Question for the Computer Savy

[Sharpe]

I might just break the parition, delete the files and use someone else's windows XP CD for the installation; it'd be nice to have a few more gigs of hard drive space, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use any windows XP CD or if I had to use the partitioned files.

Yeah you'll of got some recovery disks or an option on the PC to make them, but that will be for the original build's hardware. Just borrow someone elses XP disc and use the serial number you have for your PC.

 

[Aither]

I was taught in my A+ class that if you swap out a mobo its a good rule of thumb to reformat the HDD as can cause things like random slow-downs and pretty much all the problems you have listed.

I personally reformat once a year to keep a clean running machine.

Good Luck

 

[Mistra]

I would check the hard drive first as previously mentioned. Chances are it is the hard drive, now that I look at it again.

As far as the video card, I'd recommend the 8800GTS/GTX, but you can SLI 8600's (or even run 1) for pretty nice results. So far my 8800GTS has been nice for my own pleasures of seeing Oblivion and any other game run at max everything without so much as a blink. That's really all it's useful for right now.

 

[Bajaratt]

SLI isn't an option at the moment(as much as I'd love to do it though), I thought about getting a motherboard that could do it, but decided against it to cut down on the cost.

What do you mean check the hard drive, mistra? Checking by formatting or about the partition?

 

[Acks]

I'm with these guys, reformat the mofo. There might be system drivers loaded from the old install.

 

[CmdrFly]

My step-father, who was going to help me get everything set back up recommeneded against it and said that a format shouldn't be something you should do often. Since he's an engineer, I was trusting his judgment better than random posts on the internet; but I'm still considering it, especially now.

MCSE?

One thing I've never really understood, but a number of resources have pointed me towards, is Windows and it's abhorrent affairs with .dll files. For some god-forsaken reason Windows references these libraries with uncommon regularity, flipping through them for anything from linking OLE objects to accessing your clipboard.

The more programs you install, over time, add more .dll's to that list. Generally the additions are unnoticeable... but if some of those .dll's were put in place by old hardware, Windows might be going into a loop attempting to address that hardware which doesn't exist anymore. Eventually it hits it's timeout and your computer proceeds as you expect it to after several minutes.

That's about the only legible reason I can suspect is causing your issue. You could probably fix it by cleaning out the .dll's but that shit gets tricky and dangerous, and could very well go downward quickly resulting in a reformat anyways.

 

[Bajaratt]

What's an MCSE?

 

[Aither]

The motherboard and CPU were bundled together in the sale, so I figured they worked well together. Is there a website or something where I can find out if they'd work together or not? Or, if you have any idea, this is the motherboard.

I'm backing up all of the files that I want to save onto one of my externals right now in preparation for formatting. Depending on how long it takes, I might try it this weekend.

One question that I have about formatting my hard drive is about reinstalling windows. Rather than give me a windows CD that would be useful, part of my hard drive is partitioned with the installation files loaded onto it. When I format the hard drive, will it wipe that partition away or leave it alone, because as far as my computer is concerned, the partition is another hard drive. Also, how would I go about loading windows onto my hard drive after I format?

I might just break the parition, delete the files and use someone else's windows XP CD for the installation; it'd be nice to have a few more gigs of hard drive space, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use any windows XP CD or if I had to use the partitioned files.

Edit: Yeah, I knew the card wasn't good enough to run them maxed out, I was just hoping it'd be strong enough to turn up the graphics from my old card. Oh well, it was only a temporary thing anyways. I'll probably ask for/buy another graphics card around christmas. What are some of the better cards out now? I might grab one in a couple months when the prices are lower, but I don't understand a lot of the features they brag about on the boxes so I'm not sure what advantages one card has over another aside from memory size.

1st question: If the CPU is the same socket as the mobo 99% of the time they will work fine together. So don't worry even though its AMD I am sure there are no issues.

2nd set: Format the whole bloody thing get the extra space and be done with the shitty output of the PC. Back up anything worth it of course.

Installing XP is a breeze you need to get into your BIOS usually by presseing delete after your computer beeps when it turns on. You need to access the boot order list and make sure your CD rom is set as the 1st boot device. Make those changes press f10 t save and exit pop the cd in the drive and reboot. Then follow the steps.

 

[Seteyu]

What's an MCSE?

