[TJ Drifter]

I just bought a new MicroStar Socket A MB for my Athlon 1 ghz 200fsb. After getting it installed and running I used Award's flash utility to update bios to newest version(version 3.5) which I got from their site at: http://www.msicomput...bios_result.asp
When it finished and rebooted I started getting "disk read errors" and was never able to get it booted.
Award's flash utility asks if you want to save old bios, so I saved it to C: drive, not realizing until later that since the update failed, I was unable to boot and therefore unable to get to the old bios save spot. I finally gave up and moved my CPU, hard drives, memory, video card, power supply, dvdrom and cdrw back to my old case and MB.
When I got my system back together and running on old MB I found that my main HD which was partitioned into 2 equal parts(20 gig each) had lost one partition(system partition was spared) and my second HDshows as RAW unformatted. Worse than that... I can't find the old bios for the new MB I saved anywhere on my system.
So as you can see, I have a couple problems I need help with...

First off, my hardware list:
Old MB - Asus A7V-VM
new MB - Microstar MS-6330 v3.0 called K7T turbo
CPU - Athlon 1 ghz 200 fsb
System HD(Primary Master) - Seagate st340014a 40 gig
Second HD(Primary Slave) HD - WDC AC313500D 13 gig
CDRW(Secondary Master) - LG CDRW CED8042B
DVD rom(secondary Slave) - LG DVD Rom DRD8120B
Memory - 640mb total---> 2 - 256mb pc133 sdram and 1 - 128mb pc133 sdram
Video card - Sapphire ATI Radeon 9200se AGP card
PSU - Allied 350 watt max (3.3v + 5v - 200 watt max)
whew, I think thats everything lol

Things I need Help with:
1) Can I reformat just the raw partition on 40 gig system drive? and if so, how?
2) Can someone help me find the correct bios for this board? There are several boards with this Model#. Mine has MicroStar MS-6330 printed on it and K7T Turbo V:3

I would appreciate any help you can offer...
Thanx in advance,
TJ

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Well it looks like you can go back to the v2.9 version with a athlon 1.0. I went back a little further than you did by going with the amd cpu and the "K7 Turbo(MS-6330 Ver3.0)".

This might help get the bios back.

http://www.biosman.c...osrecovery.html

How can I recover my system from a bad flash?
A: Clear your CMOS (see instructions for this above), go into your BIOS setup and reconfigure the BIOS for your system, reboot and see what happens. If that fails go to our recovery page and try the method related to your BIOS type. If your system still will not boot up you can order a preprogrammed replacement BIOS chip from BIOSman. We're experts at bailing people out of BIOS problems.

If nothing else Biosman can install a new bios chip with the correct bios for $25. I have used him twice on gamer computers that the people tried to make faster by reprogramming the bios.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Well it looks like you can go back to the v2.9 version with a athlon 1.0. I went back a little further than you did by going with the amd cpu and the "K7 Turbo(MS-6330 Ver3.0)".

This might help get the bios back.

http://www.biosman.c...osrecovery.html

How can I recover my system from a bad flash?
A: Clear your CMOS (see instructions for this above), go into your BIOS setup and reconfigure the BIOS for your system, reboot and see what happens. If that fails go to our recovery page and try the method related to your BIOS type. If your system still will not boot up you can order a preprogrammed replacement BIOS chip from BIOSman. We're experts at bailing people out of BIOS problems.

If nothing else Biosman can install a new bios chip with the correct bios for $25. I have used him twice on gamer computers that the people tried to make faster by reprogramming the bios.

SRX660

[TJ Drifter]

TY for the quick response
A couple questions ...
what can I do about partition issues on my system HD? do I need to reformat and partition the whole thing or can I avoid a windows xp reinstall by formatting the lost half of my 40 gig drive?

also:
I have an athlon 1.2 gig AXIA 9 cpu in the mail to me ... is v2.9 of that award bios correct for that processor also?

[SRX660]

Yes, you can reformat the unpartitioned space in the computer management of XP. Actually that is what i do with all my newer computers. I will make a 20 Gig partition for Windows and installed programs and 1 or 2 more partitions for Data and other operating systems. By doing this if i need to wipe out the "C" partition so i can reinstall Windows i do not have to copy all my data to DVD's( even tho i do that also). I have had to do this twice. Once when i was fooling around with some warez and another time when i just plain hit the wrong key at the wrong time and borked the system.

From what i read on the Microstar website the 3.1 update was for amd 1.6 and 1.7 processors so it sounds like the 2.9 version was good up to the 1.5 amd processor.

SRX660