Interesting Problem

Hello All,

One of my Friends recently gave me a computer to fix. The problem is very apparent. He had sent this computer to a repair shop to get it fixed after something had stopped functioning. They supposedly fixed it, but in all reality, switched the hard drives. This computer originally came with a 40gb drive. It now has a 1.2GB drive in it with windows XP. I cannot do anything. I put a different drive in the computer ( a seagate 160gb drive.)The computer definatly sees the drive as i can format it in the windows xp install. After it reboots, I get the error: Error loading Operating System. I am not here to ask what that means, but how to fix that. I have tried to install windows 5 or 6 times now and it does not work. I get the same error every time. Since i cannot install windows i thought of a different way to get the computer to function.

Is it possible to get windows to use a different drive for all of its functions? I am not sure how to word this, so i am sorry if what i am saying doesn't make sense. I can't open any programs up, or even browse the internet. I am guessing this is because of a cache type thing. The hard drive isn't big enough to have room for a cache. Is there any way i can tell windows to use a different drive for all of this?


Thanks
Any help would be aprreciated.

Derek

 

Yes. If you can install Windows on a small harddrive, you can use a different harddrive for your files, etc.

 

This drive is small to the point that i can't install drivers. I plugged a usb mouse in and during drive detection it errored out saying not enough space, I just went and DBANed both drives and trying to install windows on the 160gb again. I am hoping that it works this time.

 

Seriously, a 1.2GB drive? Your friend should scream bloody murder, what's that date from, 1995 or so? Something's fishy here.

 

On the 160gb drive make sure the jumpers are set to master according to the markings on the drive. (If they are not set to master the drive could be recognized enough to write files to it but when Windows installation tries to boot from it there is aproblem because it is not seen as Master)

*******
Yes on the 1.2GB drive I am wondering if there is a model number on the drive we could use to verify that it is that small. Some old drives have a jumper setting to limit them to 2.1gb. I'm wondering if that is the case and you transposed the numbers?

 

I didn't think of that...I will check that...

Will write back in about 5 or 6 minutes.

 

I just checked the drive...it says right on the drive 1281.9MB and the model is a Western Digital Caviar 21200. I think i actually had one of these in an older computer.


EDIT= I found that the jumpers were indeed set wrong on the 160gb drive and I am trying the windows setup again. Thanks for the Idea i will right back to let you know what happened.

 

that did not work. I got through the format and copying files to your hard drive. Then i got to the reboot and after that i still got the same error. "Error Loading Operating System"

 

Let's see...The PC is booting form CD to load the OS installation files. It copies the files and then restarts (it should be restarting from the HD). It is saying there is no OS on the HD.

Jumpers are the most likely cause. Double check that the HD is set to master. Have only one HD connected during installation.
Do you have more than one data/IDE cable? One has HD set as Master and one has CD set as Master? If you have moved your IDE/data cables around make sure that the HD cable is attached to the motherboard at the correct connector (It small print on the board it should indicate which connector is for CDROM and which is for HardDrive).

Check your BIOS/Startup Boot Order to make sure that it is set to CD first and HD second.

 

I suggest you entirely remove the old drive as the boot sector may be on the old drive which may cause the installation to fail as the old boot sector may be directing the installation to look on the old hard drive for the OS files.

 

Sorry it took me so long to respond back. I have found that it is indeed the IDE controller on the board that doesn't like the drive. I have a Rosewill PCI-IDE controller that i put in there. That sorta worked. It loaded parts of the linux os i tried. I just have to find somone with a floppy drive and a floppy disk that can put the drivers on it for me. I have no computers with a floppy drive except that one. I tried slax live cd but that did not work as it could not load the kernal. I tried it on another computer and it did the same thing. This computer unforutanetly can't boot from usb.

 

Srry to revive an old thread...maybe 2 or three weeks old..But i finally got windows installed...I have found something out...The people who "fixed" this computer replaced all the parts with an older hp computer. This computer is an HP pavillion 513n...http://www2.dealtime.com/xPF-Hewlett-Packard-HP-Pavilion-513n-P9850AABA here it the link to what the computer is supposed to be. It should have an Intel Extreme Graphics chip built in.It has a savage. It is also supposed to have DDR RAM in it but it has SDRAM.


I am just wondering. What should i do? Suggest him to sue the School to pay them the cost of the new computer they bought?
Any suggestion would be Really appreciated

Thanks
Derek

 

I don't know if i'm right but I would call this theft. If the repair place is supposed to fix it, you get the same part for it or at least something close to what that part is supposed to be. 1.2 GB hard drive? I have a small flash drive that can hold 4 gigs.

 

nm sorry. There is no thing like a 1.2GB HDD these days. Perhaps reformat the thing first?

