self.taught
Posts: 8 +0
Software: Windows XP Pro
Processor: AMD Sempron 2600+
Motherboard: ASUS A8N AI Series
CD/DVD Drive: Lite-onCombo Ltc
Hard Drives (3): 20GB Western Digital that came with the system when it was given to me, 80GB WD that I later bought, and a 120GB Seagate that I scavenged.
I had the bright idea of running my system on my 20GB HD, because I don't do any graphics-intensive gaming or anything like that, but I do watch tons of movies. In order to maximize my movies, and other files, and to try my best to keep all of the files that I have, I wanted to run Windows on the small drive, and use the other two as storage. Movies take up a lot of space, but media players take up relatively little, comparitively speaking. That was my reasoning at the outset of this little adventure. First, I had to take the small drive out of storage, dust it off, and reformat it. No big deal, becasue I was running the OS on the big drive.
To make sure that I had everything lined out, I decided to zero-fill my small drive, and start out completely clean. So I made a maintenance floppy from the file that I got from the WD website, and I zero'd it out. Meanwhile, I combined all of my music and vids onto the large drive, so that I could next zero-out the 80GB drive, also to start with a clean disk, and reduce the chance of a corruption down the line.
Then next step was SUPPOSED to be relatively simple. Install WinXP Pro on the small disk, copy all of the files BACK to the 80GB, then zero-out the 120GB, and then have all of this nice clean space in which to stuff as much inappropriate stuff as I could find on the net. Time consuming, yes, but still supposed to be easy.
I tried to install as usual, but I was greeted by a DOS screen that says CalderaDOS, and it runs too fast for me to see much else. I know that it detects all of my drives, then it sits and just BLINKS at me, as though I know how to write 25 year old DOS. I did my best, ran a directory check on the E drive where the cd was, got a list of commands/files, and I tried to make it run manually. No dice.
Now I'm stuck at this blinking screen, and I haven't the foggiest what to do from here.
It makes me glad that I took my time, and didn't just erase all of the disks, and hope for the best.
I have been running my system on the 120GB as a Master and the 80GB as a Slave for over a year, so I know that there is no compatibility issue that could cause my problem. I just need to know how to get windows to boot like it should. There is no visible damage to the boot disk. Any suggestions? anyone?
Processor: AMD Sempron 2600+
Motherboard: ASUS A8N AI Series
CD/DVD Drive: Lite-onCombo Ltc
Hard Drives (3): 20GB Western Digital that came with the system when it was given to me, 80GB WD that I later bought, and a 120GB Seagate that I scavenged.
I had the bright idea of running my system on my 20GB HD, because I don't do any graphics-intensive gaming or anything like that, but I do watch tons of movies. In order to maximize my movies, and other files, and to try my best to keep all of the files that I have, I wanted to run Windows on the small drive, and use the other two as storage. Movies take up a lot of space, but media players take up relatively little, comparitively speaking. That was my reasoning at the outset of this little adventure. First, I had to take the small drive out of storage, dust it off, and reformat it. No big deal, becasue I was running the OS on the big drive.
To make sure that I had everything lined out, I decided to zero-fill my small drive, and start out completely clean. So I made a maintenance floppy from the file that I got from the WD website, and I zero'd it out. Meanwhile, I combined all of my music and vids onto the large drive, so that I could next zero-out the 80GB drive, also to start with a clean disk, and reduce the chance of a corruption down the line.
Then next step was SUPPOSED to be relatively simple. Install WinXP Pro on the small disk, copy all of the files BACK to the 80GB, then zero-out the 120GB, and then have all of this nice clean space in which to stuff as much inappropriate stuff as I could find on the net. Time consuming, yes, but still supposed to be easy.
I tried to install as usual, but I was greeted by a DOS screen that says CalderaDOS, and it runs too fast for me to see much else. I know that it detects all of my drives, then it sits and just BLINKS at me, as though I know how to write 25 year old DOS. I did my best, ran a directory check on the E drive where the cd was, got a list of commands/files, and I tried to make it run manually. No dice.
Now I'm stuck at this blinking screen, and I haven't the foggiest what to do from here.
It makes me glad that I took my time, and didn't just erase all of the disks, and hope for the best.
I have been running my system on the 120GB as a Master and the 80GB as a Slave for over a year, so I know that there is no compatibility issue that could cause my problem. I just need to know how to get windows to boot like it should. There is no visible damage to the boot disk. Any suggestions? anyone?
worked fine just a bit of a hastle.
