[z00ropa]

Ok. Windows XP SP2.

At startup windows finds new hardware every time, my DVD-RW drive and my DVD-ROM drive. If I let it try to find the drivers it never does and drives wont work. If I cancel the install drives work 1/2 the time. System BIOS correctly identifies the drives. Have updated drive firmware, no help. USB flash drive, digital cameras, etc.... if I plug one in, windows wants to install drivers every time. Never can find them. USB flash drive won't show up in my computer.

These problems came about because I changed a lot of system hardware, ok all of it except the hard drive without doing a clean install of win xp. I know, I know.

Ok, so questions:

Would deleting SP2 and reinstalling help?

I have a slave hard drive, what about making it the master and doing a clean install of windows XP on it, what kind of problems am I likely to encounter by making my old drive (current master) a slave? Will I be able to locate all files.. pictures, etc?

Or, better yet, anyone know a way I can get Windows to install my drives and stop bugging me about it?

HELPLESS!

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curiousity here but when you go into devmgmt.msc(device mananger) how many things have their drivers missing, could it be that you are missing the chipset drivers rather than the system being wrong, have you cleaned some malware off the system taking them too, if that is the case the reinstalling the os will just return you to where you are now. do you have the driver cd that goes with the motherboard, if not a visit to the maker's site to get them is called for. That was just a hunch, but your idea of slaving the old harddrive to a new system is sound, you will probably has to change the permisions to let yourself into the old system, also check the jumpers, etc., but I would wait for a few more replies here before acting other people will have other hunches I guess.

[fleamailman]

curiousity here but when you go into devmgmt.msc(device mananger) how many things have their drivers missing, could it be that you are missing the chipset drivers rather than the system being wrong, have you cleaned some malware off the system taking them too, if that is the case the reinstalling the os will just return you to where you are now. do you have the driver cd that goes with the motherboard, if not a visit to the maker's site to get them is called for. That was just a hunch, but your idea of slaving the old harddrive to a new system is sound, you will probably has to change the permisions to let yourself into the old system, also check the jumpers, etc., but I would wait for a few more replies here before acting other people will have other hunches I guess.

[z00ropa]

No system components are missing drivers. In fact even though the system doesn't find drivers for my DVD drives some still show up, don't know if they are correct though.

The both have the driver
c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys

and then what I found out to be an iTunes file GEARAspiWDM.sys

I would be interested to know if the cdrom.sys driver is the only driver.

[z00ropa]

<bump>

[fleamailman]

Since time passes, I am suggesting that if this was not happening before, would using system restore to a point prior to the problem's starting sound like a good idea to you. What is not explained is how you got to this stage, did you remove malware, were you infected by something, or whatever, Personally I don't see why SP2 uninstalling should change things.

[z00ropa]

Well, basically I rebuilt my computer. New processor, motherboard, memory, video cards, network card... only thing not new is the main hard drive (I added a new slave drive). This was about 6 months ago, after the rebuild the system used to have a problem that inserting a disk into one of the drives or starting the computer with a disk in the drive would cause the computer to freeze about 50% of the time. This problem has now grown to Windows XP wanting to reinstall the drives at every statup. Anothe odd problem is that when I try to shut windows down or log off once in a while it doesn't do anything, the only way to shut windows down is switch users and turn off from the account selection screen.

I think I am going to turn the slave in the boot drive and do a clean install of windows xp from there. I just don't know what problems I am in for when I try to access files on what will become of my current C: drive after I make it a slave.

[fleamailman]

That is exactly what I would do too, I am more more into reinstalling than dealing with an underlying problem, btw this link might have nothing to do with it, but it may be the reason
http://www.reallylin...rhardware.shtml

Edited by fleamailman, 09 August 2007 - 12:18 PM.

[z00ropa]

I reinstalled windows on what used to be my slave drive, now the master, booted up fine, reinstalled SP2, all the motherboard drivers etc...

some problems have come up. My old personal file, with all my pics and what not in it on the old drive I can not access, it says access denied.
it also shows the file is empty. I guess since it can not access it. Anyhow I am now back to the old drive as master with the same DVD problem, but it works... and my personal folder is fine. Any clue?

Also I seem to have trouble downloading stuff. It will let me start but always says file corrupted, download again. ARGGH (this is on the new drive)

Can't get SLI to work either. What a pain.

[z00ropa]

Ok, so I installed a fresh new clean copy of Windows XP on my new master drive. Installed all drivers, etc as it says above. Everything is working, except I can't get anything I download to work. Every single .exe file I download and try to run says file is corrupt. Any ideas?

I am about to throw this whole computer out a window.

[The Skeptic]

What XP installation version are you using. Is it XP-SP2, XP-sp1?

I suggest that you deal with the computer with one drive at a time. Leave Only the one on which you want the OS to be installed. Make it Master or Cable Select and leave it alone on the flat cable, connected to the cable end connector.(disconnect the other disk from the flat cable and power).

Now perform a clean install during which make full format (not quick). After the installation install immediately drivers that may be missing, using drivers cd. Alternatively download the drivers on another computer, burn to a disk or copy to a flash ram and install on your computer.

Now install your antivirus and download all microsoft updates including SP2 if it's not installed already. Only after this start installing your other programs.

Only at this stage install the second drive as a slave or cable select connected to the mid-cable connector. See if you can see your files by going into My Computer > My Docoments etc.

[z00ropa]

Exactly what I did.

Full format. Clean install of Windows XP. Installed all drivers from disks. Updated to SP2.

Tried last night to download newest nvidia drivers, file down loads and starts to run setup then says file corrupted get a new copy.
Tried to download my Mcafee virus software, won't finish.

Somehow I downloaded firefox and it worked....

So frustrating.

[The Skeptic]

Have you tried to download the same files with another computer? Could you write here the links, I would like to try it mith my own computer. Please try some other downloads and tell us if you succeed. Try: Avast antivirus, AVG Antispyware, Spywareblaster.

[z00ropa]

Just tried to download AVG Antispyware, file downloads and when I try to execute the file I get this message:

This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.


If I switch back to my old drive, boot of it, I can download just fine no problems.

Just tried to download AVG, when I try to run the file I get this message:

An error 1006 (000003EE) has occured.
Last performed operation was:
opening the self-extract archive

Try to download the file again.
If you use Internet Explorer, clear it's cache before downloading/.

Edited by z00ropa, 11 August 2007 - 08:10 AM.

[The Skeptic]

I have never seen problems like this on a freshly formatted and installed computers unless the installation had some problems. As a matter of fact I am not sure I understood what was done exactly with the rwo drives, hence my suggestion to reformat and make complete reinstall when only one drive is installed. The fact that there are no such problems with the old drive further indicates for problems with the new installation. As frustrating as it is I suggest that you reformat.

[z00ropa]

Yeah, I am going to. Such a lot of wasted time, but what can you do?
Thanks for the help.