Optimist - thanks. The disk manager sorted it out.

Opt,

"Hardware is"

So I read that as it would run XP if one took the Linux off and loaded XP. Not my scene.....

TP

on booting PC trries to load windows...then everntually I get...
Registry File failure......is that bad !

any thoughts?

Er, yes, very bad. Have you got your data backed up?

Yes!!

foale

Chances are it is a small disc error which can be easily corrected. But it could be a more serious disc problem or even a virus.

If it is a serious disk problem then to have the best chance of recovering data you need to immediately stop using the computer, take the disk out and mount it on another machine as a secondary drive. That way you can copy your most important data.

If it is a minor disk problem, try starting the machine in safe mode, if that doesn't work use the recovery console, if that is not availible boot from the setup disk and use the recovery console. Run run chkdsk with the /f option or if you are in recovery console first run chkdsk /? to check the syntax.

This will probably sort the disk out, and you can then reboot normally. If it doesn't work your data may be more difficult to recover - only you can decide the best route to take.

In case of a virus, I would disconnect the machine from the network until it is running again and you have done an AV scan.

thanks for that...

.trying alternative hard drives in its place..and its still getting stuck ignoring my F1 requests.and taking me to set up...

on each boot regardless of the HD I have in there its saying SATA Primary and SATA secondary not found

Have you changed the jumpers to make it a secondary drive?

Sorry, just re-read your post and I think I misunderstood. The system won't boot regardless of which HD you have installed? Are the other HD's including the faulty one out of the machine? Very strange.

thanks for help going to sleep on it....jumpers....right forgot about that...

There aren't any jumpers on SATA drives.

Are yo saying that it is not detecting the drives properl? Try going into the BIOS setup and checking what diskdrives it says it can see.

F2 that Bios set up right....

I did replace the main drive with another...in case it was something else and it found hardware and got to the desktop

with the original in it...spends ages trying to load Windows XP before...giving up with that message

can I get to the desktop without using the HD say booting from the original CD....then seeing if I can acess the C drive via control panel....

afrid I dont know to much about hardware side...

Foale

I'm assuming that you are using Windows XP and the NTFS file system.

You can't boot into windows from a CD drive, but if your other hard disk can boot Windows, you should be able to mount your dodgy one as a secondary drive and access it that way.

It's best to mount a dodgy disc as a secondary drive because that means it is not doing the work of running Windows. Copy any data that you have not backed up and then open a command prompt, change to your drive to be repaired and run chkdsk /f

Can anyone help. Before I changed the HD on my PC, I had a paid for copy of "Total Recorder" from www.highcriteria.com. I've lost that, and High Criteria's website seems to be down. I've still got all the registration details.

I don't suppose anyone has a copy of the program they could send me? I'll try the website again in the morning

SC

Sorry I can't help you here. But for future problems, I have a directory called Setup that contains copies of all programs on my computer. As a bonus, it is often quicker to copy a CD to the hard drive and run the instalation from there than to install from CD.

Seymour Clearly

The web site seem to be back up again now:

http://www.highcriteria.com/

Optimist, thanks - I know I should have done this.

Doc, thanks - I don't seem to be able to get the website again this morning. Will have a go at work later.

Optimist / Symour...thanks for all the help....

re 6244...I have XP dont know about. NTFS...however I am going to try your suggestion... get it up and running using alternate HD...then try adn access it as secondary drive and copy over...

Lets see how that goes...

NTFS is the normal structure to allow seamless large hard disc partitions Foale.

Have got "Total Recorder" now :-)

thanks...once I have booted on the alternate drive...control panel cant recog the other drive...as a secondary one.. do I need a particular selection with my jumpers at the back...or does it not matter?

Seems odd that I need to still press f1 even with the disk that does boot it into Windows...and SATA primary and secondary drives still not recognised...thus the F1 button needed