[BlackOxide]

Yep, that's the one, cheers. I think HP need to update their info on your model, it looks like you have a different BIOS to what they say in most of their documentation. Anyway, lets go ahead and disable the Maxtor 5T030H3 which is your 30GB Drive.

• Can you use the Down arrow on the keyboard and highlight First Channel Device 0 Maxtor 5T030H3
• Then press Enter
• Hopefully you should then get an option to Disable the drive (or along those lines)
• Please select to Disable it, then once you have done this press F10 to save the changes and exit the Bios

You should now be able to boot from the Windows XP CD again and there should just be the 500GB drive visible in the setup screen. You should now be able to delete the partition (if it is showing anything other than 'Unpartitioned space') and then Press Enter to install Windows onto it.

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Sorry to be so difficult! I'm not finding a disable option. This is the screen when i click enter on the maxtor. Any clue on how to disable it?

[Irissh]

Sorry to be so difficult! I'm not finding a disable option. This is the screen when i click enter on the maxtor. Any clue on how to disable it?

[Irissh]

Hold up! I think i got it! It's installing Windows now! Sweet!

[Irissh]

No more question marks on the device manager after installing those drivers!
Should i re-enable that maxtor drive?

[BlackOxide]

Excellent, well done!

Yep, go ahead and re-enable the 30GB drive, now that Windows is installed onto the 500GB.

The next steps are to install an Anti Virus (Avira is what you had previously) and Run Windows Updates to download the latest patches for Windows. I'll list the next steps below

• Re-enable the 30GB Drive
• Install your Anti Virus (Avira)
• Run Windows Update to download all of the latest updates. Note - This may take a while as there will be many (100+) updates to install. It's highly recommended to get them all installed though due to security reasons
• Install Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash (PDF viewer and Flash, so YouTube and many other sites can be viewed properly)
• Copy your data back onto the PC from your Disc(s)

Let me know how it goes and if you notice a speed difference with it being on the 500GB instead of the 30GB now.

[Irissh]

I'm not sure what happened, but after installing the updates my computer tried to restart, but couldn't. I could only get back on by starting in safe mode and doing system recovery. I only installed window updates and service pack 3. I also suspect both of my hard drives aren't functioning. Didn't mean to kill it! Ooops! Any ideas for me?

[BlackOxide]

That's a bit of bad luck by the sounds of it with the Windows Updates. Sounds more of a software problem than hardware.

I could only get back on by starting in safe mode and doing system recovery.

Is it System Restore you ran? If so, can you now boot into Normal Mode? If you still can't boot into Normal Mode, try tapping the F8 key at boot until you see a list of options including Safe Mode etc. Then try Last Known Good Configuration.

I also suspect both of my hard drives aren't functioning.

They should be fine. We can always test them though. What you makes you think they aren't functioning?


Let me know where you're at now with booting into Normal Mode etc. We'll get it sorted one way or another

[Irissh]

I guess I'm in normal mode right now.
I was thinking I might have a drive issue only because I used to have a C: and a G: drive and now just have C.



Should I try those windows updates again? I'm nervous to shut down again.

[BlackOxide]

That's good that you have it booting into Normal Mode again.

Let's get your 30GB detecting as the G: Drive again:

• Go into Disk Management again, where you took that screenshot
• Right click anywhere within the Red Rectangle shown below

• Then choose New Partition and click Next
• Choose Primary Partiton then click Next
• Leave the partition sizes as they are and click Next
• On Assign the following drive letter, choose G:
• If G: is not available, choose any other letter you wish
• Then Choose the following settings:
  
• File System = NTFS
• Allocation Unit Size = Default
• Volume Label = You can choose any name you want to here. Common ones are Data Drive, Storage etc
• Tick Quick Format
• Click Next
• Click Finish

The G: Drive should now be visible in My Computer.




Once the G: Drive is showing, try installing those updates again. They may well go in fine this time. Let me know how you get on.

[Irissh]

So i got that drive assigned and installed windows updates. No problem.
Then windows wants me to install device pack 3 and it freaks my computer out again!
Now for some reason or other, the system restore won't work and I can only get on in safe mode. Can you help me, please?!

[BlackOxide]

Hmmm, so it sounds like SP3 itself is messing something up. Can you try pressing the F8 key at boot and instead of Safe Mode, select Last Known Good Configuation. Let me know if this boots into Normal Mode or not.

Meanwhile I'll have a look into the Service Pack problem. Could you let me know how it comes about... does SP3 say it installed fine, then you reboot and it doesn't go into Normal Mode, or does the PC blue screen or crash whilst installing SP3 etc?

[Irissh]

This is the screen I get when i try last known configuration.
It installed and then said it needed a restart to take effect. But it wouldn't ever restart.

[BlackOxide]

Okey dokey, am I right in thinking when you highlight Last known Good Configuration and then press Enter, it doesn't make any difference and it still doesn't boot into Normal Mode?

Can you explain what happens when you try and boot normally, does it reboot by itself, or display a Blue Screen, or just hangs at a certain place etc?

[BlackOxide]

If the Last Known Good Configuration does not enable you to boot normally can you try the following method please, which has been suggested by a fellow member here. It involves renaming a system file which may be causing the boot problem. Click here to see the article published by HP on this issue. Just perform the steps in Step 1: Disable Intel Power Management.

[Irissh]

No dice with step one. Its still doing the same thing. Windows did not start successfully screen, windows xp screen, followed by blue HP screen. over and over.
Do you maybe have another trick up your sleeve? (i hope!)