Computer help? Please...

[M GO BLUE!!!]

My computer has been acting up. It doesn't like shutting down. It freezes up. Sometimes it boots, but won't let me do anything at all.

This hasn't happened all of a sudden, but more like gradually you notice things. The straw that did it was today FOF2004 decided to stop working. I open it and get an error. This is unacceptable, so I have decided to start clean.

I want to wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. Then I'll install only what I use now (which will get rid of a lot of crap that I can't get rid of!)

I did this on a previous computer, but that was Win ME.

I have two hard drives intalled, and the F drive is where I backed everything up to. I can't lose this drive, as it has everything (including my entire music collection.)

I tried to protect it like I did before, by disconnecting the drive. The problem is that I don't know which is which... They're identical drives! I tried disconnecting each of them individually, and switching the cables, but neither drive will allow the computer to boot attached to either cable. It only boots up when I connect both drives as I installed them I recall that I had a bit of difficulty installing the second hard drive, but I don't remember exactly what (it was 4 years ago.)


Any pointers???

[Antmeister]

Sounds odd, but this is what you can do:

1. Remove one of the hard drives.
2. Make sure you have you Windows XP CD-ROM handy.
3. Go into the BIOS and have it boot directly from your CD-ROM.
4. Before rebooting the machine with new BIOS settings, insert the Windows XP CD.
5. Now from here you should be able to reformat the hard drive, partition it and eventually install Windows XP. During this process, make sure you give the hard drive a unique name so you won't confuse it with the other hard drive.
6. Once Windows is installed, go back into the BIOS and have it boot directly from the hard drive.
7. Get all the latest and greatest patches, fixes, etc.
8. After patching is completed, shut down computer and install the other hard drive. Go back to the BIOS to make sure that it is not treating this as your boot drive (that is why the unique name is important). If it is treating your backup drive as a boot drive, change the settings in your BIOS and/or the jumper settings on your hard drive (if its an older model).
9. Restart the computer. You should now have access to your older files.

[MizzouRah]

Open your pc and tell me how you have your drives hooked up?

From the motherboard, you should have two IDE connectors, where do the cables go? What are they plugged into?



Also, you can look at your drives, if you have them hooked up as Master and Slave, check the jumpers - as the C drive will be the Master and the F drive will be the Slave.
If it's hooked up as Cable Select (both jumpers will be in the same place on both drives), the C drive will be plugged into the end connector on the cable (might be black) and the F drive will be plugged into the middle connector on the cable (might be grey).

[Joe]

remove the porn

[M GO BLUE!!!]

remove the porn
NEVER!!! (I actually keep it under the file "Football Stats" so that no woman will ever think of looking there!)

Thanks guys... I got it. I'm on the freshly wiped computer now! It's running pretty sweet. :D

Now the fun of updating everything and installing the programs I use.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Now the one problem I seem to be having...

I have a zip drive installed thru a ATA/133 card. The computer seems to be recognizing the card. When I boot it shows the zip drive. Yet when I install the drivers for the zip drive... nothing.

Any ideas?

[MizzouRah]

If it shows the drive, why are you installing drivers?

Go to Iomega's or whomever makes the Zip drive's site and see if you can download the software for the drive. You might not need it for Windows XP.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I have XP.

It shows up when booting the computer, but then in XP... nothing. I tried downloading the software for the drive and installing it... nothing.

[MizzouRah]

Have you tried going to the website and seeing if your installing the correct software and drivers for Windows XP?

Has it worked before?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

I installed it before and it worked fine, but that was a few years ago and I don't remember exactly how I did it. I used the software i downloaded from the website, and software I had saved on the computer. Nada.

[MizzouRah]

Maybe google the drive and see if you can find a workaround for it.