Questions about BIOS and Startup

[mikelieber]

Okay. Remember me? I'm the one who didn't put the mobo in sitting on stand-offs haha..

Anyway the computer is up and running finally. Although, I need to know how to format my new hard drive and to get that named and stuff. Everything seems to be working fine. I'm running a 400GB Seagate HDD and a Maxtor old HDD from my old dell, which has Win XP that I'm running the computer off of. Is that okay?

I'm waiting for another Win XP to come in the mail and install it because I am continually getting threats from windows to register the windows im using right now...

Anyway. What do I do in BIOS? Am I done?

Also, my computer won't completely boot Win XP anymore, I can only run it in safe, mode but I think that is because of it not being registered.

Anyway, just needing some help. Thanks guys.

[minsonngo]

The fix your issue where you can only run in safe mode... try running the Windows "repair" feature... here is how: Repair Reinstallation of Windows XP (using XP CD)



If your going to do a new install of Windows or even run the repair... go into the BIOS setup and set the optical drive as the FIRST boot device... save your settings and pop in the OS cd... reboot and boot from the CD.... and continue from there.

[mikelieber]

Word im doing that right now. Oh and another thing is why is my master CD-ROM not showing up? Only the CD-R/RW is showing. Kind of weird? It works on my other computer?.

[minsonngo]

What do you have the optical drive jumpered as? Try reseating the IDE cable and power cable.


Try jumpering them both as Cable Select.

[mikelieber]

Okay, my old HDD drive is coming up as the Primary IDE Master.

And my CDRW Cdrom is coming up as Secondary IDE Master? Is that strange?

I tried resetting all the cables. The CDROM is working, like there is power to it, there is just nothing going on inside..

And how do I make something Case Select?

By the way my MB is running at 42C and my CPU is 38C.. Is that okay?


And do I have to enable raid if im running one HDD through SATA?

[minsonngo]

Originally Posted by mikelieber Okay, my old HDD drive is coming up as the Primary IDE Master. And my CDRW Cdrom is coming up as Secondary IDE Master? Is that strange? I tried resetting all the cables. The CDROM is working, like there is power to it, there is just nothing going on inside.. And how do I make something Case Select? By the way my MB is running at 42C and my CPU is 38C.. Is that okay? And do I have to enable raid if im running one HDD through SATA?

Where is your CDROM drive connected? Is it on the same cable as the CDRW Drive? If so... look on the back of the optical drives... there will be a set of pins back there... just move the jumper on both of them to Cable Select position... then connect the CDRW drive to the end connector of the cable and the CDROM drive to the middle connector on the same cable.

And... your temperatures look good.

[mikelieber]

okay i found the pins. now where do i put them. there are three sets. its already on 1. so is cable select 2 or 3?

[mikelieber]

they were both already on cable select

[mikelieber]

I got it! I set the DVDrom is master and the other to slave. And shabang!

[mikelieber]

I'm going back in safe mode. And am going to stall some... drivers and new stuff i've just put on the computer.

[mikelieber]

okay windows if being cool and not making me acvtivate for three days. so im going to just run some things on it until my new windows comes in..

[mikelieber]

I have another question. How do i format my new HDD?

[Staren]

The quickest way to format the new drive is to go to Start > Run > type in "compmgmt.msc" click OK. Under Storage click Disk Management. In there you can format the new disk and assign it a drive letter.

[minsonngo]

Or you can right click on "My Computer" and click on "Manage". Then go to disk management... right click on the unallocated space (your new hard drive) and partition then format it.