Re: Computer problems, please help a gamer in need!

**kormendi** · 11-17-2005, 12:29 AM

How many hard drives do you have?

From what you said earlier it looks like 2. If you have 2, where is the other one? Did you remove it? That one may be the drive with the OS installed on it.

EDIT: nevermind, I just reread your post. My guess is, as others have stated, there is a problem with the MBR. This happens all too frequently, but is easily fixable if you have the right tools. Someone here will probably be able to direct you to a solution even if you dont have a WinXP CD

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 12:33 AM

Yes I have removed it, I would just like to get the new (good) one running at the moment.

NOOB QUESTION: How do I boot from disk??

**perry** · 11-17-2005, 02:04 AM

You change your boot order (should be one screen back from where you showed us the HD) so that CD and/or floppy is before hard drive. Then just put in your Windows CD and you'll get a prompt to "Press any key to boot from CD".

Go in to the windows setup, DO NOT do the automatic system recovery, let it load some drivers. Then you get to a prompt, press the key to get to the recovery console. You should get a password prompt for the administrator account, put that in and you'll be at a DOS prompt that says something like C:\WINDOWS>. At that prompt, type in "fixmbr" and follow the directions. That will replace the master boot record for the drive. Type exit to reboot.

Once you get it working, find a new computer guy.. the whole line about not writing to the old drive is unacceptable.

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by perry

You should get a password prompt for the administrator account, put that in

I dont have a password for the administrator account, unless there is a hidden one.

Should I have a password for the administrator account?

Do I put in the cd as soon as possible, or when it's at that stall screen?

**perry** · 11-17-2005, 11:42 AM

I suppose the admin password may be blank, though that's never a good idea.. These days, lots of viruses and worms spread that way.. Worry about setting it later. Hopefully it's not set and there isn't one that you don't know -- that'd be a whole new problem!

In the screenshot in your first post, you can see where the computer attempted to boot from CD, so it needs to be in before that.

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 11:50 AM

Thanks so much for all your help so far, I cant wait to get gamming again.

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 12:31 PM

Ok, so I replaced the master boot record for the drive, and now its back at that stall screen I had: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...413/CROP-1.jpg
The computer doesn’t freeze, it just won’t proceed. Any ideas?

Thanks.

**kormendi** · 11-17-2005, 01:04 PM

When you were in the recovey console, were your files present?

You can check by going back to the console and typing dir to list the files in the directory.

If nothing is there, you may have lost your partition. You can confirm this using fdisk to see if there are any partitions alllocated on the drive.

Its been a while since I have done this, someone please confirm what I am saying, I dont want to give misinformation.

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 02:08 PM

When I was replacing the master boot record it said that it would delete the partition. Is that bad?

**kormendi** · 11-17-2005, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Lt.Snow

When I was replacing the master boot record it said that it would delete the partition. Is that bad?

You sure it said it would indeed delete it? and not just a warning?

Often when doing things with partition tables and boot sectors you get warnings that you are risking data loss, but replacing the mbr shouldn’t have had any effect on your data. It very possible that more than the MBR was lost. There are tools available to rebuild partition tables, examples escape me at the moment.

**Lt.Snow** · 11-17-2005, 02:57 PM

I think it was a warning that it might be lost, but I assumed that it would be lost.
What should I do, anyone?

**SloppyJoe** · 11-17-2005, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Lt.Snow

When we finally got him to help me put in the old hard drive, as there wasn’t an extra power cable for the it, so he took a power cable from the mother board and plugged it into the old hard drive, he said it was ok because it was one of 2 power cables going into the mother board and it wouldn’t mess anything up.

Hmm, that is the +12v connecter to the mobo. As I've recently learned, not enough power can bring about strange and myserious problems.

**Trooper** · 11-17-2005, 03:58 PM

yah try and unhook a power to a CD drive and then hook that one into the HD...not enough power could cuase this problem

**perry** · 11-17-2005, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Lt.Snow

I think it was a warning that it might be lost, but I assumed that it would be lost.
What should I do, anyone?

Do you need any of the data on that new hard drive? If you were willing to go along with the data loss, then I'd assume not. You could just go ahead and reinstall Windows and be done with it. At that prompt where you chose the repair console, choose the option to install Windows instead. You should get to a screen (maybe after accepting the EULA?) that shows your current Windows install and be able to press R to do a repair. It doesn't format the drive, so settings and stuff should still be there, but you'll have to (maybe) reinstall some drivers and do the Windows Updates. If you get to a screen about formatting and/or partitioning the drive, you've made a mistake and need to reboot and try again.

Check and see if the data is still there.. Type DIR where you typed fixmbr before.

**kormendi** · 11-17-2005, 05:20 PM

perry is right, if you dont care about data loss all you need to do is reinstall the OS. Its a pain, but will most likely fix your problems. If you have a few hours to spare, I would even go as far as zero filling your drive to start with a completely clean slate.

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