MCSE = Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

As it's been said, a reformat to clean rebuild of your system sounds to be in order. At every major upgrade I personally recommend it, and it's what I do every time I upgrade my box. On that note, I could use a clean rebuild of my computer...but I'm lazy.

And if you get a GTS/GTX 8800, enjoy it. I <3 my GTS 8800 (with 3rd party drivers that work that is )

 

[Bajaratt]

Ok, so I'm reformatting now, I just didn't know how frickin' long it would take. A friend recommended Darik's Boot and Nuke, which is apparently some DOD level formatting program(can do multiple passes to ensure no recovery) because it's taking forever to delete everything. I'm 20% done and it's estimating another 6 hours until it's done. Then I get to re-install windows and try to re-install FFXI(can't find my COP disk though); so looks like I'm going to be out for a few days at this rate.

 

[Anttaru]

If i were here sooner i would have recommended you reun the Windows recovery console off of the Windows Disc upon start up. I maybe late but i'll explain how to do it anyway.
.
.
.

First note: You set you're CD (or whatever disc reading ROM have you) to Boot during start up. You're computer may already be set to do so, if not you can make it so in the BIOS settings.

- Put the windows CD in the drive and restart the machine.

-Disc boots up and carries you alone the same path you would as if you were installing a fresh copy of windows.

-Pay attention to the bottom of the screen, and when you see the option to repair an instalition of windows, hit the "R Key"

-Screen will go black and you'll soon find yourself in the Recovery console.

(If you type in the word Help you'll see a list of different commands appear but the command you'd use does not show up in this list just to let you know...So moving on...)

-Just type... CHKDSK /r

It will start to check the HDD and if it finds anything wrong with you're windows installation, it will fix it without worry.

There is "CHK DSK", but i don't know why they don't tell us about "CHK DSK /r" cause it i seen it work wonders. It wiped out whatever error was making a friend of mine PC crash. And the last time my windows was failing to boot up i ran this command in the recovery console and everything was butter.

On a side note the recovery console can't fix everything but it's always worth a shot before you Format the HDD.

That's what i wish i was able to tell you before you began the format Bajarett. Let us know how the new installation runs anyway. And don't forget to install some nice Graphic drivers too.

Ninja Edit: I'd also like to mention the Recovery Console is also a great way to Format the HDD.

 

[Bajaratt]

I finally got my computer formatted and windows installed. Due to my job, I haven't had the chance to install much(but that's a good thing, since I can figure out problems easier), but I've noticed some problems:

1. My computer still takes a long time to boot up. In the middle of the boot, before you see the windows logo, it goes to a black screen for over a minute. I figured out the problem was due to my graphics drivers, though; until I installed those my computer would boot up in about 1/3 of the time it does now. I tried googling the problem, but only got results pertaining to different problems. SO my choice is now either live with no drivers(and a 1024x768 desktop) or keep living with the long ass boot time that I've had for a couple years now.

2. Winrar is still being a bitch. I'm using the latest version(3.71) and even on small files(under 50 meg) it's still taking way longer than it should. Are there any other compression/decompression programs that can handle all of the formats that winrar does? I'd give a different program a chance if I knew of one.

3. My computer apparently does not recognize that it has USB 2.0 ports on it. I installed the XP service pack 2, which had the drivers for USB 2.0, but when I connect my USB 2.0 external(where all of my backups were kept) I get a message saying that it's not plugged into a USB2.0 slot and to click on that icon to see where they were. When I do that, windows tells me I have no USB 2.0 slots, even though I know I do have them. No USB 2.0 is making transferring my backups back to my main hard drive take forever.

4. A minor annoyance, but something I'd love to fix anyways; my main hard drive is no longer my C: drive. My computer came with a multimedia package, there's a memory card reader in the front of the computer, and for some reason those were given greater priority than my hard drive when it came to assigning the drive letters. Now, the memory card readers are C-F, the DVD-ROM is G, and my hard drive is H. I went through the hard drive management, to change the letters around, but windows would not let me change the letter of my main hard drive at all, everything else I could rename.

5. I'm getting an annoying message window. It was coming up when I tried re-installing FFXI, so it was after my drivers and windows updates, but I'm not sure what's caused it. Just now it was showing up when I'd right click on my destop to bring up the properties.

