Windows Repair

I ran the diagnostics and it says Drive 0: ST380013AS - Pass

Could it be something about the CD drive?

You could try windows xp home setup disks. I believe you need 6 floppies. Boot from the first floppy and follow the steps and try to get to the recovery console.

Microsoft boot disk download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...5-BD5AFEE126D8

I'll give that a try. I've run about every test I can find and everything passes. Thanks a bunch.

I "believe" that 8400 uses an SATA drive, and which is attached to a raid host controller. If so the Recovery Console does not have a driver for this by default. It needs to be supplied at the start of the recovery console process (by hitting F6 and providing the driver(s) via floppy). Without this the drive is not seen.

I think this link here has the drivers you want.

OK, I'll give that a try first. I sure appreciate it. Will check back.

It won't install the driver I downloaded. It asks for a company disk with setup.exe on it.

How can you tell if RAID is enabled?

You downloaded the R78496.exe, ran it to create the floppy, and passed that to setup (by pressing F6 at the appropriate time)? And after searching the floppy it said it found no dirvers, or couldn't install them?

PS. Whether raid is enabled or not is not particularly the issue here. The issue (my guess any way) is that the (SATA) controller itself (whether operating in raid or non-raid mode) is not one that the recovery console drivers can natively account for (thus you have to supply a driver).

By the way, I just looked (should have before) at the id string returned when you ran the diagnostics (ST380013AS). That definately is an SATA drive, so I think I am on target about what the problem is here.

The exact message is:

txtsetup.oem could not be found.

Sorry Dr, I downloaded the driver direct to the floppy. Did it the right way and it's working now, thanks a million.

WHEW!, had me worried there. LOL. Figured that's what had happened. Glad all is well. And thanks for posting back...