Hey, I wasn't sure where to post this, windows or Other hardware or whatever. A redirection would be great. Anyway, I was wondering what went wrong with my PC. I have transfered it to germany from australia and only used a small plug adaptor to use it. This worked fine. I then packed up and moved to Wisconsin. And after hours Of searching i found a cheap second hand PSU (Not a good Idea... but hey.) And I connected it. I have a Dual Windows XP and Linux Boot. When it starts up it comes up with the linux dualboot screen. But I cannot select XP because the keyboard mysteriously 'lost power' and will not work, the num-lock lights do not come on. [But they did when the PC first started up] so then Linux starts up and the keyboard works. Then I restart and the same thing happens. I then Unplug the Linux drive and turn on the pc. It loads from IDE-0 (I'm Presuming thats the windows drive, then under the part where it says 'Loading from IDE-0: OK' It just shows: 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 Like 40 times. I hope to god you guys can help me. I thank you for reading thus far and any answers I may receive. ~[The non smart arse]Nicht
Not sure, but check all your connections to your drives, motherboard, power, etc. and check that the replacement PSU has the same or higher wattage rating as your old one. I'm hoping your XP drive didn't get ganked up during the move or when you went into the case. Can you get into the BIOS and navigate, exit out, etc.? If so, I doubt it's a power or keyboard problem.
I think my hard drive did die. I unplugged the Linux one. Then plugged in only the XP one and it says error loading from drive. Any suggestions?
The very first thing I'd do is connect your XP drive as a secondary to another XP machine - a friend's, whoever's, and back up your data immediately. That'll also give you some insight as to whether your drive is recoverable or not. Assuming it is still readable, put the drive back in your machine as an only hard drive. If you have the Windows XP disc, start from that and select Repair at the opening screen (R). From the command line console, type in FIXMBR and hit enter. That SHOULD fix the Master Boot Record and allow a boot. Type Exit and hit enter to restart. You can still dual-boot with Linux provided your BIOS has the Linux drive set to boot first. FYI, since most computers allow you to select the boot drive at startup, you can avoid the need for grub and traditional "dual booting" altogether.
It's doable though I strongly advise against it, especially if your data is important. It IS possible to mess things up by altering the Master Boot Record. Perhaps an easier solution is to buy another drive (a good idea anyway if this drive is on its way out) and mirror your current XP drive to it. Then fiddle with FIXMBR on the old drive. If that works, run it on the new drive and keep the old one as a spare or extra storage.
