New HD/Windows Install help

[Cubswin]

The SATA HD on my Dell 8400 went Kaboom. I had a spare ATA HD I purchased some time ago that im having trouble installing. When I opened the case I saw that I have one ATA slot on the motherboard that is conencted to my DVD and CD ROM drive in a piggy backed fashion. I removed the old HD and then disconnected the DVD and set up the new HD and CD ROM drive on this single ATA cable. Right now the CD Rom is set up as master and the HD is the slave. The power is correctly connected to the HD and the HD is set to line read.

I went to boot the Windows XP disk that came with my system and the CD is not recognized by the computer. I went to bios and changed the boot order to put the CD ROM first and the HD second. Still no go. I inserted the MaxBlast 4 CD that came with the HD and it does not run as it is supposed to (it does not run a set-up... only has diagnostic tools).

Anyway, my rommmate gave me a copy of Knoppix and that CD boots up no problem. This leads him to believe the Windows CD is messed up but this doesnt help explain how why MaxBlast does not run properly. Im guessing Dell support will be useless (this is a Dell refurb that is 1.5 years old). I dont have a disk drive so a boot disk is out of the question. Anyone know where to go from here?

Much thanks for any insight!!!

[buckslayer80]

Press F12 on the Dell screen and select your Cd rom. See if it boots then. Sometimes they won't boot even when it's first in line.

Another thing is that the windows CD you have might actually be a DVD. This explains why you can boot your friend's Knoppix bc it's a CD. Unless your CD rom drive is a DVD/CD combo drive then it won't boot. And if you only have one XP disc then I can almost guarantee you that it's a DVD. Almost al the operating systems are shipped as DVDs now.

I work in IT and I rebuilt a PC that had the exact same problems you're having today. I fired it up to reformat it and it wouldn't boot my XP disc. I sat there for 15 min until I realized I was a jackass. I should never miss stuff like that. I'm supposed to be the in house expert. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Cubswin]

Thanks for the reply.

The CD ROM drive is actually a DVD/CD combo so it doesnt look like thats the problem. Im going to go to the bios again and play around but it seems i have tried everything. Any other ideas???

Thanks!

[buckslayer80]

My AIM name is redneck1210. I hate replying to posts. Too long. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Cubswin]

Thanks for all your help.

Looks like the windows XP CD was just shot. I had an old XP ME to XP upgrade disk from my old lappy and that did the trick. I entered the XP service tag from my new machine so i hope there wont be any issues when i try to register Windows.

It looks like it set my HD to 125GB even though it is a 200GB drive... i think i had read about this somewhere but it really isnt that big of a deal to me because 125 will be plenty.

Anyway, time to install the drivers... im sure ill prolly have a few more questions along the way.

Thanks again!!!

[Cubswin]

blah...looks like they dont like my product key on registration... time to get on the phone with microsoft...

[MacGuyV]

No point in starting a new thread since my title problems would be the same.
I bought a new HD after my old one crashed and finally got Dell to send me a Windows re-install CD. After some similar problems as the OP booting up, I did the F12 thing and get it installed; then successfully installed the drivers CD.
However, when I tried to re-install my Verizon DSL connection it said I don't have a "network interface card". WTF? I thought those were pre-installed on the cpu and had nothing to do with the HD? Also, I have no sound and Itunes doesn't work at all. Again, WTF?
Best Buy said they might be able to fix the 'interface card' for free but if they can't I'm thinking of just cutting my losses here and getting a whole new laptop; which is annoying since it's only a year old; but I'm so frustrated with Dell right now. Thanks.

[LuckyTxGuy]

McGahee, I'll try to help.

My first question is how does Best Buy come into the equation with a Dell computer? Just trying to figure that out.hehe No big deal.

First off, it sounds like you had a HD crash and I can assume the Dell was working properly before that, correct? If so, it sounds like all of your problems can be solved by getting the drivers and updates correctly installed. I would go to Start > find My Computer and right click it > Properties > choose the Hardware tab > Device Manager. I would be very surprised if you don't have a few yellow question marks in there. The network card problem sounds like a driver problem and so does the sound issues.

Sometimes these reinstalls can be tricky and if all the drivers don't reinstalled properly then you have a half working computer. I'm not sure how computer savvy you are (no offense) but you might consider paying someone to get everything up and running for you. Best Buy is an option but a locally owned computer shop might be cheaper and more reliable. Just throwing that out there.

If your computer was up and running ok before the HD crash then I can see no reason, other than driver problems, for you to be having these problems now. I would hate to see you buy a whole new laptop for something that could be easily and cheaply fixed.

If you do have some yellow ? in the Device Manger, let us know what they are and we might can help. If you get your network card up and running I can offer some more help.

Good Luck.

-Jason

[buckslayer80]

Go to device manager. (RC my computer-manage-device magr) Look for anything on the list that has a yellow shape with an exclamation point next to it. All of those devices are missing the drivers. Here's alink to Dell's driver site.

http://support.dell.com/support/down...l=en&s=gen


Your problem is extremely easy to fix. All the driver files are self installing. If you don't have the device installed it will tell you it was not found and end the install. Piece of cake.
Go here to scan your system. This will tell you which models of peripherals you have.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/g...;l=en&s=gen

[MacGuyV]

So I can download all the drivers I need from Dell's site - sweet. But of course I can't get online without the network card! I guess I'll just pay to get that fixed and go from there. Thanks guys.