 

[Anttaru]

1. My computer still takes a long time to boot up. In the middle of the boot, before you see the windows logo, it goes to a black screen for over a minute. I figured out the problem was due to my graphics drivers, though; until I installed those my computer would boot up in about 1/3 of the time it does now. I tried googling the problem, but only got results pertaining to different problems. SO my choice is now either live with no drivers(and a 1024x768 desktop) or keep living with the long ass boot time that I've had for a couple years now.

Like i said make sure you have a nice graphic driver. lol I swear 90% of the tech questions i see here have something to do with the graphic driver. When you installed the new driver, i hope you removed the old one first as opposed to updating it.

2. Winrar is still being a bitch. I'm using the latest version(3.71) and even on small files(under 50 meg) it's still taking way longer than it should. Are there any other compression/decompression programs that can handle all of the formats that winrar does? I'd give a different program a chance if I knew of one.

check the properties under "My computer" and make sure you're specs are up. Also how did you format the HDD ? If it was a quick format then you might want to redo it. And if the HDD is large you'd want it formated to NTFS as opposed to Fat32.

3. My computer apparently does not recognize that it has USB 2.0 ports on it. I installed the XP service pack 2, which had the drivers for USB 2.0, but when I connect my USB 2.0 external(where all of my backups were kept) I get a message saying that it's not plugged into a USB2.0 slot and to click on that icon to see where they were. When I do that, windows tells me I have no USB 2.0 slots, even though I know I do have them. No USB 2.0 is making transferring my backups back to my main hard drive take forever.

I'm not too keen on this, however i do know there is software that makes external USB HDDs transfer quicker. Read about you're External HDD and look into making it boogie. It might have something. So long as the HDD is moving the files over you can still come accross satisfaction.

4. A minor annoyance, but something I'd love to fix anyways; my main hard drive is no longer my C: drive. My computer came with a multimedia package, there's a memory card reader in the front of the computer, and for some reason those were given greater priority than my hard drive when it came to assigning the drive letters. Now, the memory card readers are C-F, the DVD-ROM is G, and my hard drive is H. I went through the hard drive management, to change the letters around, but windows would not let me change the letter of my main hard drive at all, everything else I could rename.

Yeah that's pretty annoying. What method did you use to perform the F-Disk ? and re-install, that is when drivers are assigned and somewhere along those lines is where you made this funny error.

I recommend formating through the Recovery console, it will wipe it clean, then you can partition the HDD to whatever volume you wish. Mind you it gives you the capacity in bites so you might want to whip out the calculator and divide the number by 2. It'll assign the HDD. Try it and you'll see what i mean. It'll offer you a C drive, then a D driver if you partition the HDD, which you haven't.

Also you should check the jumper on the HDD. If it's connected to the master port on the ATA cable (the black one on the end of the cable) then the jumper on the HDD should be set to Cabel select or Master. Being the H drive, you're HDD is dead last. Setting the Jumper on the HDD to Master should make it the head again.

5. I'm getting an annoying message window. It was coming up when I tried re-installing FFXI, so it was after my drivers and windows updates, but I'm not sure what's caused it. Just now it was showing up when I'd right click on my destop to bring up the properties.

Yes that is correct, you're C drive is now a Memory card reader, so assuming you're going to leave you're HDD as the H Drive. When installing FFXI It will confirm what directory to install the game.

You need to change it to H:\Program Files (Note it says H and not C)

Then you'll be installing Final Fantasy XI and the rest of you're software once again. Make sure you're GPU drivers are good and installed properly, you can talk to me about this if you need a tip, or you can go read about installing new GPU drivers.

You can make it just the same if you're HDD remains slave, and at a lower consideration than even you're ROM drive (pukes)

But if it's that annoying you can always re-format make sure you're drives are corrected to a more familar/less awkward custom this time.

 

[Bajaratt]

Like i said make sure you have a nice graphic driver. lol I swear 90% of the tech questions i see here have something to do with the graphic driver. When you installed the new driver, i hope you removed the old one first as opposed to updating it.

Did that.

check the properties under "My computer" and make sure you're specs are up. Also how did you format the HDD ? If it was a quick format then you might want to redo it. And if the HDD is large you'd want it formated to NTFS as opposed to Fat32.

What does "make sure you're specs are up," mean?

