So I installed a new video card after my old one went out; some settings were changed on my computer, was acting a little funny, but looks like everything worked. I updated my video driver, restarted to make sure everything ran fine, except that everytime I started up it said it had to restore some windows file. I was going to look into that later, but everything worked at the time. I have a secondary profile on there which I renamed and it gave me wierd error message, then changed the profile name like I asked it to. Anyway, all looked good. Everything seemed to be running. I shut down. I start the computer back up the next day and it gives me a log in screen upon start up, asking for a username and password. Its never asked this before? ANyway before it will even let you type in anything it tells you "the system could not log you on. make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again." You click ok and it just sits at the windows screen. So I click alt+tab, pull up the window again. There's no password, there's never been a username or password. I looked on other posts and someone suggested to try typing "Administrator" with no password and it should get you in. I try it and it sits at the windows screen and doesn't do anything. THe log on screen disappears and alt+tab does not bring it back. You can move the mouse, so I know its not frozen. So I try to do a repair install or a restore or something...there's no option to do a repair install. ?? I do a restore, and it gives me a DOS screen. I type help, it gives me a bunch of options such as a format. Ugh. So I try a command such as check disk, and it says "there is one or more unrecoverable errors." I try bootcfg I think and it said it wouldn't let us do it for some reason. All the solutions I find online for this require getting into windows, and I can't. I tried safe mode, nothing. Same problems. I'm not sure what else to do? I tried pressing F8 and telling it to run from last known configeration that worked, etc. I can't get in to try a system restore or anything. Any suggestions? I'm so frustrated; I've been working on this for hours without any luck. I don't want to have to do a system wipe... The video card couldn't have messed somethign up could it have? Do you think something is corrupted? I'm just sure what to do. :*( Okay, any help appreciated.

Yours is a case of you should probably have looked for more information or asked for advice before you tried to do so many things in a row. Did you follow the proper directions for installing the new video? When you install the drivers for a new video chipset, BEFORE you do that, you are supposed to un-install any drivers and associated programs for the previous one that are found in Add/Remove Programs, and/or un-install the previous display adapter in Device Manager, especially if the new and old video was made by the same chipset maker - did you do that? "I start the computer back up the next day and it gives me a log in screen upon start up, asking for a username and password. Its never asked this before?" Did you install a .net framework version that was not installed before as part of installing the drivers for the new video, or in addition to those otherwise? e.g. a .net framework version is installed from the CD for the video card along with ATI video chipset display drivers, if it hasn't already been installed - the Catalyst software requires it. If you did, at least one version of it will cause you to have a Windows log-on screen when you did not have one before, after the next time you boot the computer. The problem is fixed by you going to the Windows Update page on the Microsoft site, and doing a Custom search for updates. Downloading and installing the update(s) for that .net framework version, found either in the default critical and security updates, or in the custom updates, will restore you system to not requiring the Windows logon screen again. "I updated my video driver,..." Where did you get it from? Sometimes it's NOT a good idea to install just the display drivers, especially when they are found by a Windows Update Custom search - sometimes you must install other software along with it. E.g. ATI display drivers are matched to a Catalyst software version. Newer (or older) display drivers may or may NOT be compatible with the installed Catalyst version. "it said it had to restore some windows file." That's useless info if we don't know what it was. "I have a secondary profile on there which I renamed and it gave me wierd error message, then changed the profile name like I asked it to." You should not get a weird message if you just renamed it, but you DO when you delete the old one, then make a new one, even if it's the same name. If you deleted the old profile, then made a new one, everything attached to the original profile listed under C:\Documents and Settings\(old profile name)\.... is deleted too, for security reasons - the old user folder (old profile name) - and everything in all the subfolders attached to it - none of that appears in the Recycle bin - if you need to restore any of that, you have to use some undelete utility, as soon as possible. There is a too brief message that appears when you select deleting a profile that warns you about that, that some people don't understand or skip reading. E.g. