Help!, I screwed my computer

[Pumo]

While i was doing a windows clean install, by error I formatted the 99mb EFI boot partition.
I thought it was not big deal as I was installing the OS from the start anyway. I proceeded with the setup.

To my surprise, after the first restart to continue with windows installation, my computer went into an endless restart-shutdown loop. I disconnected it from the main power, cleared the CMOS with the jumper on the motherboard, and even took the CMOS battery off, but to no avail. My computer occasionally shows the bios splash screen, but it locks up on there, and doesn't obeys any command, so I can't enter the bios setup at all. It emits 3 very separated short beeps, then black screen afterwards. Also tried connecting/desconnecting several hardware pieces, but nothing, it is as if the motherboard went dead. The motherboard is a GA-B75M-D3V.

So, there's a simple solution to this, or I must change the motherboard?
It's really THAT bad to mess up with the EFI partition, that it can even 'kill' a motherboard?

[CDN_Merlin]

https://www.google.com/search?q=recover ... 8&oe=utf-8

Can any of those help?

[Pumo]

Unfortunately not, as I can't get past the POST screen, so there's no way to run any stuff from CD or USB.

[fliptw]

From what I've read, 3 short beeps means ram is sad, or your MB choose to give up the ghost when you did the install.

[Pumo]

Oh well, so it may be most likely that the MB decided to die, will check that today. I think my warranty is still valid.
However, I'm a bit worried about this:

The HDD has traces of an OS that was being installed. Could this bring a problem again with the motherboard even if it's a new one with its factory settings, or I can safely plug said HDD to start a new Windows install on it with the new MB?

[Tunnelcat]

Got access to another computer to wipe and reformat the HDD first? Better yet, SSD prices have gone way down with better performance. Why not just get a new SSD to put the OS install on, or will Windows throw a fit with the different hardware? I'm much happier with my SSD performance over the old HDD that had the OS installed on from the factory. I re-purposed the old OS HDD for my games after reformatting it, so now I have 2 HDD's to hold my game libraries.

[Spidey]

If I were you, I would try removing the HD, install it as a second HD on a different machine, reformat it, and replace the boot sector and anything else you did an oopise on. Then put it back in the machine and try again.

Be sure to format the sectors as they were originally.

Hint: always try to fix what you did wrong, before trying to fix other things. Screwing with the BIOS may have been a mistake.


But that’s only me, I’m far from an expert.

[Krom]

Your PC should be able to POST even without a hard drive installed. Stuff on the hard drive should have no impact on BIOS or its ability to POST. The three beeps error code would definitely point to different problems than something wrong with the partitions on the hard drive.

[Pumo]

After taking the computer for maintenance, it resulted that the motherboard was indeed the culprit, although the PSU and HDD were also to blame (the HDD became damaged and the PSU was struggling a bit).

So I replaced the three components at once. A shame I didn't had the cash right now to buy the SSD as Tunnelcat suggested, that will have to wait until the next time.

After replacing the components everything is running fine, as I'm typing this message from the fixed computer (using Windows 10 by the way).

[fliptw]

what do you have your computer plugged into?

[Pumo]

To a hook up lead, with proper ground installation.

[fliptw]

no surge protection?

[Krom]

Sounds like a bad PSU fried it (I've seen that happen to machines before).

[Tunnelcat]

After taking the computer for maintenance, it resulted that the motherboard was indeed the culprit, although the PSU and HDD were also to blame (the HDD became damaged and the PSU was struggling a bit).

So I replaced the three components at once. A shame I didn't had the cash right now to buy the SSD as Tunnelcat suggested, that will have to wait until the next time.

After replacing the components everything is running fine, as I'm typing this message from the fixed computer (using Windows 10 by the way).

Well, save up for that SSD. You'll be properly impressed by it's performance. But now you have to clone or reinstall the OS if you get one. Even my 4 year old computer is now purring along, although I bought a Samsung EVO and there is still a performance read issue with old data, not that it's noticeable.

[Pumo]

Well, save up for that SSD. You'll be properly impressed by it's performance. But now you have to clone or reinstall the OS if you get one. Even my 4 year old computer is now purring along, although I bought a Samsung EVO and there is still a performance read issue with old data, not that it's noticeable.

Yeah, I'm tempted to buy a SSD since some time already, but I need to find a good balance between performance, capacity and price (as I'm having lots of expenses as of lately, so I can only afford something relatively cheap).

no surge protection?

I will check that. But after more researching (as I was not completely sure as if that was it's name in english) I'm using something like this, rather than a 'hook up lead': http://s3.trianglecables.com.s3.amazona ... 5-ft-1.jpg

So it may have surge protection? I'm not completely sure.

Sounds like a bad PSU fried it (I've seen that happen to machines before).

Most probably. I bought a 600W PSU and a Biostar H61MGV3 motherboard and everything seems to be working perfectly fine as for now.
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Now on the other hand, the 'damaged' HDD was not really damaged. I ran several tests on it and it has perfect health, it just needed a complete wiping and a run of DISKPART CLEAN to re-partition it and format it correctly.
After that, I cloned my installed OS from the new HDD to the not-really-damaged one and it works perfectly!

I did that as it seems I bought an old model HDD, and found it to be noisy!
So I definitely prefer my previous and much quieter HDD (that I thought it to be damaged).
However, I left the OS installed on the new noisy one as a backup just in case, but will store it in the meantime.

Anyway, it seems everything is going well as for now. Thanks everyone for your advice!