I was originally using the formatting program that I posted about a few posts up, but about 30% of the way through I canceled it and just used the format option that came before installing windows from the installation CD. I figured there wouldn't be any problems stopping one format for another, the worst that could happen would be I'd lose some of the data on my hard drive.

My hard drive was already NTFS, it's only an 80-gig hard drive, but I don't really see what going to NTFS over Fat32 would do other than let me have larger files on the drive.

I'm not too keen on this, however i do know there is software that makes external USB HDDs transfer quicker. Read about you're External HDD and look into making it boogie. It might have something. So long as the HDD is moving the files over you can still come across satisfaction.

That software was supposed to be in SP2, I know I didn't install anything special before I formatted to take advantage of my USB2 slots; so I have no clue where to look for that kind of thing.

Yeah that's pretty annoying. What method did you use to perform the F-Disk ? and re-install, that is when drivers are assigned and somewhere along those lines is where you made this funny error.

I recommend formating through the Recovery console, it will wipe it clean, then you can partition the HDD to whatever volume you wish. Mind you it gives you the capacity in bites so you might want to whip out the calculator and divide the number by 2. It'll assign the HDD. Try it and you'll see what i mean. It'll offer you a C drive, then a D driver if you partition the HDD, which you haven't.

Also you should check the jumper on the HDD. If it's connected to the master port on the ATA cable (the black one on the end of the cable) then the jumper on the HDD should be set to Cabel select or Master. Being the H drive, you're HDD is dead last. Setting the Jumper on the HDD to Master should make it the head again.

There was no hardware changes at during the format. After I rebuilt my computer, it had no problem figuring out which drive was which. I don't want to partition my hard drive, I just want my main hard drive to be letter C, my DVD-ROM to be D, and the rest I don't care about. Although I'm thinking of just unpluging the memory card reader from my motherboard, I've never used it in 3 years and I don't ever plan on using it. That might help, but since I can't manually change the drive letters, I'm not sure it would.

Yes that is correct, you're C drive is now a Memory card reader, so assuming you're going to leave you're HDD as the H Drive. When installing FFXI It will confirm what directory to install the game.

You need to change it to H:\Program Files (Note it says H and not C)

Then you'll be installing Final Fantasy XI and the rest of you're software once again. Make sure you're GPU drivers are good and installed properly, you can talk to me about this if you need a tip, or you can go read about installing new GPU drivers.

You can make it just the same if you're HDD remains slave, and at a lower consideration than even you're ROM drive (pukes)

But if it's that annoying you can always re-format make sure you're drives are corrected to a more familar/less awkward custom this time.

You're not understanding what I said. First off, the computer doesn't seem to care in the slightest what letter my hard drive is, I didn't have to do anything to get it to install FFXI on the hard drive, it defaulted to H: instead of C: since C: isn't a real drive. Second, how would a GPU driver be fucking with my CD-ROM anyways? Third, I wanted a way to re-letter my hard drive, that's what I was asking; not how to install shit to it, because that part was obvious. Lastly, you're not really explaining what that error message is, what caused it, or why it's coming up when I put a CD into the tray or when I right click on the desktop

Basically your solution is just re-format and do it all over again? Sorry, but that's not helpful at all, since I have no clue what did all this in the first place and there's nothing to stop it from happening again. I'm sorry for being rude, but I've always hated people offering incredibly basic and obvious solutions(precisely why I hate tech support, "reboot my computer?" why, I never would have thought of that, asshole!) that I have already tried and are not the source of the problem. I really, really don't want to have to reformat, especially if I have to reinstall FFXI again(and I can't use USB2 to just transfer the game over in under a day). So short of another full wipe, through a different means this time, is there anything else I can do to solve these problems?

 

[Anttaru]

What does "make sure you're specs are up," mean?

It means right click "My computer" check the properties, and check to see if you're getting a full read on the RAM. If one of your Ram chips burned out, there will be lag issues. If not then there's less worry. It's worth a check when trying to optomize you're computers performance.

I was originally using the formatting program that I posted about a few posts up, but about 30% of the way through I canceled it and just used the format option that came before installing windows from the installation CD. I figured there wouldn't be any problems stopping one format for another, the worst that could happen would be I'd lose some of the data on my hard drive.

