OS unable to boot, pls help!

[iamroot]

I have a weird problem with my computer which is that while the hard drive is detected fine in the BIOS, when I try to boot the OS, I get an error saying "Invalid disk" and I'm asked to replace the disk. I thought that my HDD had all its data wiped out by accident, so I used a live cd and discovered that all my data is still intact.

I have been having some problems with the system before, such as "Low Virtual Memory" errors in Windows and "Drive Access Errors" in Fedora. I switched to another SATA socket and the problems went away for about 2 weeks until yesterday when they all came back.

Can someone confirm for me if this means that my HDD is faulty or is it another component? I don't feel like lugging my entire system down to the shop so hopefully I can isolate the problem to a single component.

[wintersm]

Sounds like it could be the hard disk..

that error, shows that the boot sector has nothing in it, or its corrupt, you will need to re-install grub..

best to check the disk out too..

[iamroot]

Sounds like it could be the hard disk..

that error, shows that the boot sector has nothing in it, or its corrupt, you will need to re-install grub..

best to check the disk out too..

Could you point me to a link on how to re-install GRUB? I havent done that in a long time so I'm really rusty.

[bob]

Go to the hard drive manufacturer's site and download the testing tools available there. It does sound like yours is shot, but you can probably get it replaced under warranty.

[iamroot]

Go to the hard drive manufacturer's site and download the testing tools available there. It does sound like yours is shot, but you can probably get it replaced under warranty.

Maxtor's diagnostic tools do not work for SATA drives and/or nForce4 chipsets. Incidentally, I am using both.

[bob]

Really? I had seen this page: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?channelpath=%2Fen_us%2FSupport%2FSoftware+Downloa ds%2FView+By+Category%2FHard+Drive+Kits%2FATA-SATA+Family and thought they were covered. I guess all I can offer then is my sympathy. Hope you get it fixed soon.

[iamroot]

Yeah. I'm going to try another SATA cable to check if its a cable problem. Unlikely, but I can hope.

[iamroot]

I've just reinstalled GRUB following the instructions here (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=119490&highlight=reinstalling+grub) but the problem still persists=(

[iamroot]

I installed the NT Bootloader from the Windows XP cd and Win XP managed to boot. Everything worked fine until I tried to boot again a few hours later, then the same problem emerged.