Bios Help

[Dragooner4788]

I have just got done upgrading my old PC witha new case, motherboard, and a Geforce 7800 GT 256mb ram. It also is a P4 3.2ghz HT, with 2GB of RAM. And my problem is that I used my old hard-drive, and that the operating system is on there, but the company we bought the computer off of (HP, got it through best buy) did not supply us with the XP disk, so I tried to put in the Windows ME disk, and when I did this it said that I had already installed an OS, and so that made me happy because we knew we installed the HD right, but now, how do I get my OS back, or do I have to buy a disk? or is there a completely different problem because we can only get as far aas the blinking - sign, and thats about it, or when you reboot you can get the the Phoenix Awardbios Cmos Setup Utility, but no farther then those 2 options, and I am stuck on what to do from here. PLEASE HELP!!!

[Dark Nova]

Most of the time when you buy a computer from companys like HP, they dont supply windows XP OS, but just an Restore CD.

ok im trying to make it clear, so you said you had an OS on your computer before but you did'nt know. why did'nt you check before putting the WIN ME CD in? ok so your re-installed ME over windows XP and now you can only get into a black screen, right.

Award Software has merged with Phoenix Technologies, therefore their names have been combined.

A faire solution to your problem would be to buy a windows XP copy. also do you have a sticker with the liscence of XP on it, it would be a big number?

[Dragooner4788]

No I did not Re-Install Windows ME over XP, and I aldready knew that there was the XP OS installed on the hbard-drive, i used my HD from the old HP case in my new computer thinking that once i got it together that it would boot up with the XP. But it did not, i only get a black screen with -.

They didnt give me a Back-Up disk, what they did was partition my hd into 2 parts and used the smaller of the two halves to put the restore data in, but best-buy never gave us the password for it...

I have everything put together and i get so far as it coming up and telling me some data, such as what it has recognized has been installed on ym computer, and then it heads for the - screen.

And when I put the Win ME cd in it said that it has recognized a os already installed so i thought there still may be somem hope that somehow i could do something in the cmos thing to get it to go up to windows since it is installed on the HD that Im used on my old computer.

And if I cant do this, then I guess I'd have to go buy a xp cd. =(

[Dragooner4788]

Yes I did find the sticker on the side of my old case. I forgot to put.

[glc]

You are going to need to buy a copy of XP. You need to do a repair reinstall. The bios has nothing to do with it, the reason it's not booting is the fact you have a different IDE controller and you didn't change the driver to the standard dual IDE controller before removing the drive from the HP.

[blade13432]

I still will never understand why computer manufacters like that don't give you the OS YOU PAID FOR. The Gateway my father bought gave us the OS (I have had to use it a few times, one being tonight). I'll just stick to building my own.

But anywho. Get yourself a new XP Home disk and do a repair install like GLC said and you should be a ok.

[glc]

HP does sorta give you the OS you paid for - it's on a recovery partition and there's a utility provided to burn a recovery DVD or CD's. However, it *IS* licensed only to that HP computer.

You do not own your OS - you own a license to USE the OS as per the owner's (Microsoft's) terms.

[blade13432]

Well basically thats what I was trying to say. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning and I was pretty out of it. But HP doesn't give you the whole thing, should you ever need to reinstall the full operating system.