A Computer Problem.....Will My Solution Work...Etc.

There is a programe called FDISK that should be on your startup disk. When you put the disk in and boot up with it, get to a C:\ and just type in FDISK. You want to first, deactivate the existing partition and then remove it. Then, recreaste a partition and activate it. Then format, then reinstall your OS.

Of course, by doing this, you will lose every bit of date on that HD. But I am sure you know this.

 

Yup.

Make sure and check your BIOS to see if your floppy drive is one of the boot up device options or else, you'll get the same error message.

 

Your drive should come with a quick start poster that will walk you thru the steps required to install it. Just follow them carefully, and if there is something you don't fully understand on it...come back here and ask..

about RAM...you need to either open the case up and look at where your ram goes...even then you may not be able to tell..if not, look at the motherboard and see if you can find a manufacturer and model muber...then you can look it up and find out exactly how much ram and what kind it will take...


your processor is enough for whatever OS you want...


Surf....

I totally missed your post about the router when this thread was active before.....have you gotten it figured out yet?

 

It appears to be a decent deal...I would be just a bit concerned that they only offer 8 months warranty..

the note means that they got the drives from WD and relabeled them as their own product.
underneath, they are WD drives...but it wont say so on the drives themselves.

Also, they are OEM drives which means that the may not come with the setup documentation...no biggie, just go to WD's site and look around the support section...there should be a online version.

 

I think that particular router may have been bad. I borrowed another one that is the same model(BESRF41) and it worked fine. I even did a firmware upgrade to the latest and greatest version.

Anyway, on the other one I had problems with, I called both my ISP and Linksys...neither of them were able to figure it out. The Linksys guy had me try all sorts of manual configurations of my IP address, gateway, etc. to no avail. He eventually started pointing fingers at the firmware. I was running a not-so-old version and he said I need to update it in a certain order by release and I could not just upgrade to the latest as it would cause problems. So, I was about to get around to doing that when I was able to borrow another of the same model from my bro which was running an even older version of the firmware and it still worked. I then upgraded its firmware with no problems.

So, that first router is either defective or that particular firmware version(which was newer than the other router's which worked) was messed up. I don't think the firmware alone would account for the router not working at all. I think the router must be defective. I got tired of mucking with it after the second one worked with no problem at all.

In short, it wasn't me...it was the f-ing router. I'm glad that's over.

thanks

 

Lil Pun - I've actually had 2 harddrives go out on me. It turns out that my computer just happens to run extra hot, and I didn't have enough fans in my tower... you know, not enough ventilation. They exhibited similiar characteristics to what you described, but luckily they were still under warranty.

For what it's worth, I just purchased a new computer recently on Ebay that's ridiculously good and was very cheap. I paid about $100 with shipping included, and got a new motherboard, case, and processor, with a network card and sound card built in. It's a 2.2 GHz P4, with a 533 front side bus, can accept DDR ram or SDRAM, has 6 PCI slots, and an AGP slot. I say that because there are similiar deals on Ebay, from reputable dealers.

Also, I'm guessing you download a lot of music and things, if you want a big drive? You might want to consider getting two harddrives, which is what I did. I have a 20 gig drive were I have my OS and all my programs, and an 80 gig drive where I keep all my music and video files. That way I can reformat whenever I want and not lose all my stuff. You could also partition a single harddrive, but I prefer to have the separate hardware just in case some physical damage occurs.

It's actually very easy to format a harddrive. Before you stick the drive in your computer, you wanna check the jumper settings on the back of the drive. That sounds complicated, but every drive has a little diagram on the back showing you what the jumper should be set on for Master (MA) or Slave (SL). You want it on Master. (if you have a second drive, make it the slave)

Be sure you have a bootdisk before you try to format it. If you don't have a bootdisk, you can create one under control panel, add/remove programs. Like somebody said before, before you can format you have to create a drive partition. After your computer boots up (with the boot disk in) you should be in DOS. You can start up fdisk by literally typing 'FDISK' at the prompt. Then choose the option that allows you to create a new disk partition. Just to be sure, you may want to view the current partition information just to corfirm that it was created, but other than that you should be done. (actual creation should take a couple minutes)

Anyway... all you have to do after that is type "format c:" and you're good to go.

