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Problems Re-Formating
Hello,
My older Dell system is a XPS T700r. I recently decided to reformat the Harddrive as I had done before on many other systems including the older, and newer Dell, so I am not a begginer on this subject. I reformated the Harddrive using FDISK utility but had trouble reinstalling Windows. Conflicts between the CD drive and the HD occured but I eventually fixed those changing the jumpers around etc. The problem came when reinstalling windows I got through the intial stages of the process, then at the point where your system is suppose to restart it would not boot anythign from the HD after that, despite the HD being recognized in BIOS, and then aagin in DOS. The windows folder was even apparent on the HD. I checked it out and it was the active partition. I have since re installed windows on the drive again on the newer Dell, and then put the HD back in the older Dell but the same problem persists: when going to boot the HD a blank screen comes up with a blinking cursos in the top left hand of the screen. Also this is all the original hardware that the PC came with, including the HD being connected to an Ultra 66 controller card. I have tried everything in my knowledge to try to solve this problem. I was wondering what potential problems could be causing the harddrive boot to hang there. I dont know if it is a setting problem, hardware problem, or what not.
Thank you for your help in advance,
Josh
vpresley83
2 Intern
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307 Posts
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Posted August 1st, 2004 18:00
Hi
I have an XPS-T 600r and done many an upgrade. You say you formatted using FDISK, fdisk is just a partition utility. Did you format the drive after fdisking ?? The orange light is a power to the mobo indicator. There should be 4 LEDs on the back side just below the printer connection, they should all be green. Your IDE devices should not have given you problems if you didn't change the jumper settings in the first place. Make sure you are using a newer bootdisk for system startup. If you have too, format the hard drive using: "format C: /u". Its an unconditional format, what I always use. Hope this helps.
Vince
First off, thanks for your reply.
Replace IDE ribbon cable(s)-----------tried that already.
New BIOS battery ----------how do I go about doing that, where could I find a tutorial?
Reset BIOS to defaults ---------tried that
Clear NVRAM using motherboard jumper.-----------once again, how would I go about doing this
Remove all partitionining information using the DELPART utility------------------ditto
SOrry for all the extra questions, but thanks for any more help in advance.
Josh
Did you format the drive after fdisking
Yes I formatted with the Windows XP setup. The hard drive boots fine in another computer, yet wont boot in the one in question. As to the other replies and suggestions, I will get out to Radio Shack tomorrow and post my results here, for better or worse.
Thanks for your help,
Josh
ceri sheeran
2 Intern
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1712 Posts
451
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Posted August 1st, 2004 19:00
Hi,
New BIOS battery ----------how do I go about doing that, where could I find a tutorial?
Check in the manual for your machine. The battery will be located on the motherboard, take anti static precautions and using a non metalic tool pop the battery out. It is likely to be a CR2032 cell easily replaced from Radio Shack or somewhere similar.
Clear NVRAM using motherboard jumper.-----------once again, how would I go about doing this
Again check the manual or product support tabs near the top of the screen. Basically a jumper similar to drive jumpers is moved. You switch the computer back on to clear NVRAM. A new BIOS battery will do this anyway.
Remove all partitionining information using the DELPART utility------------------ditto
Check the site and instructions I've never used this utility as I have other software I use to do this.
Ceri
ceri sheeran
2 Intern
•
1712 Posts
451
0
Posted August 1st, 2004 17:00
Hi,
First thoughts would be
Replace IDE ribbon cable(s)
New BIOS battery
Reset BIOS to defaults
Clear NVRAM using motherboard jumper.
Remove all partitionining information using the DELPART utility
http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm
hth
Ceri Sheeran (Mr.)