 

Hey there,


Sounds like theft as a servant, or the like. e.g a trades person or other entity whom is contracted to do work either deliberatley miss quotes, or takes and replaces parts and doesnt inform the Owner, or charges full price or misquoted prices for goods which simply arent what was required, or conferred / agreed with, prior to commencing work... or similar... I think this applies to you from what I have read although I have no idea of your exact local laws..

One thing for sure I wouldn't put up with it, especially if it wasnt agreed to in advance, a verbal agreement is binding although it must be for agreed goods and witness's usually have to be present to confirm what was agreed to.

Sounds like they botched the format, possibly at fat16, dont recall if thats the max partition size for fat16 anyway cant install XP using fat16 so that isnt the answer... It could be fat32 and just tiny partition with not much room for updates on C:\ by default either...but if thats the case you cant install Xp on a 1.2gb HDD unless its been cut down / stripped of drivers cause youll run out of space for updates for XP in no time... and the system will puke with a full C:\

Have a look at administrative tools if using XP Pro from the control panel, if you can still get in. See if you can locate disk management and have a looksee for free or raw space on the drive. If its a 1.2gb its so old it escaped from a museum and probably wont have a very long life span...

G.luck with this one..sorry for you, it sounds a little nasty..:wave.

 

That was from a poor family of drives when new; as suggested, pull it. On XP there'd be no room for a swapfile, System Restore would be unavailable and even just running basic word processing, it'd be faster to use pen and paper than to wait for it to boot.

You say it now has a Savage VGA and SDRAM, that means they replaced the motherboard too - does the BIOS read the 160Gb size correctly?

 

As a tech in a small independent PC shop, I am constantly horrified by the actions of other shops that I read about on this (and other) forums. So many shops seem to install hacked/cracked copies of Windows, swap parts w/o informing the customer, blatantly lie to customers, etc. I have even had customers bring me their system to repair after getting it back from a different shop, only to find that it has a hacked copy of Windows, with no drivers, and pirated copies of MS Office installed. It's disgusting. Yeah- I know this is of no help, and is totally off topic, but it's mortifying that a shop used a 1.2gb HD to "repair" a PC and never even informed the customer. And from what I read above, it looks like they also switched out the motherboard. This is essentially theft (they took the original parts and replaced them w/o permission with MUCH lesser components) and/or fraud. Sorry. I wish you the best of luck. You should definitely persue legal action and inform the "shop" that you will be presenting them with litigation. I wonder how they'll respond. Hope you can actually PROVE what they did; I'm not doubting your story, but it will be hard to actually prove if you don't have your "ducks in a row" so to speak.... Good luck!

[dlb]

(a motherboard as old as the one they installed will probably not recognize a 160gb drive correctly; many older boards had limits of 48gb, some up to 80gb, and others up to about 128gb, or is it 121gb?)

 

To add on to my post before, this is not to mention that his hard drive could have had important information/files on there such as tax information and SS #s and anything like that.

 

The IDE controller was Toasted. Cd drives work but it won't write to a hard drive. So i put a Rosewill PCI-IDE controller inside it...I was able to get windows to install over the Rosewill controller. I had to install a Raid driver in windows setup. I know thats how the drive was formatted. I used DBAN to format the drive because that was my original thought.

 

Srry to double post.


@jkman

After the parts got swapped they did not use the computer as it did not function. There was no room on the drive to even plug a mouse in. The Mouse driver was just too large. The shop had installed windows XP PRO on it.

 

From the sound of it, this sounds like the computer my daughter was given. A computer just like yours. It turned out to be a computer taken from a college campus. The college used the computer in one of their computer labs. It had a 1.6 GB hard drive, floppy drive, sound card, and lite weight video card, and a CD drive. The small hard drive, because they used the server’s many hard drives to make up the difference. I used it for three months, until I could buy a new one. All the problems your having, I had them too. I did get xp to run, but couldn’t save to a 2nd hard drive on it’s own, I could go back and save to 2nd hard drive.

After all this, what I think happened, he had a 1.6GB hard drive in the computer the whole time. No body in a shop is going to spend as much time to change all the components. Somebody that gets a new to them computer, and “hears that has a 160 GB”, who ever gave him it, didn’t know in the first place.


Wobbles

 

Maybe try and run Everest and see if it can give you a motherboard model number. Just to verify it isn't the one used in in the 513n.

 

The model details of the original PC given by Chocoolives17 equate to a spec of 1.8 Celeron, 256+Mb RAM, and a HDD around 60Gb It has Intel 845 gfx - the current mainboard is on a Savage gfx which is probably some 3+ years older.

But running Everest to get the full current spec is still a good idea.

 

No i mean like, your friend could have had important/secret information on his old hard drive that they took to switch in the crappy one.

 

@jkman very true...srry it takes me so long to respond...sometimes i forget about forum posts until i go through my bookmarks...I will run everest and see what i get...will post back