The problem of loading the operating system is common enough. And this is in no way connected precisely with its performance. It also happens that the hard drive generally does not initialize (an I / O error), or some other problems arise. This article will discuss a few typical situations and the solutions that apply to them. Immediately make a reservation that issues related to breakdowns or physical wear of the hard drive will not be considered, as well as viral infection.
Hard drive does not initialize: possible problems
The most common situation is related to breakdowns. About them will be said a little later. But at the moment, you can determine several options for why the hard disk is initialized incorrectly or not detected at all.
Among all that is described on the same Internet, several situations can be noted separately:
- disk breakdown;
- Incorrect BIOS boot priority
- disk errors;
- operating system crashes.
Hard drive is not initialized: what to do first?
To begin, consider a typical error. Suppose there is a situation where the WD hard drive is not initialized. In this case, the system simply "spits." The message that the hard drive is initializing (CRC error) can only indicate that there were failures in the system partition, and this in no way can be connected precisely with the hard drive (or rather, with its state).
To begin with, when the system displays a message at startup indicating that the hard drive is not initializing and the OS cannot be booted, you should check the startup parameters in the BIOS (primary input / output system). It is very likely that when a message is received, the user will see a text indicating that the OS boot device was not found.
Thus, the solution begs the simplest - to include in the BIOS parameters the initial boot from the hard drive (Boot Device Priority - Hard Drive).
System Tools
If the download fails, first you need to check the checksums of the CRC entries mentioned above. Such an error is akin to what can sometimes be observed when unpacking incompletely downloaded archives by WinRAR.
In principle, the situation is the same. However, when loading the system, if it works, initially you just need to perform a disk check indicating automatic error correction (it is clear that you can’t format the system partition).
If Windows boots from removable media ...
The system can also be started from a removable device (either an installed OS or a boot device). In this case, immediately, without putting things off the bat, you need to check. You can use built-in commands and third-party programs for this.
In the simplest case, when, for example, the second system is located on a virtual disk (in a partition), the check can be performed using the same chkdisk command with the disk label. But, as practice shows, the problem is usually not even that.
If the external hard drive is not initialized, not to mention the built-in one, you will first have to at least check the loopback connections. But this, as it turns out, is not the main problem. Perhaps for the external device the corresponding drivers simply are not installed, or they do not work correctly. Or maybe the device itself is simply not turned on.
You can check the operation of external media through the standard "Device Manager", which is called either from the "Control Panel" or by the devmgmt.msc command from the "Run" console, which is available on any Windows system (it can be launched through the regular "Start" menu).
If the system does not boot: check the status from the command line
To check any type of hard drives, if the system does not want to boot, you can offer the option of booting from a circuit carrier using utilities such as LiveCD or even the Windows installation distribution, on which there is a boot sector that allows you to open the boot from an external drive instead of the HDD.
If you use the Windows distribution, during the start process you need to press Alt + F10 or select the recovery console with the "R" button. Next, on the command line, you need to register sfc / scannow (this is at least for a start). In the advanced version, you should use the boot record recovery command:
- Bootrec.exe / FixMbr.
- Bootrec.exe / FixBoot.
- Bootrec.exe / RebuildBcd.
The last command to apply is not mandatory and is used only to overwrite the boot area (sectors).
Recovery programs
As for applications that can restore the operation of Windows-systems, it is quite difficult to determine their use.
At the very least, you can recommend utilities for bootstrapping and then programs like HDD Regenerator. It is believed that this particular application running in DOS mode can perform the so-called magnetization reversal of a disk, even if the hard disk is not initialized as such.
Data recovery
It is clear that the user does not see the boot sector on the HDD. The section reserved for the start operation, especially. Maximum - swap file. But this is the main problem. The fact is that this is not even a file, but a reserved space on the hard drive, which is responsible for loading data when there is not enough RAM. If there is a sufficient amount of “RAM”, you can turn it off altogether, since accessing the RAM is many times faster than the same operation as applied to the hard drive.
But you can recover information. To do this, just use any program that allows you to do this. One of the most powerful is considered to be the utility R.Saver. True, it is preferable to boot in safe mode, or at least try to roll back the system, if possible.
In general, this approach allows you to solve a lot of problems, including some errors and boot record failures. If this option does not work, you will have to format the disk (hard drive). But rewriting the boot sector via the command line is worth using.
In addition, it is the system’s teams that can use the third-party tools to fix the MBR record. In extreme cases, you will have to use section formatting. After that, the necessary information can be restored. But only on condition that the rewriting to the sector was not performed, that is, there was no saving of files after data deletion. Otherwise, nothing good will come of it. Although ... You can try to do something in any case. There will be nothing wrong with that.
What is the result?
To begin with, it is believed that you need to check the disk for errors, if it is detected at all. On the other hand, if initialization is not possible, it will require the use of special programs that can recover HDD data, moreover, in the boot workspace. But, even booting from removable media, you can solve a lot of problems regarding the start of the system.
If it comes to the effects of viruses, except for disk programs under the general name Secure Disk, you will not advise anything. Those are available at both Kaspersky Lab and Doctor Web. The bottom line is that they load their own interface even before the start of the system, while even scanning the RAM, and not just the hard drive (viruses, like any other programs currently running, can load their files there). Thus, the problem that sometimes when the system boots up the hard drive does not initialize, this may be due to this situation.
One last thing
But if you give advice in the end, it is best to use the check and restore commands from the command line. Although it works in DOS mode, it never fails and allows you to fix even those problems that cannot be fixed by the usual means of the system, no matter how hard you try. In extreme cases, if the disk is in the connection stage, you can go to the disk management section and use the appropriate initialization command.