If you read up on tech support for windows it's recommended to Format from the recovery console. Using another software to Format partially, then formating with the Windows CD is probably ok. I doubt there would be any ghosting issues, but i wouldn't know for sure.

My hard drive was already NTFS, it's only an 80-gig hard drive, but I don't really see what going to NTFS over Fat32 would do other than let me have larger files on the drive.

Um, it's only better to be able to run larger files, plus NTSF has better compression ratio than Fat32. Also I said if the HDD is large you're want NTSF. That is a suggestion, no need to comment if or if not you're HDD is formatted this way. You're HDD is small anyway. I was talking about large HDDs to begin with.

That software was supposed to be in SP2, I know I didn't install anything special before I formatted to take advantage of my USB2 slots; so I have no clue where to look for that kind of thing.

Again look up the manufacturers driver for the USB divice, i can't tell you what to get. The USB drivers that come with Service Packs don't nessarily support all external HDDs. You're also going to have to uninstall the SP2 USB driver cause it obviously does not work. But don't take it from me. check it out yourself. You have the world as you're finger tips.

There was no hardware changes at during the format. After I rebuilt my computer, it had no problem figuring out which drive was which. I don't want to partition my hard drive, I just want my main hard drive to be letter C, my DVD-ROM to be D, and the rest I don't care about. Although I'm thinking of just unpluging the memory card reader from my motherboard, I've never used it in 3 years and I don't ever plan on using it. That might help, but since I can't manually change the drive letters, I'm not sure it would.

Well you needn't divide the Drive if you don't want too. It's just an option when "setting it". None the Less the Drive has been set to the H drive. <<EDITED

You're not understanding what I said. First off, the computer doesn't seem to care in the slightest what letter my hard drive is, I didn't have to do anything to get it to install FFXI on the hard drive, it defaulted to H: instead of C: since C: isn't a real drive.

Sorry, i thought the error was from failure to install. It's just how it sounded.

Second, how would a GPU driver be fucking with my CD-ROM anyways?

When did i say the graphic driver is fucking with the ROM drive ?

Third, I wanted a way to re-letter my hard drive, that's what I was asking; not how to install shit to it, because that part was obvious.

Control Panel: (Make sure it's in Category view, and not classic view)

- Click on "Performance and Maintenance"

- Go to computer Management

- In the Computer Managenment Window to the left side select "Disk Management"

- Right click the driver you're targeting and select "Change Drive letter" At this point you'd want to rename the C drive to something else before you change the H drive to C.

It should also change the paths of software that is already installed, and if not, you may need to re-install that software.

Lastly, you're not really explaining what that error message is, what caused it, or why it's coming up when I put a CD into the tray or when I right click on the desktop

I found several reasons

-One Report says it has something to do with Norton Antivirus uninstaller, failing to do a clean uninstall. One solution is to re-install and try to uninstal it..

-Another person at a tech site quoted "the problem is from dit.exe which is installed by some card reader software to allow you to name the drives and for them to have individual icons." So if you have dit.exe shut it down from start up and take it out.

-Another one placed blame on quicktime and Itunes.

I won't research this anymore cause i'm not enjoying you're feedback, to say the least i hope one of these 3 helps you.

Basically your solution is just re-format and do it all over again? Sorry, but that's not helpful at all, since I have no clue what did all this in the first place and there's nothing to stop it from happening again.

A reformat to retrace you're steps is a good idea i think. I'm not you're boss and if you'd rather play with software to solve you're problems then so be it. It's you're machine.

I'm sorry for being rude, but I've always hated people offering incredibly basic and obvious solutions(precisely why I hate tech support, "reboot my computer?" why, I never would have thought of that, asshole!) that I have already tried and are not the source of the problem.

When it comes to a clean install of the OS, Basic information is all there really is.
When it comes to Tech support, you can't exspect them to know who you are and how much you know. Instead of bitching about it, all you need to do is tell the tech support done and done.

When it comes to me and you're computer, i'm feeling around trying to assist you and you repay me with how tech support is lame like an ungratful brat.

I really, really don't want to have to reformat, especially if I have to reinstall FFXI again(and I can't use USB2 to just transfer the game over in under a day). So short of another full wipe, through a different means this time, is there anything else I can do to solve these problems?

- I just wrote in this response how to change you're Drive Letters

- I offered assistance on instaling a GPU driver properly, and if you know already, then to hell with me.

