[javiercinakowski]

I used a girl i know's computer for one night, did nothing other than download a new dvd player (from cnet, vsomething, had a good user rating), watch dvd, tried shutting it down, froze, had to hold button to turn it off.

the next morning i try turning it on to find that after a gateway screen appears, i am stuck at a black screen with a blinking cursor on the top left. she looks at me and tells me its my problem now. i booted from disk and tried to repair, i got to a screen showing partitions, to find that no partitions were recognized. tried to create one, but it couldn't find the 30 gig. harddrive. i'm clueless as to what to do now. i've looked everywhere online for help, but can find none. does anybody have any ideas before i shell out the last bit of my cash to take it to get repaired?

thank you very much
broke and confused chris in bloomington, in

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Hi Chris, welcome to Geeks to Go!

I don't know how far you got partioning, but that may have erased all the data from the hard drive.

First let's try this: try restarting the computer using "last known good configuration":
1. Start Windows, or if it is running, shut Windows down, and then turn off the computer.
2. Restart the computer. The computer begins processing a set of instructions known as the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). What is displayed depends on the BIOS manufacturer. Some computers display a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS, while others may not display any indication that this process is happening.
3. As soon as the BIOS has finished loading, begin tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Continue to do so until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
4. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, scroll to and select the Last Known Good Configuration menu item, and then press Enter.

[admin]

Hi Chris, welcome to Geeks to Go!

I don't know how far you got partioning, but that may have erased all the data from the hard drive.

First let's try this: try restarting the computer using "last known good configuration":
1. Start Windows, or if it is running, shut Windows down, and then turn off the computer.
2. Restart the computer. The computer begins processing a set of instructions known as the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). What is displayed depends on the BIOS manufacturer. Some computers display a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS, while others may not display any indication that this process is happening.
3. As soon as the BIOS has finished loading, begin tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Continue to do so until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
4. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, scroll to and select the Last Known Good Configuration menu item, and then press Enter.

[javiercinakowski]

I tried pressing F8, no luck. the bios just cuts to a black screen with blinking cursor on the top left. any other ideas?

thanks
chris

[Ntd]

Have you tryed booting from the Xp cd-rom?

[javiercinakowski]

Have you tryed booting from the Xp cd-rom?

yeah, that's the disk that i meant i booted from. no partitions are recognized and it won't let me create any to just reinstall it.

[admin]

See this installation guide:
http://www.blackvipe...stallxppro1.htm

If you receive any errors, or get stuck somewhere during the install, please reply.