Windows Boot Restart

[Law]

Delete the partition, then format it. Windows will then install for you.

 

[martianX10]

No I mean, in an attempt to salvage the files on the HDD, install windows on the SECOND partition. Its ok, I think we are just gonna reformat completely.

 

[Law]

To just answer your question I would say it depends on how you partition it. If you have 2 primary partition, then only 1 may be active. Windows will not recoginize the other partition, so you would have to use a third party software to browse the hidden partition to transfer your file. That mean if you have 2 XP booting on Primary partition, only 1 may have the letter C: that is why it can't exist with each other. I don't know how to get it to recognize each other in this situation.

If you have just 1 primary partition with an extended partition that consist of 1 logical partition. Lets say the old Windows was on C: and the new one is on an extended partition\logical call D: then Windows will recgonize it has another HD and you should be able to see it in "My Computer". However the old Windows on C: is corrupted in your situation so you wouldn't be able to do this.

 

[martianX10]

Yeah I see what you are saying. Well, he doesn't think theres anything too important, we will just fully reformat.

(Also about that SATA PCI card, thats what we thought, but his dad is convinced the drive will go faster while plugged into it )

 

[martianX10]

Alright, well between the reformat, moving around the RAM, and the installation of the 600w power supply, it is now working. Running every game on Maximum settings and not visibly lagging in the least!

Thank you all SO so so so much, huge help.

 

[Law]

Yeah I see what you are saying. Well, he doesn't think theres anything too important, we will just fully reformat.

(Also about that SATA PCI card, thats what we thought, but his dad is convinced the drive will go faster while plugged into it )

It depends, original PCI bus ran at 33Mhz with a 32bit wide path which gave it 132Mb of transfer, then came 64bit wide running at 33Mhz which gave it twice the amount of up to 264Mb transfer. The third was a 64bit, 66Mhz PCI with up to 512Mb transfer. It's much longer then the original PCI. Heres the picture of it http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/reviews/article/1768/

Then the fourth was the PCI-X which operated at 133Mhz with a 64bit wide path and up to 1Gb of transfer rate. As you can see the bandwidth always double from the previous.

So yea, his father is right but only if it fits into one of these category. And beside, other device run on the PCI bus so the HD doesn't actually utilize the entire bandwidth, it might only run at 90Mb if it can. And also on another note, if your using SATA150, there isn't much of an improvement IMO with speed compare to ATA133. Yea it's a little faster but you can't even tell, what improves your HD speed is it RPM, buffer size and lower seek and read time, and less junk on it cloging up disk space (meaning you should defrag daily)

 

[martianX10]

Cool, actually that was very helpful I'll have to show him this sometime.

By the way, I COMPLETELY forgot to say, between the upped power supply, reformatting the harddrive, and then having to move the RAM AGAIN, we DID finally get it working that night. We were pretty excited that night (well I did it he was sleeping ) that I completely forgot to post saying thanks. So, Thanks!

[Edit: Also, since you seem pretty knowledgable about PCI, I have been wondering this for a while. I like to build / take apart computers for a hobby, so I have a bunch of old computers lying around here. One day salvaging parts out of some old Dell systems (which were replaced by newer ones at the local Elementary school, gonna be thrown away ) I found this odd card. It seems to have an ethernet port, a "DATA" port, and almost looks like a Coaxial tuner on it. The PCI slot it goes into is much longer than a normal one, but still only divided into 2 sections. It's very weird. Sometime I'll have to get a picture of it up here maybe someone can identify it. Thanks again for the other help!]

 

[Law]

No Problem, I was glad to help you.

I think what you found might be an older NIC or modem card, possibly a 16bit ISA Network or modem card. http://images.google.com/images?cli...al_s&q=16bit+ISA+NIC&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

ISA slot were generally build into older motherboard, now they're being replace by PCI slot. So yea it's common to find these card in older computer. Surely you can post a pic of it just to verify with me.

 

[martianX10]

No Problem, I was glad to help you.

I think what you found might be an older NIC or modem card, possibly a 16bit ISA Network or modem card. http://images.google.com/images?cli...al_s&q=16bit+ISA+NIC&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

ISA slot were generally build into older motherboard, now they're being replace by PCI slot. So yea it's common to find these card in older computer. Surely you can post a pic of it just to verify with me.

Yep thats it! I guess I'm holding a piece of history