[alchav21]

Knifeblade is correct, you have to go back to the store and get a PATA (Parallel ATA) instead of the SATA (Serial ATA.) The PATA will have the proper pin connector that you need. Then you can load your Recovery Disc, and it should work. Try and stay with a Seagate or Western Digital, any other HDD might last 3 years.

[rustydusty1717]

okay well i'm just headed back there to return it and get a different hard drive. then i'll try installing windows and let everyone know how it goes!

[Knifeblade]

IDE / Serial ATA (SATA) to USB 2.0 Adapter Cables

Dunno if this helps any, but might be worth checking out.

[rustydusty1717]

so i went and got the proper hard drive. it's a maxtor 300 gb hard drive. so i connect it and pop the boot cd in and it starts loading the recovery page then this error comes up. here's the link to the picture of it



http://i149.photobuc...y1717/error.jpg

[alchav21]

Okay Rusty, you have an old Machine and maybe you didn't install the HDD correctly or you have to configure it in Bios. When you buy a HDD the default setting for Master or Slave is CS (Cable Select,) but you have to have that type of Ribbon Cable. Check the pin setting on the old HDD, it's probably set to "Single Master." So change the pin setting to Master on the new HDD then connect the Ribbon Cable with the red strip like the picture toward the Power connector. Then fire it up without any CD and see if you get a message "Can't Find Operating System." If you do, put your Boot CD in then hit Ctrl, Alt, Del, and it should Boot-up and walk you through installation. If you get an error message, then you don't have a good Boot CD.

[rustydusty1717]

could you give me detailed instructions on how to do this? it's just this is my first time having this much problems and i've been trying to get this thing working for a week now and i'm getting really frustrated. spent 160 bucks on this thing and it still ain't running. if someone could give me some pictures or something it would be greatly appreciated. just want to get this thing running so i can leave you all alone.

[rustydusty1717]

k here's a picture of my old and new hard drive.

NEW hard drive is on the LEFT. OLD is on the RIGHT

http://i149.photobuc...17/error004.jpg

[alchav21]

Rusty, you are lucky I fix computers all the time and I have a lot of broken Deskstars and Maxtor HDD. The one on the right is the IBM Deskstar and it takes two pin settings, like I said it is set to Device 0 (Master,) like the little picture in the upper left corner 16 Heads. The HDD on the left is your new Maxtor, and the picture is fuzzy but it does look like it is set to CS and the pin setting should be moved to the left DS (Master.) Just like the picture on the Maxtor HDD label, it has 9 pins, but you are just dealing with the 4 set of 2 pins, and Master is the first set on the left. So set this up and fire up your PC, without the CD and tell me what happens.

[Knifeblade]

K, Rusty, I took a look at your pic.'s. Are you wanting to know about how to set the jumper pins? As mentioned above, there are three {3} choices on any hard drive, or even optical drives {at least after 2000, when the industry standard was adopted, but I may be wrong on the year, anyway~~~~~~~~}.
You can choose the hard drive to be either the MASTER, SLAVE OR CABLE SELECT, that will be recognized by your computer. These settings are "switched" by a grey plastic plug. Usually grey, and the pin settings follow.
At MASTER setting, the comp. recognizes the HD as the Primary drive it goes to. At Slave, well secondary. At Cable Select, the comp. chooses the HD it wants to use or needs to by itself. {short explanation, LOL}. At cable Select, the comp. will default to the only drive you have, but as alc says, best to Master it. To do that~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




YOU must manually set the drive itself into one of the three above choices. Follow what alc says about the settings. The manual method is to remove the grey plastic jumper plug from the rear of the drive. You can see it on your old drive, should be same on new drive. I'll go into detail here, if you already know, sorry for being long-winded.





The grey jumper plug is a vertical plug, two pins. It's small, as you can see. You simply pull the plug out and plug it in vertically to the setting pins you choose.





Your new HD is labeled on the back at those setting pins, {looking at the jumper inset pic.}, which is which, but it might also follow what alc says the pins are. Note that the pic. shows Single, without the plug installed. Not what you should see. You should see Cable Select, but that's tangeting.


