Hello. My PC, whilst playing a game crashed to an odd, unexpected black screen with a message of BIOS error - saying Keyboard not present. I restarted my computer with the reset button and it loaded desktop with no icons or taskbar. I decided to reinstall Windows XP over the top to fix the problem (hopefully). I started Windows xp Upgrade installation, and the first part went succesfully, until the 'Installing Windows XP' check in the setup. It gets to about 90% of the install and then, unexpectedly, the computer reboots itself and when it starts up again, the Setup says "Windows XP Setup Is Restarting...." and then the setup goes back and starts at the "Installing Windows XP". I CAN'T lose anything on my computer... Seriously.... This installation said it leaves all data and programs on my computer. I don't want to risk any data, so if there are no simple solutions, I will take my PC to a computer shop I think. I was just about to backup my data when this happened! :(

I think I have a solution. The files are still on the HDD with the problem, which I CAN'T LOSE, so I am going to buy an 80GB HDD, and put that in my computer. I will install Windows XP on the new HDD, and then copy the files from the faulty HDD to the new one. I will then back everything up 10 times ;)

Your can try that if you wish. The problem I am afraid you will run into is that your present HD is set to Master, so the system is going to try to boot to that, and you will be back where you started again. What you might try is this: unplug the power cable only from your old HD (call it #1). Install your new HD (#2) and set it to Master. Boot up with the XP disk in the drive, and the Windows setup should start. Install XP on #2. Okay, now power down. Set #1 to Slave and plug in the power cable. Power up. Let's hope that it will boot to #2 now as Master, and will assign #1 a new drive letter as Slave. Okay, if something still won't work, here is something that definitely will. Go to this link and read the thread, and this will also save you the price of a new HD. If you are going to download, use the link that LinuxSam gives: http://www.suggestafix.com/index.php?act=ST&f=55&t=14305&s=600790049051126f295144f9752af4f9 Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

I think that he should do as you suggested in the first part so as to have a very clean install on the new drive so as to be able to flash that bios to update it. The problem I see is that he has an upgrade xp install disc and will need an earlier version to verify before he can use it. Then and only then would I make his old HDD a slave to transfer and backup his old files. XP has a built in boot manager so as to not give him too much trouble about which HDD to boot to as long as he uses the newer drive as "C". IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

Lurks, I think you have a valid point. M/Soft is going to screw things up that should be a simple thing to do. Okay, if that does happen, try getting a key number from a friend and see if you can use that temporarily to install. That may not work either. IF you hit the brick wall, then drop back to option #2 and use Knoppix with that link I provided. I have used Knoppix, and it hasn't failed me yet. Either way, please post back and let us know what happened. We all can learn from this experience. Thanks Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime; Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.