Hey everybody, I have a problem with my computer again. I actually used windows XP, and have lots of important data on my drive, but for some reason suddenly when I start up, my computer tells me that wrong system disk is inside. "Replace disk and press any key" is what I get every time. A friend of mine came over, with his computer, and we connected my drive as a slave on his comp., which is a windows 2000. We went over "my computer", to copy the files from my drive on his, but what we got was "disk not formated" "would you like to format this disk?". Well, of cause I don't want to format, because I don't want to lose all my stuff. Any ideas how to get it to work? I count on your help guys! Thanks, Yuriy

You can try to do a repair of XP. (repair it using the XP disc). That probobly wont work, but give it a try. You could have two problems: Software or hardware (duh) Software- You got a virus or your data became currupted Hardware- Your Drive could be bad and got scratched, etc. If XP became currupted, you can buy programs that will extract the data without going through the OS, so you can get your stuff back using that (it's usually recovery software meant for recovering deleted files) If its hardware, your out of luck.

Hi Yuriy, It sounds like a bad hard disk-usually when they do that I have to replace them. Did you check the jumpers on the drive? Sometimes re-doing them will fix it. If you do get it up-and-running, I would stronly suggest you start backing up your data in case it starts acting up again. Brandon

Thanks, but what do I have to do? I mean when I get the XP-Cd in the drive and pick "repair". It kinda brings me to "DOS", where I have to type stuff in. I read some about fdisk \mbr. Could someone explain me this please, too ? Where and how can I put in? What do I need for it? Please guys, help me! If you know any recovery programs, please tell me those. Yuriy

you can try to redetect the drive from your bios page and depending on how it detects, you might have a choice how to use your disk you can try maybe chs mode or lba mode or large block mode, try all three and if your lucky it may boot in one of those modes. if it doesnt it might have failed!

No you don't click repair. Click install, then let it detect your current windows version. After that you will have the option to repair again. Use this one.

Thank you guys, I will try that on this weekend, and let you know whether it worked or not. Happy New Year everybody! Yuriy