Problem with my pc, Clueless

[alexthewolfe]

Ok I previously was trying to find a good tv program for my computer, then I went on ati's website and they said there were some problems with their tv program and the older remote wonder drivers. I installed the driver and restarted and all of a sudden I can't do anything. My taskbar is frozen, i can't access the start menu, get to my computer, or even do anything on my desktop. I am just generally pissed off at my computer and I want to do a fresh install of windows. First I was trying my best to try and burn some of my important files but to success. Then i was just trying to reformat, and windows couldn't recognize my hdd. I even tried to start in safe mode with a command prompt and format my c drive but it gave me a weird error and froze. I just want to get a clean install of windows and if possible save some of my files. Please help me.

 

[tweekah]

Welcome to the forums!

A few questions for you.
How many physical hard drives so you have? How many partitions are on those drives. If you have 1 harddrive with 1 partition then you'll have to boot to dos and use floppies. Or if you have a version of knoppix (i recommend you do) you'll be able to salvage some files on floppies/thumbdrive.

How old is your computer? Do you have an original windows cd or restore cd? What was the error you received? We'll try our best to help you out, but need further information from you in order to do so.

 

[alexthewolfe]

I only have 1 hdd and 1 partition on it. My computer is less than a year old and I built it myself, I am using my original windows cd that I used when I first built my pc.

 

[Bozo Galora]

you need a recov disc like Hirens boot CD 7.4 or Avast Barts PE, or Norton Ghost bootable recov disc
have you tried slaving bad drive to good master?

Edit: The new ubuntu 5.10 linux (free) is avail for D/L and can be run from CD after boot order is set to that
use ubuntu explorer to transfer

 

[alexthewolfe]

Well I got it to work, my hdd was corrupt and it turns out that my molex connector to my floppy was just disconnected so it couldn't get the drivers. I guess I'm gonna lose all my information but I decided to buy another hdd so I can use raid and hopefully this won't happen again.

 

[tigertunes]

If you have a windows CD , when you boot your computer go inbto the bios and select boot from CD , insert the winhdows CD and reboot again this time hit a key to boot from CD and you will be able to do a full format and reinstall of windows from there

 

[zagood]

FYI, if you have XP SP2 and are having problems booting into safe mode, check out this article in the support database, I'm dealing with that myself.

SYMPTOMS
When you install Windows XP, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms: ? When you restart your computer, you may be prompted to use the Last Known Good configuration. When you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang) during the restart, and each time you restart thereafter.
? You may be prompted to run ScanDisk. When you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang). If you do not run ScanDisk, your computer may start correctly. However you are prompted to run ScanDisk every time you start your computer, and if you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang).
? When you restart your computer, your computer may stop responding (hang).
? If you try to restart your computer in Safe mode, your computer may stop responding (hang) when Windows XP tries to load the Agp440.sys service.

CAUSE
This issue may occur if Windows XP tries to use an incompatible video driver during startup.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this issue, disable the Agp440.sys service:

-z