Computer Hope
Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows XP => Topic started by: Prohibited on May 28, 2009, 01:42:16 PM
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Sorry for a long post, but the problems have been mounting and I want to be clear with what's wrong...
A while ago my computer stopped functioning. After playing a game, I left and came back to find the screen black, so I hit the hard restart button, and it got to the screen with the Gateway logo but when that ended and it should have flashed to the Windows Loading screen, it just went black with a blinking white _ . I tried hard restarting several times, and each time it would go to the black screen with the white blinking _. It shows the BSOD. Even trying Safe Mode only got me a little bit farther - I could get past the gateway loading screen.
Finally I decided the best thing to do would be to reformat.
Here is where my current problem lies. The drive is plugged in properly and is brand new, so I know it's not a dud. But, when I boot up with the Windows XP Home installation CD and get to the point of selecting which drive to install Windows on, the options is: "Unknown disk (there is no disk in the drive".
Once again I tried to install Windows, and it gave me the same message (Unknown disk). I thought for a moment that maybe it was because the hard drive was bad, so that’s why I bought a new one. When the new one came in the mail, I put it in and the same problem happens.
So now I'm at an impasse - neither of my drives, one of which worked fine not too long ago and one of which is brand new, is being recognized by Windows setup, and I don't know what to do next.
I do have to apologize if I said some stupid things or if I ask some stupid questions in the future - I'm fairly literate with computers and comfortable working on them, but I'm mostly self-taught through trial, error and Google. Thus, sometimes I realize I've missed something really basic and I'm sort of up a creek. At this point though, I'm pretty much in over my head and very, very frustrated; I'm past being angry, I'm just deflated, tired of working on it and ready to call it quits. I need this machine up and running as soon as possible so any help is greatly appreciated.
Here are the relevant system specs
Motherboard: Motherboard UMA RS690T HDMI (FRU)
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Processor: Intel Centrino Duo Core
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1270
HDD: 250 GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive
More Specs here.
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2007/Tempest/1014770R/1014770Rsp2.shtml
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Thanks in advance for any help.
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The new HDD was probably not formatted from the factory and therefore Windows does not recognise it...
DLoad and run the disk prep utilities from the drive manuf. site...
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Well the same problem happens to my old hard drive. But ill try that too.