got myself a cheap box and........

[sPlAtOiD]

Hey

The last used computer had a bad ide channel so i had to put both cd rom and hard drive on 1 cable. So if it isnt the cable just try and switch to the other ide and it dosnt hurt havine the cd rom and the hard drive on one cable.Befor you get a new cable just switch the existing cable to the other ide and make sure the cabli is in right the red stripe on the no1 pin.

 

[Apokalipse]

already tried that

 

[Leonidas]

have you tried just the HD alone to see if it will atleast go further past your POST screen? andwhy not use an IDE from another comp(theone your typing on?)

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Do you have a windows 98 start up disk.If you can get one boot with it and tupe fdisk C: at the A: and check out your partitions.Also try scan disk The hared drive just might be bad. What kind of hard drive is it. You might be able to find the utilities disk for that drive.

 

[Apokalipse]

I've got another cable now
I plugged my HDD into the primary channel, and the CD burner into the secondary with the old cable
I booted up, and it detects the CDROM but still says Primary Master Hard Drive fail
I booted with the XP CD, and he XP install did detect my drive, and I started the install
I boot up again, and it doesn't boot off my Hard Drive, and even if I set it to slave, it still says "Primary Master Hard Disk Fail"
I know this hard drive works, I used it before on this PC, and I tested it again on this PC to make sure
I haven't got a floppy drive currently, although I'll prolly get one soon
I want to try updating the BIOS through DOS - the BIOS I think is a Via chip with Award 1.0 software

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Try to put both drives on the same cable that the cd rom is on and see if it sees you hard drive.sounds like the ide channle.Put the hard drive master and the cd rom Slave.It least it will give you some more info as to what is wrong.

 

[Apokalipse]

that's what I had in the first place, now I've got 2 cables, the hard drive on the new cable and the CD burner on the old

 

[sPlAtOiD]

I no that but i wanted to see if you tried the other ide channle if you did it sounds like a bad hard drive.

 

[Apokalipse]

the hard drive works, I use it on this computer quite often, and the Windows setup did detect it and write the first Windows OS files, it's just that it won't boot off it
oh yeah, the Hard Drive is a Seagate 160GB ST3160023A

 

[Harper]

I got me a cheap 700MHZ box from a friend for $100 (aus) with:
Intel P3 700MHZ slot 1
256+256+128=640MB SDRAM
ATI Rage IIC
Nvidia TNT2 Pro - I chose to use the TNT2 Pro over the ATI Rage IIC
not sure what motherboard
8x CDR/RW
sound card, NIC, modem
and I'm using my 21" monitor which I bought a while ago

first of all, what do you think of it all, for $100 aus

That's a good steel there!