Am I screwed?

[jeb11]

I went to my Win XP Pro update and it downloaded a bunch of updates - oneof which was SP-3, which I had not been installing due to the problems with it.

I installed the updates without thinking and it installed SP-3 as well as all the other critical updates (recommended).

I then saw the "custom" update and, as I had never looked at it, I clicked on it.

A ton of updates for all kinds of stuff came up - I looked through some of them, not knowing what most did, but decided if MS puts them out I should install them.

I selected the first 3 - have no idea now as to what they were - and installed them. It then ask me to reboot my computer - which I did.

The screen came up back to the original XP screen - not the one I had before - with only about 10 icons on it and in a different resolution that I had been using.

I restarted and it came up to a window wanting my password - but different than the normal window that comes up. I could not put my password in because it seems my keyboard did not work.

I went to Safe Mode and in all but one of the possible boot options I get the message that it can't find the file - win\sys32\awina.dll.

If I boot from my XP install disc, it comes up to the window to "install XP" or to "repair" XP. No matter which I choose, it comes up with the message that, "no hard drive is found on this computer".

Any - all - help, suggestions, etc., would be greatly appreciated - jb

 

[atomic tofu]

well....can you get into your bios?
know what that is?
if you know the key to press for your system to do so...check to see if your bios sees it...

if not...maybe your hd just died

 

[jeb11]

Hello, Tufo -

Yup - can get there and it is there - also, when I go to safe mode I can boot from the Maxtor drive and it comes up and ask if I want to boot using XP Pro so I assume the drive is there and working.

I am going to take that drive and put in into this computer as a slave and see if I can get to it that way - have not a clue as to if that would work but I am out of options unless someone comes up with something. - jb

 

[brad8266]

There are a few ways to go about this but the first thing I would do is plug it in as a slave and get all your important data saved off onto an external hard drive or a thumbdrive. Then deal with the disk itself. It could need something as simple as running chkdsk on the drive but you really dont want to screw with it until you try to get you stuff off first.

 

[jeb11]

Hello Brad -

The drive that I need to get into is a Maxtor Sata drive - I was going to put it in my other computer that has a Western Digital but it is not a Sata drive and the cables don't match - it only has 4 wires whereas the Maxtor Sata has 5.

I have a new Seagate Sata drive to put into the old computer with the Maxtor and make the Maxtor a slave but there are only one set of cables in that computer.

Will work on that problem tomorrow.

Tks for the help - jb

Brad, the Maxtor Sata drive which has a 5 wire power connector works just fine with the new computers 4 wire power connector,

Can get to the drive and data and have done a back up on my files - do I need to take it out of the new computer and put it back in the old one to try to fix it or can I do that as a slave in the new computer?

The new machine has Vista in it instead of my good old XP and is driving me crazy trying to find things and get it set up as I would like!

Take care - jb

 

[jeb11]

Update -

I have the old drive as a slave in my new computerI have the old drive - the one that has the problem on it - in the new computer as a slave.

1- have re-run antivirus on it and nothing is found.
2- I have transferred my files I need from it to the new drive.

Questions -

1- Can I now fix this drive while running as a slave or do I need to put it back in the old computer to do so.

2- How do I now fix the drive?

3- All the files I transferred come up looking for them in the old place on the new drive - is there a quick and dirty way to get all of them changed over to the new drive location other than doing so one at a time?

4- Is there a way to also move the programs on the old drive and get them to work on the new one or must I re-load them all? (Have already re-loaded MS Office Pro - as I have over 40 programs on the drive, this is going to be a major job to re-load all of them.)

I do appreciate all the help - tks much and have a great day - jb

PS - another question, if I may -

I copied the desktop icons from my old drive to the new computer but only about 2/3 of them come up and the files of the missing ones are not showing on either drive.

The ones that are missing seem to be the ones that I had put on the desktop while using FireFox browser but I don't find anything in the Moailla folder that seems to have anything to do with desktop icons.

Tks - jb

 

[brad8266]

The old drive obviously has the partition intact and since it does boot partly the boot sector is ok as well. I would go ahead and run chkdsk on the drive, you may just have a easily fixable corrupted file.

 

[jeb11]

OK - how do I do that with it as a slave? I know enough about the interworkings of computers to get myself in trouble.

Tks, Brad - I do appreciate it. - jb

 

[brad8266]

My Computer >> Right click the drive in question >> Properties >> Tools Tab >> Click the "check now" button >> Check the 2 check boxes and click start. Then wait a while for it to finish. If there were any fixable errors windows will fix them.

 

[jeb11]

Brad, ran chkdsk and looked at details -

The only thing that comes up is it found free space marked as allocated in the master file table (MFT) bitmap.

Would this cause the problem with the drive not finding a .dll it is looking for?

It also said that some problems were found and were moved to a folder named "found" on the device or disc. - I can not find such a file anywhere on that drive or any other place in the computer.

Is the only way I can check to see if the drive is working is to put it back in the old computer and see if it boots? A real pain to have to unhook the new computer and hook the old one back up.

Again, tks for the help - jb