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, by default all your email settings, saved email, and attachements that came with that email are deleted. All in My Documents is deleted, and all of it's subfolders. "ANyway before it will even let you type in anything it tells you "the system could not log you on. make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again." That was probably caused by something else, most likely a file or files getting corrupted. "So I try to do a repair install or a restore or something...there's no option to do a repair install. ?? " Were you booting using a regular Windows CD, or using a program or a CD supplied along with a brand name preinstalled software installation? If the former, Windows Setup does not have a Restore option, per say. It does have TWO places where you can attempt to Repair Windows. The first time you see that choice, it's after loading the intial files from the Windows CD - pressing R takes you to the black screen interface called the Recovery Console, though it doesn't label it that on the display. "So I try a command such as check disk, and it says "there is one or more unrecoverable errors." ... Update - are you SURE it said unrecoverable errors. If it said recoverable errors, if you didn't use the R switch, as in, chkdsk /r C: chkdsk will find errors if any are present, but it will NOT fix them. If you're not sure, go to the Recovery Console again, and type chkdsk /r C: - If the errors ARE recoverable, that may fix your problems without you having to do a "Repair install". Try rebooting after the files are repaired (type: exit, press Enter to exit the Recovery Console and reboot the computer). If they ARE unrecoverable, read on.... (it's a good idea to test the hard drive in any case) ... That may indicate the problem can't be fixed by using chkdsk, or the hard drive is failing and has visible to Windows bad sectors on it. Check your hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics. See the latter part of response 1 in this: http://www.computing.net/windows95/... (thanks to Dan Penny for this link:) Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer if you need to. If the hard drive itself tests okay, any data problems found can be fixed, one way or another. .... If you continue onto Setup rather than pressing R at that first screen with the Repair choice on it, if your Registry is not damaged and the data on the hard drive is not too damaged, you can choose the choice "Repair your existing Windows installation" or similar - that's what's often called a "Repair install" procedure, but I think it's more fitting to call it a "Repair Setup" procedure, because it runs Setup again, without you losing what you have installed on the partition Windows is on after you got the computer, since the last time Setup was run from scratch. If you don't see that second Repair choice there, the Registry is too damaged, or the hard drive is failing and there's too much damaged or corrupted or missing data. .... Test the hard drive first. If the drive itself is no good, you will have to replace it, otherwise you are wasting your time doing anything else - you will have more severe problems, sooner or later. You could try connecting it to another computer as a slave at that point to see if you can rescue some of the data off of it, but that may or may not be fruitful. If the hard drive itself tests okay, any data problems found can be fixed, one way or another. If the hard drive itself tests okay, there are some commands you could try in the Recovery Console, but running them may not help. If you can boot from a regular Windows CD, and you DO see that second Repair choice, that's you best option. It usually will get your Windows working again, but sometimes that's not enough, and you end up having to run Setup from scratch. However, make sure the Windows CD is clean, and use a laser lens cleaning CD in the drive BEFORE you try it - if Setup has problems reading ANY files on the CD, if you have to abort Setup, you will NOT have the second repair choice after that. You will need a Windows CD of the same version as the one of your Windows installation, and the Product Key, preferably the one that was used to install it, but it can be one for the same version as the one of your Windows installation. How to do an XP Repair Setup, step by step: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/win... After that is finished, if Windows works well enough, - you WILL need to take some steps to re-register some Windows update related files - Automatic update or Manual Windows update will be able to download files, but will NOT be able to install any of them. I can tell you how to do that. - You may need to re-install some of your Windows Updates. Automatic update can do that slowly bit by bit, or you can do that more quickly by going to the Windows update page and doing a Express search.

