Stupid Mistake

spud17

I have an unused HD that I was going to use for backup, as well as CD's.

However when I was reconnecting cables I plugged in the cable for the master the wrong way round.
BTW it's XP home sp2.

All I had was a blinking cursor and a steady HD light.

When I reconnected I ran chkdsk /r, this found and repaired errors.
Now on booting it shows detecting HD, blank screen, back to detecting HD and so on, round in circles.

2 things
1.It seems to be redetecting the HD each time rather than reporting whats there.
2.There is a very fast screen, impossible to read, in XP blue with some sort of error message.

Do I try the repair facility?
Do I reformat?

XP has been installed for 12 months, I have all personal stuff saved to CD, also have everything I need for complete reinstall (well 99.9%).

I have to be in and out all day but will try to keep an eye on your thoughts and comments.

Thanks R

PaulK_3

Check your cables and check in the BIOS that the drive is picking up properly. If you have all your data etc then the quickest way is to format and go again. It's the best way to start from fresh and make sure that whatever was causing the issue isn't carried over if it's a software issue.

Browntoa

try taking out the cmos battery , then letting the pc detect it all again

PaulK_3

Browntoa wrote: »

try taking out the cmos battery , then letting the pc detect it all again

Remember to leave it out a couple of mins or some boards have a jumper setting to clear the BIOS. If you don't leave the battery out for long enough it will still remember all settings.

Browntoa

if not then go with the repair option

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

it SHOULD leave all your documents intact......

or just start from scratch as you say and re-install if you are not bothered

PaulK_3

Oooh the choices lol End if day if you are 100% sure you have everything from the PC then a format install is quick. easy and painless, if not a repair style install may get you back to the point where you can get data off or even to the point where all is well again.

spud17

Thanks for the replies, have just tried the cmos battery suggestion but no luck. Once I reset the time and tried to boot it was the same, the error message is too fast to read, because that would have been helpful.

It still seemed to be re-detecting the HD each time instead of detecting, then showing as installed.

Everything had been spot on until the cable c++kup.

I'm in the process of running a repair.

If this is not 100% I'll do a clean install.

One thing, what is your opinion of Defender? Is it worth reinstalling?

I have used it since last June when I got XP but it doesn't seem to do much.

I installed it on the advice of my local computer guy, along with AVG antivius and Spybot.

ps with a clean install are there likely to be any activation problems?

PaulK_3

Shouldn't be any activation issues as you are re-activating the same hardware setup so it should recognise it as the same PC. I beta tested defender, was reasonably good at what it does but I prefer individual tools specialising or focusing on their own areas. AVG, spybot, adaware, spywareblaster and spywareguard are the first tools installed onto any PC I setup for someone.

spud17

Hi PaulK

It's finished the repair and I'm getting a nag screen about reactivating within 3 days as it claims the hardware has SUBSTANTIALLY changed. The only changes are different mouse, monitor and memory from 192mb to 512mb.
If I am going to get re-activation problems I may as well go for the format/install.

So you don't use Defender, I've ended up with, alongside Defender,

AVG antivirus
AVG antispy
Kerio(ewido) firewall
Adaware
Spybot
Spyware Terminator
So I was chuffed when I discovered this forum and saw I was already using what the experts were recommending.

PaulK_3

That's not an activation issue You will have to re-activate no matter what but it won't just bomb out and tell you that you have to call a number etc as long as only a few things have changed. If it does then just ring the number and explain, I had to once with XP when I installed it, ran it a week and then had all my nice new hard drive, graphics card and memory arrive..... I know I should have waited to activate but there you go lol It takes less than 5 mins on the phone normally and the staff are always nice and polite.

spud17

Thanks for the reassurance. :T
BTW where do I find the phone number ? I can't see one on any of the literature that came with the disk