The other day I booted up my computer and it wouldn't let me into windows just a black screen with a _ . I then tried to go into safe mode and it still wouldn't let me in. So I decided to format has I have in the past. After formatting I proceded to setup windows ME from a boot disk. After it does scandisk it then says "copying files needed for setup" and just sits there and does nothing. NO hard drive activity. I have a WD 80 GB hard drive. I tried putting the drive in another system and it would go into windows setup. I may have a bad IDE cable or my settings in CMOS maybe wrong. It may not be with drive. I have a SOYO TISU mobo it may be failing. Is there anything I could do to get my computer back? What else can I do?

I don't think the HDD is bad. I immediately suspect a bad setting in the BIOS, or CDROM or a bad IDE cable to either the CDROM or HDD.

Sounds like you formatted when it was unnecessary. I doubt it's a bad IDE cable. Did you make any setting changes or install any hardware or software just prior to this happening?

I didn't install any hardware or software. If fact I had formatted a few days ago and then this happened. I just booted up the computer as normal. I am going to try a different hard drive in the computer to see if it works. I am also going to try using a different cable to see what happens. My mobo maybe damaged or my bios settings need to be changed. I am still not sure. Does anyone else know anything? I am also going to try fdisk and format /s

HI all I would check the cd and drive. if hdd will format and scandisk it looks good. could put hdd as slave if different comp and copy Win ME from cd to it. then put it back and run setup from hdd.

Hi After a second look at this, I wondered if you have confirmed the system memory is ok - with a memory diagnostic like memtest86. [free to use - but it is donationware] Ontrack also have a trial disk diagnostic that scans the system memory and then the drive. I would suggest you go to Western Digitals web site. Get a copy of a diagnostic tool to check out the drive. [They also have a neat disk installer utility as well] After using those utilities you will know where you stand. It doesn't hurt to have a new ide (80 wire) cable handy to test if the original one is faulty.