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Windows XP help please!!!

post #1 of 14
4/21/11 at 10:24pm
Thread Starter 

I installed sims 3 on my alienware m7700 d9t, went to play and got a gray screen that i couldnt get out of.  Had to hard stop the rig unfortunately but left it overnight and ended up taking out the HD to put in a different one to try and clean it out for my gf, went to restart, operating system cannot be found.  Used my POST diag card and got a FF00 code which meant nothing was wrong on the mobo.  I do not have any XP cd but i do have the cd for vista, which i tried to install but it cannot find any driver and will not install on my usb hd.  So i thought ok i crushed it with man hands when i was fucking with the HD's ordered a new one, installed it, CAREFULLY and making sure to be free from static, went to install vista, same issue.  It's in ATA mode not RAID, the HD is a samsung 160gb PATA, same as the one already installed just with 6x the capacity.  I have a ISO copy of a xp restore but no burner or floppy.  I haveno clue what the next step would be can someone please help me?!


Edited by vulcan knockout - 4/25/11 at 8:00am
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post #2 of 14
4/22/11 at 9:41am
So you have a new hard drive installed with no OS?

You could always try to slipstream installing XP
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post #3 of 14
4/25/11 at 7:59am
Thread Starter 

I dont have any XP discs to install it from, i think i just need the drivers to install vista but i cant find the right ones.  I also dont understand why my original hard drive quit working, all i did was take it out and put it back in lol, unless the game corrupted it.

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post #4 of 14
5/14/11 at 8:08am

I went through a thing that I could uninstall a driver but I could not install it again..LOL..really crazy system.

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post #5 of 14
5/21/11 at 3:46pm
You have probably solved your problem already but with a usb enclosure and a copy of clonezilla you could clone recovery partiition to the new drive & do a full factory recovery. If recovery partition is on 3 partition you would create C & D then add recovery partition & restore.
Also if you haven't made any changes to the old drive you would be able to transfer data to it.
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post #6 of 14
5/25/11 at 7:03am
Thread Starter 

Nope still no resolution, i havent made any changes other than removing it looking at it and reseating it, but I have traced the problem down to the hard drives not being seen by the computer at all, ive tried using different things to test it and it wont recognize that there are hard drives in there now.  Any further help will still be appreciated.

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post #7 of 14
5/31/11 at 3:59am
Quote:
Nope still no resolution, i havent made any changes other than removing it looking at it and reseating it, but I have traced the problem down to the hard drives not being seen by the computer at all, ive tried using different things to test it and it wont recognize that there are hard drives in there now. Any further help will still be appreciated.
Have you tried using live-cd to see if hd is recognized by it. But I would say that it's the bios. I worked on system recently didn't recognize dvd drive
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post #8 of 14
5/31/11 at 9:12am
Thread Starter 

yes i have tried running a live cd, windows xp refurb cd, windows vista restore/install, nothing will recognize either hdd

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post #9 of 14
5/31/11 at 10:28am
You'll have to check you hdd connection or update bios.
Edited by 58chevypup - 5/31/11 at 12:37pm
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post #10 of 14
5/31/11 at 12:43pm
Quote:
yes i have tried running a live cd, windows xp refurb cd, windows vista restore/install, nothing will recognize either hdd

I don't think that these are live-cd's, They look for the XP OS to restore it. You need the recovery partitio for those to work & if you clone the recovery partition you can recover from there.
Try something like gparted-live-cd, Hiren's BCD or something of that sort.
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post #11 of 14
7/7/11 at 8:50am
Thread Starter 

any other suggestion?

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post #12 of 14
7/8/11 at 10:26pm

I'm wondering if you've tested your HDD with other computer?

I've also read an article saying that SATA drives are having problem with windows xp that it needs to be set in BIOS.

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post #13 of 14
7/8/11 at 11:08pm

sorry, double post.

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post #14 of 14
7/27/11 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 

i finally caved and took it to a repair shop, they said that when i added the new hard drive i didnt set one as master and one as slave, however i did try but wasnt given the option, the shop took out the drives and said they need to be formatted, fine format them no big deal ive got everything backed up, formatted and running on a different rig, xp loaded, reinstalled, still not working.....they are telling me the motherboard wont read them, anyone know if im getting screwed or is there a real reason behind this?

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