Hi guys, wonder if you can help me out with a problem i've been having for a number of days. Bought my Comp from an online store called GoldenElectronics (wonder if you've heard of them - would like to hear your stories as i've had nothing but bother with them) about 5months ago and generally everything been working fine until i came to install Windows Vista onto my machine (anyway, Vista isn't/wasn't the issue). Everything installed ok Vista was working fine. I noticed a few of my applications, games and other hardware weren't yet Vista ready so i set out to Partition my hard-drive to install XP to run my other programs and applications. I have done this before, but only on XP and used the program "Partition Magic" to divide my hard-drive, however Partition Magic would not work on Vista so i read online that Vista had its own partitioning software and from memory i remember "shrinking" my c: drive giving me 50gb of free space to install XP and everything onto it. I restarted and started the XP installation which looked to be installing as per normal, however after rebooting i came accross the message "Error loading Operating system ..." and i was stuck - i couldn't do anything. Looking online to help solve my problem i read that resetting the "CMOS" would hopefully resolve my problem. I did this buy removing the sort of watch-like battery from my motherboard for 30mins and replacing it but that made no difference. Another way was to move the Jumper cap next to the battery from pins 1+2 to pins 2+3 for 10-15secs then back to pins 1+2 to reset it - this again did not work. Now whenever i turn my computer on, i get the ordinary Asus screen which enables me to hit Del to enter BIOS - if i leave everything though and let it try to boot up an error flashes up for about 2-3 secs which i have written the best i could remember ... "SATA Raid Boot BIOS v1.13 Scan Devices please wait .... CTRL10 CHN11 Master Maxtor 6320F(I) SATA Mode Press <Tab> key into User window If you want to install Linus default partition Raid driver please do not use the PROM (I think it said?) Operation" Then it would take me to the screen where i could select Safe Mode, and Start Windows Normally etc but will reboot in about 30secs and i am back to the beginning again. Tried what GoldenElectronics tech support have suggested - went into the BIOS and went into my southbridge via vt8261 configuration under advanced and changed my SATA IDE Controller to IDE (which was previously on RAID) - now this prevents me from getting past the ASUS Splash screen when it reboots. I can get around this by resetting my CMOS but i'm back to the initial problem again. Waiting on Goldenelectronics getting back to me (which will probably be Monday if i'm lucky - hopefully to get them to take it back and look into it) but hopefully one of you guys can provide a quick solution to save me having to send it all the way to London. Thanks in advance

It sounds like the two systems are pretty much damaged. YOu could try to boot with the Vista disk and see if you can repair the boot sector. You may have to just wipe the HDD and start all over. If you still want to dual boot, install XP first.

I would have no problem with wiping the HDD and starting over again - but whenever i put my XP disk or Vista disk and let it go past that error about the Hard Drive it will just say that no Hard Drives were found and unable to continue with installation

There is only one thing you can do to resolve this. take it to Uncle James!

lol, Cheers Noz Anybody with any other suggestions before i ask Uncle James? ps: Mon the Caley! :p

It's Broke Mate, Sorry :(

Right, forget these two jokers Anybody any other ideas? Cheers