed a good connection -- is there a chance he could screw
> something up?
>
> Susan H.
>
>
>> Moving a hard drive from one computer to another is actually one of the
>> easiest things to do. There is only one cable that has to be connected
>> (excluding the power supply cable which is a no brainer) and you can not
>> even put the connections in backwards as there is a tab which stops that.
>>
>> The only other way to screw up a single drive move is if you do not check
>> that the cables are firmly, in place and again there is no way to screw
>> that up either as there is no other connectors that could confuse.
>>
>> If you can plug in a coffee pot you can plug in a moved hard drive. ;-)
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Gary Kjos <garykjos at gmail.com>
>> Date: Saturday, July 5, 2008 4:59 pm
>> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Windows won't reboot
>> To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
>> <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
>>
>>> Close enough isn't close enough in this case. If the bios
>>> doesn't see
>>> it the operating system isn't going to either. Seems like trouble
>>> waiting to happen moving a hard drive from system to system.
>>>
>>> GK
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 7:50 AM, Susan Harkins
>>> <ssharkins at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > I checked on it last night and I'm sure the guy didn't hook it
>>> up right --
>>> > it even says so, just before it displays the message to
>>> replace disk and hit
>>> > any key. Unfortunately, I was unable to help. I need to take a
>>> class or
>>> > something -- it's ridiculous that I'm such a wienie where hardware's
>>> > concerned.
>>> >
>>> > Susan H.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> And perhaps also to hit Delete or F8 or whatever it is on
>>> that model to go
>>> >> into BIOS setup and see what the system thinks is attached.
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > dba-Tech mailing list
>>> > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
>>> > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
>>> > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Gary Kjos
>>> garykjos at gmail.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> dba-Tech mailing list
>>> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
>>> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
>>> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>>>
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-- 
Gary Kjos
garykjos at gmail.com



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