Likeafinewine69

Hi I am very computer illiterate but my original comp started with the ntldr missing file routine and i dont know how to figure out how to get the stuff off my hard drive before i have to put in another windows operating system. So I am on a crappy temporary comp at home. Needless to say I spend more time at the library having to use theirsthen I do at home. So I figured seeings as I basically have all the parts to get a decent one up and running I would give it a shot. But as I start this venture I have found that I dont have a clue what motherboard I have to deal with so I cant even download any drivers for it to work in another comp....All I know is that it says pheonix bios d686 bios does this have anything to do with the make of the motherboard or am I just missing what I need to find? And if we can figure this out does anyone recommend a good site to download these drivers from?

linderman

Well you would be much better served in my opinion to buy a second hard drive and install the OS on that one ($40.00 to $60.00 @ newegg.com) / then use your old drive as a slave and copy over all the data and files that are important to you.

You will go thru alot of torture trying to find drivers and mobo id tools and then somehow getting them from the library computer onto yours ???

When you do a clean install of the OS it will load most all drivers for you !!

Cuple of things to consider

A) dont buy a drive larger than 137 gig unless you have a genuine need for it / as that is a windows drive limit that needs Service Pack 2 to overcome. My advice buy an 80gig up to 120 gig

B) buy a seagate drive / they have a 5 yr warranty and the quality of the seagate drives is really on the rise !!

C) buy a drive that is 7200 rpm and 8 meg cache

D) buy new round IDE 80 wire hard drive cables

C) review what OS disk you have at home / beware most manufactured computers only supply you with a recovery CD / not an install OS CD / if you are unsure post back where you got the OS disk ???

D) if its an OS disk from a manufacturer than buy a RETAIL version of Win XP (with a genuine certificate of authenticity ~~~COA ) on ebay for about $70.00

After you get done with these steps and get the new drive up and running / i can detail for you how to clone your drive to your old back-up drive so this will never happen to you again / if the OS ever gets flaky again / just pop in the cloned (exact OS copy and bootable ) drive and you wont lose 3 minutes time of your life again.

Then you will be ready to slay the beast !!!


if you wish to proceed the other way ???? download free to try Sandra Lite to identify you motherboard model, cpu model , ram specs, and any pci cards
http://www.download.com/3000-2086-10018691.html

drivers are here
http://www.winfiles.com/drivers/?tag=wf.2014.lnk


regards

joe

this drive is a decent one too !!! (the seagate is $83.00 ???)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144122

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148029

Likeafinewine69

Thanks for the quick reply and all the helpful info that does sound like it will be much easier a task than the other way. One more quick question though, If I take this hard drive and turn it into a slave and place it into this crappy comp just long enough to email my stuff to myself or save it through other means, will it still work properly if the old hard drive was on the xp os and this one is the me os? If so, how do I go about putting it into this comp as a slave? And if not, I'll know to just pick up the 80 gig from seagate. Once again thanx I really appreciate it.

linderman

Wine:

I am alittle fuzzy as to what you are asking / so I will give some info based on what I interpret as your intentions.

1) you have two machines / one running XP the other running ME

2) the one running XP has wigged out / after about a year of steady use all windows OS's are do for a fresh install anyway to keep them running fast and stable !!

3) If i understand you correctly you would like to install your XP drive into the ME machine to retrieve your eamil and files ????? well Win ME uses the fat file system (most likely fat32) and by default Win XP kinda pushes you into NTFS unless you fought back during the install and MADE it format your drive using the Fat32 file sytstem ????? Win ME cant read a NTFS drive :(

4) however if by chance your win XP drive has been formatted with fat32 then yes you can just add your drive to the Win ME machine as a slave (jumper setting) and you will be able to copy and back-up your data

Its not a big deal just to give it a try . you will either be able to see the drive contents right away or you will get an unknown drive prompt or some other error message. Install the win XP drive into the other machine on the same cable as the ME drive (you dont even have to mount them if you just want a temporary useage of the drive / just prop it up with something non-condutive in nature and connect the drive cable and power cable to it / dont forget to set the XP drive to the SLAVE jumper setting or the ME machine will try to boot from it / that wont be pretty !!!

5) Just for info sake / you dont really have to worry much about your XP drive contents / just install the new drive into the machine using the exsiting cable (you will need to change the ribbon cable to give the new drive the old ones master location / but for starters I would install the NEW OS on the new drive all by its self in the machine / in other words remove the existing XP drive / install the new drive using the SAME exact connector the old drive was using / then install win xp / once you are all set and booting OK into windows on the new drive (which will be jumpered to MASTER) then add the old XP drive set to SLAVE / this will allow you to copy all of your data & email , music , movies, etc to your new OS drive

6) when you install the new drive & OS to your machine you will need to relaod all your progs before they will work / just coping them over to your drive will not let them start !! because they will not be intergrated into the new Win XP OS that just got installed on the new drive !! the new OS registry will be practically empty

what DOES work however is REPLACING the prog folders with your old ones once you have loaded your progs on the new drive

example

you have adobe version 7.02 on your old drive
install adobe version 7.02 (versions must match !!) on your new drive
then go to the old xp drive programs folder and hold down on left mouse button on adobe 7.02 folder and drag it over to the new win xp programs folder and let go of mouse / it will ask you if you want to replace existing files with these / select yes to ALL
now all your program info, emails, settings and tweaks will be in there just like you never changed a thing !! demo this for the first run on a program you are not in love with to be sure you have the correct method !! but it works like a charm for me !!

if you have more questions / just ask away !!

regards

joe

Likeafinewine69

I will give it a shot as a temp and yes i will remember to use it as a slave. Thanx again.