Be sure you have a Windows CD on hand so you can start the setup when it's done formatting. You may have to reboot, but just be sure that when you're ready to install windows, you choose the option that allows you to boot with CD-Rom support.




One more note, if you don't have XP and you want to buy it, most Computer stores (the good ones) will sell it to you for about $100 if you buy some kind of hardware from them. That's something to keep in mind, especially if you're thinking about upgrading your RAM.

Anyway, hope this helps.

 

Both of my harddrives that went bad were under warranty, and therefore they replaced them for free with a new drive. The only thing is that you have to ship it to the company who produced it, in a static proof, well packaged, umm, package. The web site for the company who makes your drive should have instructions for how to do a warranty claim. Usually the store you bought it from can't help you.

 

If you were to buy that drive from Western Digital or one of their authorized resellers...Caviar drives are warranteed for 3 years...all others are one year.

Maxtor Fireball and DiamondMax drives carry a Standard Warranty Period of 1 year.
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus drives that have an 8MB cache buffer AND capacities of 120GB or greater will carry a Standard Warranty Period of 3 years.
All other DiamondMax Plus drives will carry a Standard Warranty Period of 1 year.
Maxtor MAXLine ATA drives will carry a Standard Warranty Period of 3 years.
Maxtor Atlas SCSI drives will carry a Standard Warranty Period of 5 years.

these are the warrantees from two of the manufacturers I have had good luck with. others would be pretty close AFAIK..

I will say that in the 8 years I have been building computers for people, I have only had 1 come from the store defective and have only had one not last thru the warranty period..and I have never bought anything other than Maxtor and WD..

on the size note that DarkHorse brought up...if you need big storage..I just saw today that Maxtor has a 120G drive for 160 at Office Depot(which is normally more expensive than other places),so getting a big drive or two wont break the bank.

 

Do you build computers for people as a job? Like, do you put them together and sell them, etc? Or do you mean just for friends. The reason I ask is that I've been strongly considering the idea of starting a little company doing just that. I was kind of hoping for a little advice if you do.

(don't worry, I live in Utah, so I ain't stealing your customers)

 

thats ok, you wouldnt be...

I used to do it part-time as a sideline..the boss at the company my wife worked at loved computers and decided to try to make a few extra bucks fixing and building computers for friends and clients of the other side of his business...thing is, he wasnt that good at it..so I did all the work and he provided the capital..

Nowaydays..Im a network admin, networks are much more fun than futzing around inside machines any day..

As for advice...unfortunately, the tech sector is not in very good shape right now.
People can buy machines that are almost as good and as inexpensive as you could build them for.

Concentrate your efforts towards the repair and upgrading of computers, people will always need those services, and as long as you can beat the tech rates of the local Best Buys, Circuit Citys..etc. You can make a few bucks.

 

1. see above

2. yes, it's the long, rectangular chip, with the PC 133... If it's anything less than a 128 stick of RAM, I would seriously consider upgrading it, since RAM is so cheap now. Look and see if it says how big it is, or the number that comes up when you try to boot up should tell you how much RAM you have.

 

Well there will probably be a little plastic jumper connecting 2 of the metal prongs on the back of your drive. The little plastic jumper will probably be black or white. There should be a diagram very close to the prongs which shows you the settings for Master, Slave, etc. If you know it's already set on Slave, then you should be able to confirm with the diagram the Slave setting. All you need to do is see what where the jumper should be placed is to consult the diagram under "Master", and then pull the jumper out and replace it in the appropriate position. In rare instances, this may require an additional jumper, in which case you may need to get one from a computer store, but this is pretty rare, and you probably won't have to worry about it.

On many drives, on many drives, it's a simple as Master being the first row, Slave being the second row, etc... But there aren't any universal rules.