Stop Error-Boot Drive Not Found-maxtor 250 GB HD-W2k sp4

[stickham]

This is the 2nd maxtor 250 GB HD that has had a Stop Error during windows startup and won't bootup - something about boot drive not found. 2 separate HD's on 2 diff machines that are not connected to the Internet, having the same problem. One HD was in a Dell Optiplex 110, 733Mhz and one in a generic 933 machine. Both using Maxtors SATA PCI cards to override the BIOS to get past HD size barriers. (Drives are IDE not serial). Replacing SATA PCI card with brand new one did not fix the problem. Also tried different cables and different PCI slots to no avail.

Both PC's were working fine, stable with no new hardware or software installed in a long time.

Able to use drive as secondary but can't boot to them anymore. Drives are formated NTFS with 1st partition used only for OS and small amt of software. Several other partitions for data.

Tried to reimage using a clean ghost image but still not booting.

Question 1

When restoring from a ghost image does the boot sector get restored? If so, and if this were a problem with the boot sector, the ghost restore should have fixed the problem right? Used the ghost images previously for other issues with no problems.

Question 2
How am I supposed to run CHKDSK/SCANDSK on W2k if I can even boot to safe mode or to safe mode with DOS prompt? Also, how do I run McAfee virusscan on the drive if I can't boot up?

Any help would be welcomed.

Thanks

[dsl2007]

Open windows command prompt and type in :
CHKDSK C: /F /R and press Enter
Note : Replace C: by your drive number whatever it is, I have just given it as an exapmle. Rest everything is same.