Blinking cursor on bootup

[waynetherooks]

Just wanted to stop in and say hello. Trying to get the hang of these forum sites... I have a problem with my PC and this was the most comprehensive site I could find so I figured I would sign up and let the learning begin. Not quite sure how all this works just yet but I'll figure it out soon enough...

Anyway, I found a bigger hd but no OS, so I was gonna format using WinXP and I accidentally plugged her into the master plug instead of slave and now Windows wont start. I used ERD commander to check the contents of the drives and thankfully my data is still intact, but when I try to boot, I just get the blinking cursor. Any ideas?

At first I thought it was a Windows problem but I borrowed a HD w/ Windows from a friend and got the same results. I'm thinking its just not opening the drive properly or something.

 

[kimsland]

Have a look here: Tutorial: No POST (Power On System Test

 

[waynetherooks]

When powered up, I'm showing a black screen with all the drives as they are detected. It is only when the C: partition tries to open when the cursor goes to town.

 

[kimsland]

Please run Memtest on your Ram

Please run a Drive Diagnostics on your HardDrive

 

[waynetherooks]

Can anything useful be done with the ERD Commander or is this program a waste of time? I have a Recovery Console that I could try drive diagnostic from but I cant get it to fully open as I need the administrator password to open RC and I don't know how to find my admin password.