[kantlooz]

cool all backed up...ready for next step

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OK now refresh my memory...do you have a XP installation disk or a recovery disk or nothing?

[rshaffer61]

OK now refresh my memory...do you have a XP installation disk or a recovery disk or nothing?

[kantlooz]

2 disk system recovery windows vista home premium

[rshaffer61]

OK those are the ones you need to reload everything.
You can now follow the next steps to reload your system back to factory settings.
You can go to HERE to read the tutorial by one of the members here on how to do a Fresh Install or Repair Installation of you OS.

[kantlooz]

I'm so sorry, but I still have a black screen and the question Press any key to boot from cd or dvd never appears. I'm not sure why I would have thought that just because I backed up my files that would have fixed the error. The hard drive check still shows failure to read element

[rshaffer61]

OK since Puppy Linux read correctly and loaded then we can probably rule out the drive as being the problem.
At this point we need to look at the cd's themselves.
Are there any scratches or dirt on the cd?

[kantlooz]

no scratches. recovery cd's was ordered from HP. got them on Thursday 3/25

[kantlooz]

does the read element error mean I should just get a new hard drive?

[rshaffer61]

The read element error is a good indication the drive is having problems.
Do you have access to another system that you can slave your hd in and then we can try to take a look at it in the other system?

[kantlooz]

I actually had another brand new hard drive that I bought months ago to upgrade my PC, I just opened it only to find out It uses IDE and my PC uses SATA wiring. so @ 9 pm...this is not a good find either. Do you think a new Hard drive will be the answer to all my problems?

[rshaffer61]

It can't hurt thats for sure and there is always the possibility of putting two hd's in the system if we can get at least one of them to install XP and run correctly.