Hello- Wow, thanks for the lengthy reply! Anyway, I did get advice and follow proper steps as per Alienware's tech support. My video card had gone bad, so I ordered a new one. My warrenty was up, but they did send me step by step instructions on installing a new video card. I bought a used video card to put in my laptop which replaced the old one; it was the same version of the old video card. It wasn't an upgrade or anything, it was just a working version of the same video card I previously had installed. I did create a restore point before updating the driver; turns out I had the most current version of the driver installed anyway. I don't think it's a driver issue, especially considering after I attempted to update the video driver (and wound up having the most current driver installed) it worked fine for several days. I only mentioned it case it was pertinent info. I've never had to mess with any .net framework stuff before; would I still need to have done that considering I was putting in the same version of a video card? In the past when I've installed new video cards in desktops I've never had to do anything like that. Suppose it's a mute point now considering I can't get into windows to even attempt to update the .net framework. There's no CD that came with the video card since it was used, but since it's the same video card I had in before the CD i got with the computer would probably have this informaion. I'm on another computer trying to trouble shoot this problem. So my question is, if I can't get into windows, how could I install the windows update page? Speaking of updates, the computer did update the night I shut it down before it stopped working. One of those automatic updates... I can easily get on an download the information on this computer but how would I install it on the laptop if I can't get in? The update for my video driver came from Alienware's website, where I've gotten an update for all my drivers. Since it's a custom made laptop, they have you go through alienware's site instead of the manufacturers site. Again, don't think this might be the issue considering it was the same version of the driver anyway in the end and since this was only replacing the same version of a non-working video card. Sorry, I know the error message about windows having to restore or repalce some files probably isn't terribly helpful. Just thought I'd throw it out there in case it helped point to the problem. I installed the video card, and updated the driver, all worked fine for several days but every time I"d boot up once I was in windows, it would give me that message. Saying something about having to restore or repair some file, but windows was able to fix it. I meant to write it down but I've been busy with other things and figured, it's working, so I wasn't too worried about it. It never said which files or file it was, only that it repaired or replaced some files. I didn't delete the old profile, I only renamed it. Then tried to change both pictures for my profiles. I am positive I did not delete it, only renamed it and changed the little profile picture. When I tried to change the picture for either profile I got an odd message, and I wish now I could remember what it was. At the time I was like, well...I don't need to change anything that bad and left it. The whole reason I had a secondary profile is because a long time ago I was having an odd internet issue; some trouble shooting figured out I had a corrupt profile. I had made the secondary profile (called it TEST) to see if that was the case as per a suggestion as a friend. No problems with TEST profile, just the main profile. So I just had both profile's on my computer. It was such a minor issue I wasn't really too bothered by it. When I got this up and running, I renamed the test profile to "Jess 2" and was going to start transferring my documents to the profile in the next couple of days. i did not, I repeate, I did NOT delete any profiles, especially since I didn't want to lose any data. So I'm guessing maybe this is a corrupted file. I tried booting using both a regular windows CD and the restore CD that came with the computer. Okay, so I went back and tried chkdsk /r c: and it still says "The Volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." I have a floppy drive so that's not a problem. Now I just got to get a floppy disk. lol I'm fine with doing a repair install if it gets me my computer back. All my important files are backed up on another hard drive. Yesterday I tried a possible repair option and followed the instructions; it never gives me an option to repair. It says there are unknown disk <There is no disk in this drive). When I got the computer brand new it had several hard drives listed when you go into "My computer" but you couldn't access any of them but C. Not sure why they did that. Anyway, i went back to look up the error message, and if you attempt to scroll up or down, I get the following messag: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check to be sure you have adequate disk space (just fyi, I do...last I checked I had 30gb of free disk space). If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver ro check with the manufacturer for dirver updates. Try changing video adapters (it's a laptop...). Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disble BIOS memory options such as cashing or shadowing. If you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode. Technical Information: *** Stop: 0x0000008E (OxC0000005, 0x8081a799, 0xf6fd5778, ox0000000)." That doesn't look good. I will go and get a floppy disk and see if I can't run some diagnostics on the hard drive and follow up with you on the results...if I can find a floppy disk.

So I attempted to run the hardware diagnostic CD. I believe I have a hitachi hard drive. I couldn't get a floppy disk, so i burned a CD from my other computer. Computer is set to boot from CD, and I have the CD in...am I doing something wrong?

