[BlackOxide]

Screenshot is just what I needed, thanks.

As I suspected, the partition has been removed as part of the reinstall. What type of data (Pictures, System files, Music etc) was on the drive? Also did you need what was on the drive or do you have everything in your backup?

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Pictures, videos,and games. All stuff I backed up, thanks to your reminder. The computer is super slow without the extra memory that drive provides.

[Irissh]

Pictures, videos,and games. All stuff I backed up, thanks to your reminder. The computer is super slow without the extra memory that drive provides.

[BlackOxide]

Ok, we will need to try and recover these for you then. Sorry for the misunderstanding here, I thought you had backed them up elesewhere to a DVD etc. Was not expecting that 30GB internal drive to be there to be honest with you. Not your fault though, we'll now just focus on getting the stuff back. I do need you to answer the following questions as thoroughly as possible though so I know where we stand at the moment. Then we'll go ahead and try and get as much back as we can


Please don't install any other additional software or use the PC much until I know the following:

Can you remember which out of the two drives Windows was originally running from - The 500GB or the 30GB drive?
I'm guessing it's the 500GB drive, due to the performance issue and as the 30GB would not have come as standard with the PC.

Your Pictures, Documents, Videos etc, were they present on both your old C: drive and your G: drive, or did you Move them all to the G: Drive, so they were not present on C: Drive?
In other words, your Pictures for example, at the time we did the reinstall, were they in your My Pictures on C: Drive as well as a copy of them on the G: Drive.
If your data was on both drives before doing the reinstall, we have a much better chance of getting the data back.

[Irissh]

No, you misunderstand. I totally backed these files to a disc, per your instruction.

[Irissh]

The Windows was originally on the 500GB drive, I believe.

[BlackOxide]

No, you misunderstand. I totally backed these files to a disc, per your instruction.

You had me there Iris, I thought you meant you transferred it to the other drive!



Whilst I take a rest Are you OK with us doing the following to get this back to it's original speed, as it's the small 30GB drive that's slowing things down. We will do the following:

• Boot from the XP CD again
• Format (wipe) the 30GB which currently has this new installation of Windows on
• Install Windows onto the 500GB (so the PC runs better)
• Install all the drivers so all devices work
• You copy your data from the CD/DVD onto the new installation of Windows

Let me know if you're fine with this and I'll post the new instructions

[Irissh]

Let's do it!

[BlackOxide]

First steps are pretty much the same as before, but you will be choosing the larger drive (500GB) to install Windows on. I've listed the driver downloads you need to install as well. Once you have done the Reinstall and Drivers, feel free to copy over your data back onto the drive. Let me know once you've done these steps

• Start your computer from the Windows XP Home CD. To do this, insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
• When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD.
• If it doesn't ask you to press any key to boot from CD, your BIOS is not setup to boot from it first. You will need to restart the PC and on the initial screen it should ask you to press a key to Enter Setup or Enter BIOS. Press the corresponding key and look on this page to find out how to change the boot order to boot from CD first. Note - Different BIOS manufacturers screens can look different, but this page covers most.
• Once it has booted from the CD, at the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.
• Read the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then press F8.
• You should then see the partition screen below (Your paritions will appear different and you may have more than one)
  
  
  
• You will need to use the Up and Down arrow keys to select the partition, then press D to delete it. If you have more than one partition, you will need to delete these as well.
• Once you have removed the partition(s), you should see two Unpartitioned Spaces as shown below
• One will be larger in size than the other one
• Highlight the largest sized drive and then Press Enter on the Keyboard
• Choose Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick)
• The Windows setup will now format the Hard Drive and start installing XP
• Setup will reboot the PC automatically after around 5-10mins. It will prompt you briefly to press any key to boot from CD, but do NOT press any key. Windows setup will resume by itself
• Follow the onscreen prompts for the language settings and Product Key etc.
• Once Setup has completed you should see the Windows XP desktop.
• Windows XP has now been reinstalled

Now that Windows has been reinstalled, lets install your Drivers.

Download each item below and once they are downloaded, just double click on them to install the software. Please install all of the ones listed below:
Chipset
Audio
Modem
Graphics


Once the above drivers are installed, can you go into Device Manager (Start > Run > devmgmt.msc) and let me know if there are any items with Yellow question marks.

[Irissh]

Uh oh!

[BlackOxide]

No worries, it looks like you're trying to install Windows onto the 30GB (29307MB) Drive again. You just need to press Enter and Delete the 29307MB partition and install Windows onto the other one which should be around 470000MB. If you're not sure, just press Enter on this screen and take another screeshot

[Irissh]

When I choose the big disk, I get this screen.
Then, when i press enter the screen looks like this.

What did I do wrong?

[BlackOxide]

Thanks for the screenshots

When I choose the big disk, I get this screen

That's the small disk not the big disk

29307MB is your 30GB Drive (Small)
476938MB is your 500GB Drive (Big)


What you need to do here is delete the "C: Partition1 [New <Raw>] 476930MB < 476929 MB Free>"
You're actually highlighting it in the second screenshot, so just hit D on the keyboard and confirm deletion of this partition.


After you have Deleted that, you should end up with two "Unpartitioned space's". One being the 29306MB which is already there and the other will be around 476938MB. Highlight the 476938MB one and press Enter on the keyboard. You should now be able to choose Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick) and it should start installing Windows. If you're not sure about any of this, just say.

[Irissh]

K. I deleted the partition, hit enter on the 476938 disk and got the same screen again. Setup says it must write some startup files to the smaller disk. I swear Im hitting enter on the larger drive. I only get the option to format the partition on the smaller drive. What should I do?

[BlackOxide]

Looks like this is a bit of strange error which can occur sometimes with having an IDE and a SATA type HDD together. Looks like the easiest way to get round this is to either remove the power to the 30GB Hard Drive or Disable it in the BIOS. We'll go for Disabling it in the BIOS, which should be the easiest way to do it.


Can restart the PC and immediately keep tapping the F1 key on the keyboard.
You should see a screen very similar to this one (ignore the highlighted BIOS Revision box):
If the screen doesn't appear, reboot the PC and try the F10 key instead of F1.



Once you are in the BIOS, as shown above (also known as 'Setup') you will see:

1st Drive
2nd Drive
3rd Drive
4th Drive


Could you tell me what your 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th drives are please. For example, in the above picture, 1st Drive is ST3160815AS. You could also take a screenshot of it if that's easier.

[Irissh]

This screen?