- My last advice to you, and considering everything else went well. Is to change the Driver for the USB. The generic XP drivers, very much like generic GPU drivers, can fail.

Either remove the USB software portion of the Service pack, which you're HDD has already proven to be quicker without, or replace it with a genuine software for whatever brand of external HDD you're using.

I'd rather you read elsewhere on how to remove the SP driver for the USB, cause i'm not going to carry the burden if you fuck it up. Or just practice patience instead and let the back ups roll in nice and slowly.

 

[Darkdante]

Rule #1 Anytime you change motherboards you will need a new HAL (Hardware abstraction layer). There is no way around this, you need to do a full fresh clean reinstall. You need to destroy the partitions, create new ones, reformat, then reinstall.

If you don't it might work, you might be lucky and it will work great, but chances are low of either of that happening.

Rule #2 Never accept programs / hardware changing your C drive.

Again it may work, but if you arn't savey enough to deal with the multiple problems you may encounter it probably won't be worth it. If you set it that way from the very begining, as in install windows that way, then no problem, but that is different from what your expieiencing.

There are a million things you could do to fix these problems, and there are a million other things that could go wrong if you leave things like that.

In the end you'll just have a computer giving you problems all the time. I don't know about you, but I don't think thats worth it.

 

[Bajaratt]

It means right click "My computer" check the properties, and check to see if you're getting a full read on the RAM. If one of your Ram chips burned out, there will be lag issues. If not then there's less worry. It's worth a check when trying to optomize you're computers performance.

All my RAM is accounted for then.

Control Panel: (Make sure it's in Category view, and not classic view)

- Click on "Performance and Maintenance"

- Go to computer Management

- In the Computer Managenment Window to the left side select "Disk Management"

- Right click the driver you're targeting and select "Change Drive letter" At this point you'd want to rename the C drive to something else before you change the H drive to C.

I've already tried this, and windows will not let you rename the drives for your boot or system disks.

I found several reasons

-One Report says it has something to do with Norton Antivirus uninstaller, failing to do a clean uninstall. One solution is to re-install and try to uninstal it..

-Another person at a tech site quoted "the problem is from dit.exe which is installed by some card reader software to allow you to name the drives and for them to have individual icons." So if you have dit.exe shut it down from start up and take it out.

-Another one placed blame on quicktime and Itunes.

None of those have been installed on my machine. I've purposefully not installed most of the programs(although part of that is due to time constraints) just to take stock of what works and what doesn't. The only things I've installed at this point are winrar, bit torrent, firefox and FFXI.

A reformat to retrace you're steps is a good idea i think. I'm not you're boss and if you'd rather play with software to solve you're problems then so be it. It's you're machine.

It'd be a much more feasible option if I actually had the time to do it again. As it is, I had to wait until my single day of the week off to be able to format it the first time, so at the very least I'd have to wait until then to try it again and hope it's not fucked up then either; which isn't an attractive prospect when I have no clue why it happened in the first place so I'm just as likely to do the same thing again and I don't want to waste my time.

When it comes to Tech support, you can't exspect them to know who you are and how much you know. Instead of bitching about it, all you need to do is tell the tech support done and done.

When it comes to me and you're computer, i'm feeling around trying to assist you and you repay me with how tech support is lame like an ungratful brat.

I really can when I'm describing the call and letting them know what the problem is and what I've tried to do to fix it unsuccessfully. Tech support is 99% of the time patronizing, because they assume you're a complete dumbass, even when you tell them you're not and proven it by explaining what you already tried to do.

You telling me how to install a graphics driver, suggesting things that I have already specifically said I've tried and didn't work, or to format it all over again is along the same lines, although less so, especially when you didn't offer any reason why those problems came about in the first place.

Where is this recovery console that you're talking about? In the event I have to reformat to at least get my C drive back to actually being C, where do I go to use this recommended formatting program?

 

[Darkdante]

Where is this recovery console that you're talking about? In the event I have to reformat to at least get my C drive back to actually being C, where do I go to use this recommended formatting program?

recovery console is accessed when you boot from your windows disk.

you can partition and format without using the recovery console.

 

[Anttaru]

I've already tried this, and windows will not let you rename the drives for your boot or system disks.

If the OS won't reallocate the drive it's on, then it will remain the H drive.

