If the physical (hard disk) media surfaces are fine, you should have no problem installing the OS. The MBR will be rebuilt upon partitioning/formatting of the disk.

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

If the physical (hard disk) media surfaces are fine, you should have no problem installing the OS. The MBR will be rebuilt upon partitioning/formatting of the disk.

How about my cd/dvd drive? Is it normal for it to chug away when first attempting to boot to it in this situation or should it be spinning and vibrating normally?

The A10 optical drive I worked on recently, chugged.

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

The A10 optical drive I worked on recently, chugged.

Since you were working on it, does that mean it was broken when it chugged?

Latest thing is I just got a used Compal CL51 with a working--for sure--CD drive.

How are you, Dan, if I move beyond the hardware problem into the software problems? Lol.

No. It was the optical drive that "chugged". The hard disk had the bad sectors, in the boot record area.

"... move beyond the hardware problem ..."

By all means.

The pocket on the side is a cute touch. It’s the kind of secret treasure pocket that takes a little careful thought to decide just what you will put in it: a guitar pick, a peace sign, or the tiny chisel you used to create an ice sculpture of the Venus de Milo. Choose something amazing, because people will for sure ask you what is in there. The UGG Retro Cargo is a freshly updated version of the beloved Cargo. It has a super-edgy, urban hardness to the design, but still offers the softness and comfort on the inside that is the signature feel of an UGG. You can get that combat style without compromising warmth and comfort. It will make you want to bring out your inner, gritty artist, and stomp in style, conjuring up your favorite Girl-Drummer in a Raucous Garage Band alternate universe you!He is also the type of guy that little old ladies fall in love with, because as rough-and-tumble as he may look, he has a huge heart for his wife and kids. He talks about them all the time, and it’s clear that he loves being a husband and a daddy. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a guy like this? He wears the Men’s UGG? Rockville II in Dune.
ugg boots chestnut
ugg boots knit

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

No. It was the optical drive that "chugged". The hard disk had the bad sectors, in the boot record area.

"... move beyond the hardware problem ..."

By all means.

Thanks, Dan. Just to make sure I understand you correctly, while the op drive spins smoothly on the Compal with a Win disc and the Toshiba's goes like 1.5 revs with stops and starts, that's perfectly normal?

I'm working on making a UBCD4Win right now and I'm copying my XP Pro SP2 OEM disc to a folder on my friend's Vista Toshiba per the instructions. It's a brand new MS disc. It's getting hung up on "default.ca_". Have you ever had that experience? And any ideas how important this file is? I've tried a few times to get it to copy and I'm not having any luck.

Also, you mention a HD you worked on with a bad boot sector. We have one of those here according to the vendor (CMS). We have one of their Bounceback/CMS IDE drives but when we put it into the computer, we get error messages. It's their disc, but they won't give us any support for fixing the boot sector. Where do we start with that one?

1st paragraph question(s)...
Yes. The disc data will be read/entered into available memory. The optical drive will "rest" until more info is needed, and that data will be read into memory again.


2nd question.....
"It's getting hung up on "default.ca_""
It's possible that the drive heads/and-or the media needs cleaning, or media is scratched.


3rd
"but when we put it into the computer, we get error messages. It's their disc, but they won't give us any support for fixing the boot sector. Where do we start with that one?"

If the "bad area" is in the boot sector(s), the drive is cooked. (Which is what happened to the Toshiba drive I was working on.)