Also, you may have to enter your BIOS to recognize the drive. We can talk you through that, if that becomes an approach. Not too hard, but it takes a bit of time.



As an aside, a lot of what you are asking of can be found through PCW searches. That's where I snagged the pic.'s from. Great resource. Research is something every comp. user should use. Find the resources and search their bases.











!http://forums.pcworld.com/legacyimages/
1!

[rustydusty1717]

okay well i got the boot disc to run but once again it crashed. so it's gotta be cd that's doing this all right?

[alchav21]

What are you using for a Recovery Disc? You need a Windows Home OEM Re-installation CD, but you need to use your Product Key. Go to the Link below and you can order this disc for $16. It just shows Windows XP Home, so after you load it you can updated it to SP3 through the updates from Microsoft.
www.superdealsoftware.com/product[uspecial[/u]detail.php?s=1&id=75]





Also it has to be the Full Version of Windows XP Home, not an Upgrade that Key will not work either.

[rgreen4]

Rusty - In order to use the disc that alchav21 is pointing you to, you must have your COA. I a previous post I asked if there was a Microsoft label on the machine. In all the other items, you probably passed right by it.

Somewhere on your machine should be a sticker, generally on the top or side (bottom on laptops) with a sticker that has a 20 character number in 5 groups of 4. It should look something like this:



Yours will of course say Windows Home and may not have the curved top and "worn spots" and metallic ribbon in the center, all of which are recent changes. This is actually a label off a package not yet installed. The line Product Key is the one you need. Note: Never post that number on the internet. If you do not have that number, the restore disk alchav21 pointed you to will not do any good. Instead, you will need a new OEM package which currently on Newegg is about $90.

[rustydusty1717]

is the cd key gonna be on the case? all the panels and case have been ripped off due to me getting angry at it. i have them somewhere but i'd have to look around if that's where it is.

[rgreen4]

Unfortunately, yes. The sticker should have been either on the top or left hand panel of the case, when the case is in the normal position. On a laptop, the sticker is normally on the bottom. The manufacturers sticker is normally in the same position, normally right above the MS sticker.

The importance of that sticke is about $65, the difference between the low price of the restore disc referenced in another post, and the cost of a new OEM disc from Newegg.

Over the life of XP, the restore discs from manufacturers have gone through several changes. First they were simply an install disc with a separate driver disc and the COA was only on the machine. Then the drivers and the COA were embedded onto the disc, so you had to have a disc specific to your machine. Now they are images of the disc, so that when finished, the drive is exactly the way it was when the machine left the factory. Unfortunately, it also has all the bloatware. This is not a problem with an OEM install disc, but the drivers may be.

One thing that may help is if you can see any brand and model numbers on the motherboard. While the OEM XP disc will have generic drivers sufficient to get the MB running, full features will require some research to find the drivers. Add in cards are similar, we will need information on the make and model of any cards in order to research specific drivers. Sometimes a large manufacturer will use special MB sources and add-in cards that are not available on the open market. My HP Media Center is that way with an Asus MB of a model custom made for HP and a wireless card with no name or number, but drivers in this case are available from the HP website.

But, apparently Cicero is or was a botique supplier, in that they provided machines for a regional market through a regional store. So they more than likely used regular available parts for which drivers should be available. It would be helpful if you are able to find the MB brand and model before we go too far.

[rustydusty1717]

well i've got a brand new windows xp home recovery cd. so tommorow i will try it and let everyone know whether it worked or if it didn't. it's the only thing that can be causing my problems so everyone cross your fingers also please! :)

[rustydusty1717]

turns out it was the CD all along. the hard drive was perfectly fine but whatever i got a new 300 gb hard drive instead now. thanks a lot for all the help. just glad i finally got this thing running.

[Knifeblade]

B-), Glad you got the problem licked with both the HD and the recovery disc. Glad your back up running!!!!!!!!!!