None of those have been installed on my machine. I've purposefully not installed most of the programs(although part of that is due to time constraints) just to take stock of what works and what doesn't. The only things I've installed at this point are winrar, bit torrent, firefox and FFXI.

And you only get the No-Disk Error when you right click on you're desktop ?

It'd be a much more feasible option if I actually had the time to do it again. As it is, I had to wait until my single day of the week off to be able to format it the first time, so at the very least I'd have to wait until then to try it again and hope it's not fucked up then either; which isn't an attractive prospect when I have no clue why it happened in the first place so I'm just as likely to do the same thing again and I don't want to waste my time.

This is one of several threads that deal with the Windows No-Disk problem.
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Windows-No-Disk-There-no-disk-drive-t41069.html

Here is another one that uses software to solve it.
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/411749-solved-windows-no-disk.html

Whatever you try and whatever you do, is you're choice.

I really can when I'm describing the call and letting them know what the problem is and what I've tried to do to fix it unsuccessfully. Tech support is 99% of the time patronizing, because they assume you're a complete dumbass, even when you tell them you're not and proven it by explaining what you already tried to do.

Oh yes, Tech support are like the Borg don't you know, 1 mind. Amazing how they are all the same.

You telling me how to install a graphics driver, suggesting things that I have already specifically said I've tried and didn't work,

I never explained the steps on how to install a graphic driver not once. I offered assistance on it. It's a yes or no, but in this case a shot to my head, for trying to see what i'm dealing with. If i assumed you did not know how to do this i would have flat out told you. Don't hate jsut because i'm checking you out. It's better than you having to hand in a memo of what you know.

or to format it all over again is along the same lines, although less so, especially when you didn't offer any reason why those problems came about in the first place.

You just performed an F-Disk and you have problems, i may not have a reason as to why you're getting the No Disk error, it's happening under a fresh install. It only takes 95 minutes to format and re-install windows. Wipe out the problem while you're still at the root. Or you can spar with it as you transfer more data which takes forever.

Also get the USB software for you're External HDD. It'll make a world of difference.

Where is this recovery console that you're talking about? In the event I have to reformat to at least get my C drive back to actually being C, where do I go to use this recommended formatting program?

Thought i mentioned it. Dante is right though.

Boot the machine with the Windows Disc in the ROM. Along the bottom of the screen it will eventually give the option to repair windows by pressing R.

Doing so will take you to the Recovery Console. It's all driven by text and while you're there punch in "Help" for a list of commands
the option to Format along with other options will be there.

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One important thing you shouldn't overlook, and this is just a hunch on my part as to why you're HDD is not the C drive when you installed Windows.

As you said you installed a new Motherboard which ofcoarse means you had to unplug and plug back in some IDE cables.

Just a picture i took from a site. I wanted to point out how it's imparitive that the main HDD is connected to the master portion of the cable, which is the end port. If it's not at the end, the cable will not select the HDD to be the C drive.

If it's not set up like this now, then maybe it will work if you swaped it into place now. Or maybe it's already in place which makes me an ass. Anyway good luck with you're computer.

Oh, and if you do format again, i'd suggest unplugging every other drive except the HDD and the ROM drive. Just make sure the HDD is considered before the ROM, you can see this in the BIOS. And you'll have you're C drive the way you'd want it. Not saying you never thought of that. But i figured i'd say it just incase.

 

[Darkdante]

I've already tried this, and windows will not let you rename the drives for your boot or system disks.

I was not going to post this, but if you really want to try, here's how you do it.
Again I do not suggest you do this, but since everything seems screwed already, I guess all it can do is cause you more headaches.

Here goes:
1.Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.

2.Log on as an Administrator.

3.Start Regedt32.exe.

4.Go to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

5.Click MountedDevices.

6.On the Security menu, click Permissions.

7.Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.

8.Quit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.

9.Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

10.Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".

11.Right-click \DosDevices\C:, and then click Rename.
Note You must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.

12.Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".
This frees up drive letter C.

13.Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\H:".

14.Right-click \DosDevices\H:, and then click Rename.

15.Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".

16.Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\H:".

17.Quit Regedit, and then start Regedt32.

18.Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators (this should probably be Read Only).

19.Restart the computer.


Another thing I would do first before doing this is toss that memory card reader. It may fix everything just by doing that.