Solve : Error loading OS - Hard drive full??

1.	Solve : Error loading OS - Hard drive full??
Answer» Hi guys, I actually have a single hard DRIVE of 30 Gb with no partition from Seagate. I have a 1,2Ghz pc with 384Mb memory installed and OS is Win XP Pro. I've been using my pc for 8 years now and, though my hard drive was almost full (28Gb used), I tried to put a dvd on it, so that I think the drive became completely full. Indeed, I got an error message (don't remember what is was), tried to reboot but then I was faced with an other message saying "Error loading the operating system". Can't start the pc ANYMORE. A friend of mine put my hard drive on his machine and the drive SEEMED to be recognized in Explorer but wouldn't open. A click on the HD properties showed "File system: RAW" and 0 bytes used. I will no doubt buy another pc but I wish I could recover my data (mainly pictures and doc files). How could I do? Any help would be appreciated Quote I have a single hard drive of 30 GB with one partition from Seagate. I have a 1·2GHz PC with 384MB memory installed and the OS is Win XP Pro. I've been using my PC for 8 years now and, though my hard drive was almost full (28GB used), I tried to put a DVD on it, so that I think the drive became completely full. I got an error message 'Drive space low', tried to reboot but was faced with another message saying 'Error loading the operating system". Can't start the PC anymore. A friend of mine put my hard drive on his machine and the drive seemed to be recognized in Explorer but wouldn't open. A click on the HD properties showed "File system RAW" and 0 bytes used. I will no doubt buy another PC but I wish I could recover my data (mainly pictures and doc files). How could I do? Any help would be appreciated It looks like you need a RAW file system Recovery program. 30 GB = 27.94 GB of binary drive-space and you need 15%, or 4.20 GB free-space for defrag to run, so it has far too much data on it. You MUST have space for the paging file to propogate, as Windows needs a minimum 1·5 times the amount of installed RAM in drive-space for it to do so. 384 MB x 1·5 = 576 MB What RAM modules do you have? 3 x 128 MB? XP can run on as little as 64 MB so try taking the RAM modules out to get down to 128 MB and see if it will start in safe mode. Then follow the clean up procedure on the link below and if you have an XP CD and have the (hidden) I386 folder on your drive you can delete that as well. I would just buy another hard drive, 7,200 rev/min with an 8 MB drive buffer and add some more RAM, say 3 x 256MB or 2 x 512 MB if your mainboard will accept it. My mainboard will take 3 x 512 MB but 768 MB is enough for my use of the machine. Can you start with a bootdisk and remove some stuff?No, I wasn't able to do that, BUT I finally did succeed in recovering my data, putting the damaged hard drive as slave on a friend's pc again, and then running a recovery software. I was able to copy all my important files on a dvd. Then I reformatted the whole drive with a fresh XP. Everything's fine now. Thank you for your helpDon't forget your protection against the nasties. Don't forget Windows update. Don't forget to get the latest drivers.And keep an eye on your HDD space down the road. patio. Quote No, I wasn't able to do that, BUT I finally did succeed in recovering my data, putting the damaged hard drive as slave on a friend's pc again, and then running recovery software. I was able to copy all my important files on a dvd. Then I reformatted the whole drive with a fresh XP. Everything's fine now. Thank you for your help Excellent result!

Answer»

Hi guys,
I actually have a single hard DRIVE of 30 Gb with no partition from Seagate.
I have a 1,2Ghz pc with 384Mb memory installed and OS is Win XP Pro.
I've been using my pc for 8 years now and, though my hard drive was almost full (28Gb used), I tried to put a dvd on it, so that I think the drive became completely full. Indeed, I got an error message (don't remember what is was), tried to reboot but then I was faced with an other message saying "Error loading the operating system". Can't start the pc ANYMORE.

A friend of mine put my hard drive on his machine and the drive SEEMED to be recognized in Explorer but wouldn't open. A click on the HD properties showed "File system: RAW" and 0 bytes used.

I will no doubt buy another pc but I wish I could recover my data (mainly pictures and doc files).

How could I do?
Any help would be appreciated Quote

I have a single hard drive of 30 GB with one partition from Seagate.

I have a 1·2GHz PC with 384MB memory installed and the OS is Win XP Pro.

I've been using my PC for 8 years now and, though my hard drive was almost full (28GB used), I tried to put a DVD on it, so that I think the drive became completely full.

I got an error message 'Drive space low', tried to reboot but was faced with another message saying 'Error loading the operating system". Can't start the PC anymore.

A friend of mine put my hard drive on his machine and the drive seemed to be recognized in Explorer but wouldn't open. A click on the HD properties showed "File system RAW" and 0 bytes used.

I will no doubt buy another PC but I wish I could recover my data (mainly pictures and doc files).

How could I do?
Any help would be appreciated

It looks like you need a RAW file system Recovery program.

30 GB = 27.94 GB of binary drive-space and you need 15%, or 4.20 GB free-space for defrag to run, so it has far too much data on it.

You MUST have space for the paging file to propogate, as Windows needs a minimum 1·5 times the amount of installed RAM in drive-space for it to do so.

384 MB x 1·5 = 576 MB

What RAM modules do you have? 3 x 128 MB?

XP can run on as little as 64 MB so try taking the RAM modules out to get down to 128 MB and see if it will start in safe mode. Then follow the clean up procedure on the link below and if you have an XP CD and have the (hidden) I386 folder on your drive you can delete that as well.

I would just buy another hard drive, 7,200 rev/min with an 8 MB drive buffer and add some more RAM, say 3 x 256MB or 2 x 512 MB if your mainboard will accept it.

My mainboard will take 3 x 512 MB but 768 MB is enough for my use of the machine.

Can you start with a bootdisk and remove some stuff?No, I wasn't able to do that,
BUT I finally did succeed in recovering my data, putting the damaged hard drive as slave on a friend's pc again, and then running a recovery software. I was able to copy all my important files on a dvd. Then I reformatted the whole drive with a fresh XP. Everything's fine now.

Thank you for your helpDon't forget your protection against the nasties.
Don't forget Windows update.
Don't forget to get the latest drivers.And keep an eye on your HDD space down the road.

patio. Quote

No, I wasn't able to do that,
BUT I finally did succeed in recovering my data, putting the damaged hard drive as slave on a friend's pc again, and then running recovery software. I was able to copy all my important files on a dvd. Then I reformatted the whole drive with a fresh XP. Everything's fine now.

Thank you for your help

Excellent result!

Solve : Error loading OS - Hard drive full??

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