New pc assembly help

[idiotec]

I did have an idea though, putting this harddrive that has ME on it and putting it into the new machine. Then get the pc to format, fix, recognise (whatever it needs to do), then install xp onto that. The only problem, really, is that I do not want to keep anything from this old harddisk, its full of spyware, virus's, junk files, and things that a AMD Duron 700 and a 32Mb stick of ram were never designed to run or fix in the first place.

OK, so try that. Take out the sata drive. Hook up the old ide drive. When you install XP, delete the partition that is on the drive, create a new partition, and format that partition. Look for directions on installing xp if you are unsure how to do this. Taking these steps will ensure no old data will stay on the old drive and you have a "fresh" install of xp.

I am thinking now that the sata drive got fried somehow since it is not recognized in the bios. If you can get it running this way you will at least have it operational. Then try the sata drive in another computer and see if the problem is with the drive.

 

[Keaton]

hmm, I took this drive out, and put it in the new pc, but it only got as far as the ME screen. So I started it in safe mode, it does run, only without the mouse and without the option of making it see the dvd rom drive I have in the new pc. And there is not much I can think of to do in safe mode on it, so now the drive is back in here (the old pc, or as its looking, my only pc). I could put XP on it here, but I don't know if that would make any difference

EDIT: I think the problem is that the system rather de-stabilized because of the different hardware. Cos the old hard disk (it says WD (C) 2000 on it) is older and is not expecting all the parts that its connected to, right?

 

[Keaton]

So it looks as if I cannot really test the drive, so all I can do is return it for a replacement? I bought it online, which could take weeks

If I had a list of things that I would never want to do again at this moment in time, building a pc would be at the top of it. I knew it wouldnt be easy, but I really had no idea of exactly how hard and stressful it would be

 

[Pilotwings119]

it wasn't that bad for me- stay positive, it'll be fine-- i was so pissed when i couldnt get mine going because of a stupid or incompatible (for some retarded reason that no1 knows) processor! dont worry, it might cost $$ but it'll get going and be worth it

 

[idiotec]

Dude, you didn't really listen to me. I didn't say to just try to put the old drive in there and run it with ME on it. Put it in AND REFORMAT IT AND INSTALL XP. Look at my suggestion again. You will want to boot from the XP CD, or if needed use a boot floppy.

 

[Sui]

uhm couple of things, your SATA drive is toast, it happens. Try to buy from places within a couple hours travel.

2. You might have to use your IDE drive, to install windows 2k/xp. My computer wouldn't install on the sata drive, and the 2k install program listed both drives as a master on the primary bus(no joke). Had to set the ide to slave, then it would refuse to install on the sata drive(even after disabling the IDE drive). It could see it but without drivers it couldn't install on it. I couldn't install the drivers because I had no way of booting outside of a setup program.

win 9x/ME will not support SATA. 2k barly supports SATA, after installing my win2k(and downloading all the updates) it would crash any time I tryed to save, or install from certain programs. From explorer it never had a problem. It hung 25% of the shutdowns, and then 100% after I downloaded the 'Fix' for hanging on shutdown.

3. My motherboard gave me the option of 20 or 24 pin atx connectors. If your motherboard includes a 20 to 24 pin adaptor its probably a good idea you use it, read the motherboard manual. Half of the problems you had could have been avoided if you would have read the manuals that come with your hardware.

4. ME can crash for no reason, follow idiotec's advice, delete partition, repartition, format, install xp.

BTW building computers is by far the best job I have ever been payed for, and this is after 4 days of getting this computer running right, and I mean at least 45+ hours of working on it. (Just think if I was payed per hour to work on this computer )

 

[Keaton]

I would hate to ask it, but how would I go about deleting partition, repartition then format? I have everything from this drive that wants keeping on a cd, so its ready to be deleted, but can all of it be done from the dos like interface from the new pc? and if cannot get it to read the XP cd, would it work with 98SE?

I did follow the manuals as closely as I could, but some bits wern't really in there, like preparing drives and things. The sata drive shouldn't have stopped at 1 percent of formatting for over half an hour though, should it? Or should I have left it for longer? I guess it dosn't matter now, but I should know for when a replacement is sent. I think the bios already configured most things itself, it detected what I had in and were it was, the mobo book says the drive configurations can not be edited by the user

 

[idiotec]

I would hate to ask it, but how would I go about deleting partition, repartition then format?

You can do it all from the XP Install disk. Read some instructions on how to do it. Forget about 98, you should take that CD and burn it, it has no use what so ever.

 

[Keaton]

My XP cd is slightly scratched, I couldn't really fit a brand new one into my budget. It is XP pro with SP2 from a church charity sale. For some reason when I put it into the drive of this old pc, it is not always recognised, but then sometimes it is and brings up the upgrade screen. I tried putting 98 on this drive on the new pc, but it wouldnt work, and putting ME over it again of course didn't work. Is there a way to clear this drive without the XP cd? If I could format it so it was clean, then i could put 98 on it in my new pc, and when I have it running 98 fine I can then upgrade to XP, because it will auto start (and I can explore it and run set-up) when the pc is running 98. I am sending the drive back for a replacement, so then I can just install it as a second drive, format it and all that, then take out the old drive?

 

[Pilotwings119]

haha keaton, u cant say that in this forum- they jump on you! (trust me)