"So I attempted to run the hardware diagnostic CD. I believe I have a hitachi hard drive. I couldn't get a floppy disk, so i burned a CD from my other computer. Computer is set to boot from CD, and I have the CD in...am I doing something wrong?" Is the computer not booting from the CD? Did you burn a CD-R, not a CD-RW? A CD-RW may not read properly, or be detected as bootable, in a drive it was not made in. It should boot if it's actually bootable - the motherboard's bios does that, not anything on the hard drive. You should see something along the lines of "Press any key to boot from CD" or similar early in the boot sequence - and you press the key while that is still displayed on the screen, otherwise the bios then attempts to boot the other things in the boot order list. If you don't see that message, it won't boot - try it on another computer, or try another CD you know is bootable for sure. If the diagnostics CD doesn't boot on the other computer either, you often DO have to make the CD bootable when you make it, as well as install the iso image of the diagnostics. When you make a prepared floppy by executing the diagnostics download provided by the hard drive manufacturer, it's bootable as is, or if it makes two floppies, the first one is. Some places other than major places that have computer related pieces don't stock floppies anymore - Walmart often has them, maybe Radio Shack, or The Source. .... A common misconception is an optical (CD or DVD) drive has to be listed first in the boot order in the bios in order for you to be able to boot from a bootable CD or DVD. The bios will boot from a bootable CD or DVD even if it isn't listed first in the boot order, as long as it's listed before any hard drive. If you can set your bios boot order to list (all of) floppy drive first, CD or optical drive second, and a hard drive third, that works for most people's situation and you do not have to change it to suit different booting situations. Many bioses will not boot from a bootable floppy if a floppy drive is listed after an optical drive in the boot order, if there is no bootable disk in the optical drive, or if there is but you do not choose to boot from it. ...... If you're not sure you have a Hitachi, there may be a parts list on the Alienware site for your model, or you may be able to see the brand of hard drive you have if you remove the drive access cover, but the label may be underneath or under an attachment bracket. Seagate's diagnostics will test brands other than Seagate and Maxtor. .... I will comment on your other information you have supplied shortly.

Okay, so you apparently have a high end laptop - cheaper models do not have a removable video card module. If there was something wrong with it, the same video drivers you had installed should have worked fine with the used replacement, if there's nothing wrong with it. Did you follow the instructions the same as or like here? : http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/... Did you apply some thermal compound like it says you must do? Did you make sure the contacts on the edge of the card were clean before you installed it, by at least wiping them? Did you remove the main battery as well as the AC adapter when you were fiddling around inside the laptop, and/or when you fiddled with the ram? What were your symptoms that made you assume your original video card module had gone bad? Did it happen only after you changed which ram you have installed? Video cards usually don't give you problems, unless they were not properly seated, or they were damaged by something external to the card. Is it possible the computer was exposed to a power spike or surge (usually it's a side effect of a power failure or a lightning strike near you), while the AC adapter was plugged in? Are you connected to the internet via a network cable, even occaisionally, or just wirelessly? Is it possible the laptop was dropped since it last worked properly? Have you EVER spilled any liquid on the laptop where it might have gotten inside it? It doesn't matter whether it was running at the time or not - it's ATX mboard is always powered in some places as long as the main battery is installed. ...... "Stop: 0x0000008E" If you search using that you get lots of "hits". E.g. "STOP 0x0000008e" error message during Windows XP setup http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315335 It's usually caused by errors reading the ram. Errors reading the ram are almost always caused by either - you having incompatible ram installed, - or - there is a problem with the ram's contact connections where it's plugged in. Contrary to popular belief, it's RARE for it to be caused by actual "BAD" ram! Your ram must be working properly when you run diagnostics on the hard drive! Did you by any chance change which ram you have installed before you had video problems, or since? If you did, the ram may not actually be 100% compatible with the computer. If you did change it, to rule out that possibility, if you still have the original ram, try removing the new ram and installing the old. Or, if you don't have the old ram, if you have two ram modules, try removing one - sometimes each module works fine installed by itself, but you get errors when both are installed. If you can't do that, or in any case... Ram that works in another mboard , or any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly, or sometimes, not at all - even if it physically fits and is the right overall type (e.g. SDram, DDR, DDR2, etc.; PCxxxx, xxx mhz) for your mboard. In the worst cases of incompatibilty your mboard WILL NOT BOOT with it installed, and the mboard may not even beep - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com Once you know which module ID strings work in your mboard, you can get them from anywhere you like that has ram with those ID strings. If you have brand name ram, it is usually easy to look up whether it's ID string is in a list of compatible modules found by using your mboard or brand name system model number. If the ram is generic, that may be difficult or impossible. ..... A common thing that can happen with ram, even ram that worked fine previously, is the ram has, or has developed, a poor connection in it's slot(s). This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen