Did my hard drive die? (I think so)

Just got a new video card (8800GTS 640 edition), threw it into my system and booted up. Everything was going fine, i loaded lasted nVidia drivers and started putting "lost planet extreme conditions" onto my PC (it came with the card). I left to go make some food during installation and when i came back i was horrified at what I saw.
"Please select proper boot device or insert bootable media and restart"

I have a western digital SATA 250 gig 7200rmp drive (its about a year old, maybe more)

I tried flipping the connection to 4th master and it found the drive but told me the HDD was bad, back up and replace. I was able to get to the windows logon screen but after that, i get a blue screen of death (win XP home SP 2) After rebooting, the drive is no longer found by bios unless i switch the position back to third master.

To me it seems my hard drive fried (if anything due to heat) but i want someone elses opinion just to make sure its not my mainboard.

Try uninstalling the drivers and removing your new video card. Then reinstall the old one and see if that gets 'er back up and running.

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


I think i should clarify something, I downloaded the drivers, but never got a chance to install them. But I will try and flip my video card. Thanks for the advice.

Well... at least if the old card gets the system back up and running, then you know the issue lies with the new one and not necessarily your hard drive.

reply to post by 12m8keall2c


Ya exactly. Im in the middle of core upgrades as it is, i just didnt really want to replace my HDD. Oh well, another hard lesson learned about not backing up everything (that is, if i did lose everthing)

how big is your power supply? the 8800 is a beefy card and needs juice. it could just be taxing your PSU too much. i wouldn't use anything less than a 450w for that. >500 is ideal

reply to post by an0maly33


I have a Xion 600watt SLI -ready PSU. I thought about that too. My box doesnt heat up that much (its a full tower but air cooled) but Im wondering if the HDD didnt just over heat at some point and the card was just the final straw. The card is huge, its the XFX edition to me, seems to have a bigger heatsink/fan setup than EVGA's similar cad.

Ive already lined up a few replacement parts over at tigerdirect and if it is my drive, im putting the order in.

here are the specs (maybe minus the HDD):
Corsair Dominator Memory Airflow Fan

XFX GeForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz OEM

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM

Vantec 3.5" Aluminum Hard Drive Cooler


[edit on 9-11-2007 by InSpiteOf]

Figured id just quickly update this and say thanks to those that offered their opinions and attempted to help me. unfortunately my HD is definately fried and ive placed my order for the parts above. Hopefully ill be able to slave the old drive and recover some of my stuff.