[zorba the geek]

First a thank you to the both of you,for sticking to this!

To clear up a missunderstanding,by not booting i ment not loading into windows.

After changing the bootsequence,my PC behaves as follows:

Startup without CD in drive:
The first 2 screens come on,the orange light next to the green powerlight shows activity,it then loads into the black screen with "-" flashing.The orange light then goes off.

Startup with windows CD in drive:
First loads into sreen,asking if i want to load CD.I confirm and the disc loads .When selecting either options (R or install)the message " no hdd connected".

Startup with Puppy Linux :
Linux starts loading by itself

PS: sometimes, when trying to load windows,the screen shows a MSI logo,which looks heavyly distorted (like a old damaged videotape on playback).It only lasts for a split second,and then the blackscreen.During this,the orange light flickers.Also,no guarantie,that second hdd is perfect.I can read the contents with Linux,but it doesent mean that parts of the disc are not defective.It's a maxtor after all!
Oh,i just notest,i've never posted the system specs:
NAME:Intel ®Pentium®CPU3.20GHz
FAMILIE:15,4,3 (Pentium4)
VENDOR:Intel
running XP home SP3
Ok,i hope that this makes things a bit clearer.

Cheers
charly

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Puppy Linux runs from the cd. It does not install to the hard drive unless you tell it to.

Time to check the hard drive.
Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use Burncdcc Link is in my signature below

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you

1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool. If you are unsure of the drive manufacturer then you can try seagate diagnostics It sometimes works on other manufacturers. Hitachi diagnostics is also known to work on Toshiba drives.

[123Runner]

Puppy Linux runs from the cd. It does not install to the hard drive unless you tell it to.

Time to check the hard drive.
Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use Burncdcc Link is in my signature below

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you

1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool. If you are unsure of the drive manufacturer then you can try seagate diagnostics It sometimes works on other manufacturers. Hitachi diagnostics is also known to work on Toshiba drives.

[zorba the geek]

Hi 123Runner!Hi phillpower2!
I got windows again

While the kids where sleeping,i tried again to install windows.This time i notest,that at one stage it asks if i want to install a raid driver,press F6 to install from floppy.I did just that and voila,windows installed without further problems.
I believe that the virus somehow got to my drivers,and Avast must have deleted it.Maybe.......
Anyway,a great thanks to both of you! Now i'm a wee bit wiser!

Thanks
charly

Edited by zorba the geek, 24 September 2010 - 10:21 AM.

[123Runner]

Congratulations. for a successful resolution for your issue. I am happy everything has been worked out for you. With that being said I am happy to say:


You are very welcome. I'm glad we could help and please let us know how everything works out for you.
If there is anything else we can do to help please feel free to ask. I appreciate that you allowed me to assist you with your issue and for your patience. Thank you for choosing GeeksToGo for help.
This issue now appears to be resolved.


If other members are reading this and have a similar problem please begin a New Topic and someone will assist you as soon as possible

[phillpower2]

Great news and thank you for posting how you resolved the issue so that others may learn from it

[zorba the geek]

Now everything is running smoothly again,and i've got some time to rethink the whole thing.
Knowing now,that it was a driver issue (i've Run hard drive diagnostics,and hdd is ok)what steps could i've taken,to resolve the issue much faster and without installing windows.

Since i got the floppy with the raid driver,would it possible just to copy the driver into my system32 folder(if it belongs there)using linux? Or can anyone think of a way to restore said driver,so windows can acsess my SATA hdd?

Anyway,in my case i wanted to do a clean install,due to virus issues and to many redundant programs,and of course installing a smaller hdd,to force my son to backup his stuff moore often !!

Thanks again for helping,and teaching me in the process

Cheers
zorba

Edited by zorba the geek, 26 September 2010 - 04:52 AM.

[123Runner]

We will have to make a few assumptions on this.

I was not thinking a driver issue.
Loading a SATA driver for a SATA drive is done at install (as you found out).
Losing a driver for the drive is some what odd (but then you did have a virus).

It could be possible to install the driver right from the floppy. (not sure of this).
Also I did not know that you had a floppy with the driver (most OP's lose it or can not find it).

[zorba the geek]

123Runner,all the stepps taken where needed,i don't imply that the progress took too long.Of course you need to check the bios,hdd,connections and soforth.My question is,is it possible to repair a driver under my circumstances (virus issues,hdd not detected).If i would have mentioned in my post,that i have a floppy with a raid driver,you likely would have picked it up and advised me differently.If i had notest the F6 option the first time i tried to repair windows,things would have been resolved sooner.If in all,i only got myself to blame,for not paying attention in the first place!

cheers
zorba

[123Runner]

I am not implying anything. We all learn here. We forget to ask certain questions or do not ask them properly.
We hopefully look for the easiest solution, which was done. I do not think any of us was thinking a missing driver for the drive.

We are all on the same page here with what we did. It was a successful resolution, even though you had to reformat.
But as you indicated you wanted to swap hard drives.

Whether we could have installed the driver from the floppy I do not know. I would suspect it is possible. I would think that it would have to be done through DOS or possibly Linux.

[zorba the geek]

123Runner and phillpower2
Without your combined help,my PC would mostlikely end up in the local repairshop or even replaced due to old age! Thanks to you,the Bios is the right setup,i'm sure the hdd's are usable and my PC is up and running! We have a saying in greek,you must first put your socks on and then your boots! Meaning you guy's made sure everything works right before doing anything else!

My reason for posting is only to find out,if there is a way to repiar/replace this driver when ,like in my case,the PC does not boot.Of course,all stepps have to be taken to ensure that it is indeed a driverissue!

We all had to update,install or repair drivers at on time or other,but it's mostly done with a functional,running OP!If you can figure out a way to repair/replace a driver on a non bootable PC,like in my case!It could be a usefull tool for someone finding himself in the same situation.
BTW,when trying to do windows repair,it also asked me for the driver,so it was my fault for not picking it up.I could have just as easyly repaired windows (for anyone reading this,having the same problem).

So again,thank you both and i hope,that when next time i have a problem,you'll come to my rescue!

sincerely
zorba