with new ram, or after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned. See response 2 in this - try cleaning the contacts on the ram modules, and making sure the modules are properly seated: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... For a laptop, you must remove both its main battery and AC adapter before you do that. You could make sure the hard drive has a good connection at the same time. ....... If you do a ram test, do that AFTER having tried cleaning the contacts and making sure the ram is seated properly - otherwise any errors found may be FALSE. If the ram is incompatible with the chipset, it will likely FAIL a ram test - that is NOT a true indication of the ram being faulty - there is probably nothing wrong with it, and it will pass the test if installed in a mboard it is compatible with. If a ram test DOES find errors, if you have more than one module installed, try the test with one module at a time - sometimes they won't work properly when more than one is installed, but it will pass when by itself. If you want to try a memory diagnostic utility that takes a lot less time to run a full pass than memtest86 does, this one is pretty good - Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag... It can be toggled to do a standard or a more comprehensive set of tests - use the default 6 test one first - if it passes one pass of that, use the latter one. A few of the tests in the latter set are intentionally slower. .......... If you have ATI chipset video, it's Catalyst software requires a certain .net framework version be installed, often 2.0 - you are told which one in the ReadMe file or Release notes for the particular Catalyst version on the ATI site. If you download files for the ATI video from the ATI site, they do not install or attempt to install a .net framework version, but a CD that came with the video card usually does, and your system would have come with a version of it installed if a Catalyst version was installed and it would already be there. The ATI video software download from the Alienware site probably doesn't have the ability to install a .net framework version either. ".... the CD i got with the computer would probably have this informaion." If it has ATI video chipset software, and that's what your model has, it may or may not install or attempt to install a .net framework version (if it's standard ATI supplied software, it usually comes with the ability to install the required version). However, if it's already installed, usually the installation program will not try to install it again if the correct version is already present, and in that case you do not get the logon screen when you didn't have one before problem from that. Rarely, other things can cause the logon screen to appear when you didn't have one before. If you have NVidia video, it's software probably doesn't require a specific .net framework version be installed, but I don't know for sure. There are several .net framework versions - they are independant of one another, installing a version with a different version number does not nullify the need for another version, and you may have other software that requires one version, or several versions, of it, other than video adapter related software. "....after I attempted to update the video driver (and wound up having the most current driver installed) it worked fine for several days...." In that case, updating the drivers had nothing to do with your problem, assuming you rebooted the computer at least once during that time, and the logon screen did not appear right after you updated them. "if I can't get into windows, how could I install the windows update page?" "I can easily get on an download the information on this computer but how would I install it on the laptop if I can't get in?" Of course, if you can't get into Windows, you can't do that. "Speaking of updates, the computer did update the night I shut it down before it stopped working. One of those automatic updates..." Sometimes a new Microsoft update is improperly written and the initial release can cause problems. If you knew which one it was, you could look on the web for reports of problems caused by installing it, but that's impossible to determine if you don't know, or if you can't get Windows to work and look at the installation history on the Windows Update page to see what the last update or updates installed were. The only thing you would be able to search for is for problems with new Microsoft updates on the date it was or they were installed. Installing SP3 updates can certainly cause problems on systems that have more than the just the default Windows and other software on it the computer came with. Were SP3 updates already installed long before this or these updates? If not, it's quite possible it was trying to install SP3 updates and something went wrong. "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:..." etc. "Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disble BIOS memory options such as cashing or shadowing." If you were not having problems with the computer or bios settings previously and you did not flash the bios since the computer last worked properly, it is NOT a bios problem - don't flash the bios, and you probably don't need to alter it's settings, if you didn't alter them just before your problem first occurred. If you did alter bios settings just before your problem first occurred, load bios defaults. You MUST load bios defaults after flashing the bios with a different version, otherwise the cmos data contents are for the previous version will likely not match the bios version and the bios may not work properly. "It never said which files or file it was, only that it repaired or replaced some files." If it said something when the Desktop loaded along the lines of "Windows has recovered from a serious error", that can indicate..... - problems with the computer reading the ram - it or some of it may not be 100% compatible if you replaced the original ram, or there may be a poor connection where the ram is installed. It's almost always NOT caused by ram suddenly going "BAD" - that's extremely rare, unless something external to the computer has damaged it, such as a power spike or surge, or