[gerryf]

ah, that makes it easier

download the iso powertoy for your version of windows xp (sp1 or sp2)

Install, reboot.

Download the rc.iso from the link above

Right click it, choose BURN ISO

you will create a cd from the ISO image

reboot with the new cd and see if it will allow a repair option.


If it does, can you see the missing drive?

Also, when your computer first starts, does it detect all the known drives ?

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Hi Gerry, many thanks for these helpful tips, although I am having great difficulty in burning that ISO file to a blank cd. It just doesn't seem to want to take it, could this be because the file shows on my computer as an unknown file?

I've been speaking with a friend who know's a bit about computers, and he seems to think that this computer may have a dual operating system, something to do with originally having Windows 98 on it and the hard drive may have been partitioned when XP was installed... So he suggested buying a new hard drive, re installing windows XP on the new hard drive, making this the master and then being able to access the old drive (corrupted drive) as a slave. Does this sound like a viable option to anyone?

[mellowrod]

Hi Gerry, many thanks for these helpful tips, although I am having great difficulty in burning that ISO file to a blank cd. It just doesn't seem to want to take it, could this be because the file shows on my computer as an unknown file?

I've been speaking with a friend who know's a bit about computers, and he seems to think that this computer may have a dual operating system, something to do with originally having Windows 98 on it and the hard drive may have been partitioned when XP was installed... So he suggested buying a new hard drive, re installing windows XP on the new hard drive, making this the master and then being able to access the old drive (corrupted drive) as a slave. Does this sound like a viable option to anyone?

[gerryf]

did you get the correct xp power toy? There is one for sp2 and one for sp1

When you right click on the rs.iso, is COPY IMAGE TO CD an option?

---------------------------------

As for your friend's advice, yes, you can certianly install a new drive, install XP to that, then recover your old data....in fact, you don't even need to buy a new drive....you could hook up the drive in the computer your sitting at, copy the data over, then wipe the original drive and start over.

[gerryf]

fwiw, I thought we wanted to repair the current system....

in fact, dropping the bad drive in the other system may allow us to repair it that way if all that has gone bad is a boot,ini file...

The recovery console would be required to make other trickier repairs

[mellowrod]

Any tips on how to hook this computer up with that computer? Is it simple, I know very little about computers, can it be done through external methods, usb etc...

This maybe sounds like my best option.



When I right click on the ISO it pops up a menu with this as one of the options Burn quick > Burn Selection To Disc

When I tried selecting this it just wont burn it? There may be something wrong though with the burning software on this computer though...

[gerryf]

it can be done externally if you want to buy a harddisk enclosure, which range from $20 to $40 at Compusa, then you just plug the USB cord in....


It's not difficult to do it without that, though.

Your drive is held in with four screws, an ide ribbon (40 wires in a grey ribbon) and a 4-pin electricla molex.

Ground yourself, open the case, remove the screws, remove the ribbon, remove the power. Slide out the drive.

This drive will be set as a "master"

Open the other computer. You will have two IDE connectors on the motherboard. In the first one, the ribbon will move from the motherboard to the exisiting harddrive and possible a cd-rom.

You should have a second one which may be empty or may go to a cdr-om.

The easiest, fastest way to do this is to unplug anything to the second one and then plug that ribbon into your harddrive that is from the problem machine. You do not need to install the drive physically in the machine. Just plug in the ribbon and power supply, then set the drive on a couple of books so it is not touching any thing (so you don't short it out on the case/other components.

Turn on the machine, the good OS will recognize a new drive and install it as a second drive.

You then use the good OS to copy the data over to the working PC. The only question is Windows XP Pro or Home (on the good machine)

You will need to take ownership of the files to copy them.

Then you can easily wipe the bad drive from this machine, then reinstall it in the old machine and reload windows clean.

[forkart]

MagicISO is best one. You can burn ISO with MagicISO built-in ISO burner.

http://www.magiciso....iso-burnwin.htm