HELP! Computer Trouble

[Larry Harp]

A couple of years ago when my old Gateway croaked I had a clone made by a local guy. I had him take the old hard drive from the Gateway so I could recover the Quicken files and pictures and stuff like that and install it in the new computer. Last night I installed a new Sony CD burner. When I powered the the computer up for some reason it is now working off the old hard drive (E) which still has Windows Me on it and not the new hard drive (C) which runs Windows XP. It also looks like it's in safe mode. I did find C drive so it is being reccognized but I don't know how to get it to take over and run like it did before. Anybody have an idea? I'd like to get the dang thing running without taking to the guy who built it and leaving there for 2 or 3 days. I'm on my sons Macbook right now.



Thanks in advance.



Harpo

 

[Roy Cody]

Harpo,

It sounds like you need to go into your BIOS setup at startup and reset your BOOT sequence. If you have a floppy drive, it should be your 1st , your CD drive should be your 2nd, and your C: Drive should be set to your 3rd.



Hope this helps!



RoyC

 

[Texas Transplant]

Did you simply install a CD Burner, or a Burner and a new Hard Drive?



Tex

 

[Larry Harp]

Roy, that sounds like the info I was needing. Several people at work told me I needed to reset my boot sequence but they really didn't tell me how.



Tex, all I did last night was install a new CD R/RW. Both hard drives were installed several years ago when the computer was built. I really could remove the :E drive, the only time I know it's there is when the anti-virus program is running and it goes from silent to cement mixer.



Harpo

 

[Greg Meyer]

Harpo...



If you need someone to talk you through this just call me 847-651-3843 24/7 cell#

 

[Jeffrey Durham]

You need to change the jumpers on the drives to match which you want to boot. There are Primary and Seconday IDE ports on your motherboard, you want the Windows drive to be the Master drive on the primary port. Make one master (Windows XP) and the other hard drive the slave drive on the primary IDE port and make your cd burner the master drive on the secondary port. The primary port on your computer will probably be a different color other than black.. Hope this helps but doesnt confuse...



Jeff

 

[Jeremy Theys2]

Also check to make sure your new Cd burner is on it's own IDE ribbon cable and set the jumpers correctly. The two hard drives like to be separate from the optical drives. More than anything else, you need to setup your boot sequence in the bios. Usually you need to hit F2 or F3 during the initial boot up screen to enter the setup. From there it's probably the second to last tab. Make sure you save changes when exiting.

 

[Jeff R.]

Also know that if you have the jumper on the optical device (CD/DVD drive) set to cable select instead of master or slave, the computer will recognize the device plugged into the end connector on your ribbon cable as the slave for that cable. The device plugged into the middle connector will be seen as the master. The jumpers will take precedence over the cable connection as long as they are set to either slave or master, and not cable select.

 

[Larry Harp]

Thanks for all the responses, guys. This is the first time I've had to get on my sons laptop since Thursday, so sorry I haven't responded sooner.



First of all I'm not sure I made it clear that all I did was change out the existing CD burner that wasn't working right. The new one, which looked exactly like to old one, plugged right into the existing plugs without a problem. The whole job took a minute. When I buttoned everything back up and powered it on was when the Windows Me (from the old Gateway) tried to take over.



Since Thursday I got into the setup by pressing delete during the startup. I figured out how to setup the BIOS boot sequence but nothing I do don't seem to work. As a last effort I pulled the side cover and pulled the power from the old (E) drive. I thought that would make the computer search out the the correct (C) drive with XP running and all would right. Now it won't boot up at all. I get a black & white screen with a lot of information and at the bottom it says, "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". That's where I stopped and poured a stiff drink. I assume that for some reason that I don't know, I must have ham-handedly knocked something loose or something when I was unplugging or plugging in the new CD drive and so it's not seeing the (C) drive at all.



My wife is a Systems Developer but works in Oracle and has no knowledge of Windows and even less about hardware problems. I tease her that she's like a jet engine mechanic that can't figure out how to change the oil on her Honda. She did talk to the "hardware guy" at her work and he told her pretty much the same that all of you have. If none of it works she's going to haul the box in with her Monday and let him fix it. It reminds me of when I was 16; I had an old 57 Ford that I would work on and get it so screwed up that I couldn't get it started. There was a gas station that was downhill from my house and I would get the old Ford in the street and coast into the station. There was an old guy that ran the place that would always cuss me and then fix it for free with the promise, "Kid, if you F*** this car up one more time I'm going to charge you plenty to fix next time". He never did.



Thanks all,



Harpo