it's had liquid spilled on it. - you have a poor connection of the hard drive to it's connection - unlikely, unless the laptop has experienced a physical shock to it, such as when it has been dropped, or it's had liquid spilled on it. - the hard drive is starting to fail, and because of that you are experiencing data errors and corrupted data. "Okay, so I went back and tried chkdsk /r c: and it still says "The Volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." "Saying something about having to restore or repair some file, but windows was able to fix it." That's not good. That MIGHT indicate the hard drive is failing. ...... "Yesterday I tried a possible repair option and followed the instructions; it never gives me an option to repair. It says there are unknown disk <There is no disk in this drive)." I assume you mean it didn't detect the hard drive. Were you booting with a regular Windows CD, or with a Recovery CD or similar CD supplied by Alienware? Depending on bios settings, if the SATA hard drive is in SATA or RAID mode, the regular Windows Setup will usually not find the SATA hard drives unless you load the drivers for the SATA drive controllers on the mboard near the beginning of Setup. If the bios settings have the SATA detection or controllers in IDE compatible mode, Windows Setup will find SATA drves in any case. The regular Windows XP (or 2000) CD's Setup cannot recognize USB connected flash drives, USB or firewire connected external drives, or flash cards in card slots. It cannot find SCSI or SATA drive controller drivers on anything other than a floppy disk in a regular floppy drive, or on only a very few models of USB connected floppy drives, most of which are no longer being made new. It won't try to find any drivers on CDs other than the Windows CD, until the late stages of Setup, or until after Setup finishes. Brand name computers usually have them in IDE compatible mode by default in the bios if your optical drive is SATA. If you change that to SATA or RAID mode, you can't see or use the SATA optical drive either in Setup, at least not in 2000 or XP or MCE XP or earlier. If you use the Recovery CD that Alienware supplied, if that's what it is, it probably already has the drivers for the SATA drive controllers built in, and it has no problem seeing the SATA drives no matter what mode the bios has the SATA in. "When I got the computer brand new it had several hard drives listed when you go into "My computer" but you couldn't access any of them but C. Not sure why they did that." You probably have only one physical hard drive, and one floppy drive (though most more recent laptops don't have one built in) and one optical drive. The letters you see for drives in My Computer and Windows Explorer are all for LOGICAL drives that Windows recognizes. Some of the logical drive letters are for drives even if they don't have something that can be read in them - at least optical drives, floppy drives; if you have a card reader feature on the computer, there may be a drive letter for each of the slots for those, or one for all of them - if there is no disk or card in those drives there is nothing there to read. The logical drive letters for hard drives or removable USB or firewire connected drives are only assigned in My Computer and Windows Explorer if the drives are already partitioned and formatted using something the operating system recognizes - for XP, by default, that's FAT (for partitions of 2.1 gb or less), FAT32 (32 gb or less), or NTFS (more than 32 gb) partitioning. The single physical hard drive on brand name system computers with their original software installation still on them has a second partition on the hard drive that contains all the data necessary to restore the contents of the first partition, C, if you need to reload it. If you can see a logical drive letter for that partition in Windows (it can be made to be hidden; invisible) that partition can be made inaccessible to the user to prevent them from altering the data on it - most brand name Recovery procedures will quit if the data contents of that second partition are missing, or are altered in any way, or if the data is corrupted, or of there has been data deleted or added to the partition (it uses a program that checks to see if the checksum of the data installed is correct). Most brand name systems these days do not come with a single Recovery CD (or DVD), which you can use along with the intact contents of the second partition on the hard drive to restore the original contents of C. You are usually supposed to make such a single Recovery CD, and/or a Recovery CD set, by using a brand name supplied program already in the Programs list to burn it or them, while Windows is still working properly. They might come with a CD with drivers and/or other software on it, and/or a floppy disk with SATA controller drivers on it. If you need to make a floppy disk with SATA controller drivers on it, that's usually possible by running a program on the CD with the drivers on it, if you have one. Some brand name systems have a built in Recovery program you can access by pressing a specific key while booting, but it may not work if there is certain data corruption or damage, and it certainly will not work if the original data contents of the second partition are not intact and undamaged. If a single Recovery CD, or the built in Recovery program, will not work, or if your hard drive is failing and you need to reload a replacement drive, or if you change the hard drive, then you need to use a Recovery CD set for your exact model if you want to restore the original brand name supplied software. If you have not made such a set, if your model is not too old, you can often buy such a set from the brand name system builder's web site and have it shipped to you, often for less than even an OEM XP Home CD costs. ......

I tried running the HDD diagnostic tool and it keeps saying no HDD found...I have a sneaky suspisicion the HDD went out. A friend is going to look at it Saturday, and try taking out the HDD and reinstall it to see if maybe its loose or something. If that doesn't work...I'm thinking maybe the HDD went bad. I'll update you once we take it apart. Thanks again for all your help with this!!! I'll keep you posted. :D