slightly confused

[MKA]

hello all, i have been browsing these forums for a few weeks now and this is my first post. unfortunately i need help.

ok, let me start from the beginning. last week i upgraded my ram from 2x512 to 2x1gb. after no initial problems, the pc refused to power up the day after the upgrade. not even the fan was coming on, only sign of life was the green led on my mobo.

i took the machine to a local repair shop and they determined after a few days that one of my hard drives was fried and apparently so was the psu. i now have the machine back with a new psu.

i did have 2 hard drives installed, but the one which no longer works was NOT the hard drive which had the OS on. the OS hard drive works fine. anyways. i get the machine back, start up my system and it says "please insert system disc to boot" or something of the sort. i can find this out precisely if i have not been specific enough, please let me know. so now i have power, but windows won't start.

i then insert my media centre disc, go to set up and try a repair, button "F2". it wanted an administrator password (i never had a password) so i press enter and nothing seemed to happen. i then type EXIT and the system restarts and suddenly i`m in windows. everything was seemingly fine somehow. however when i tried to restart the machine without the media centre disc in the machine i get the same error message as previous "please insert system disc to boot". so basically windows starts but only with my media centre disc inside. if possible i`d like to know why this is and how it can be remedied. i am a bit of a novice with PC's so please be kind if this is something really basic.

i apologise for the long winded explanation, hopefully it made sense.

my pc specs are

asus a8n-e nforce4 chipset (socket 939)
amd x2 4200 CPU
OCZ platinum 3200 ddr ram 2x1gb
geeforce 6600 graphics card
windows media centre OS

if i have not provided enough info please ask me and i will do my best to provide it. any information on my problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Teh_1337_0n3]

Have you tried to re-install the OS?

[charleski]

Go into your BIOS (press the DEL key as the machine starts up). Once there, go to the Boot screen and select 'Boot device priority' make sure your hard drive is listed there. It should go something like:
1st Boot Device: [Removable]
2nd Boot Device: [CDROM]
3rd Boot Device: [Hard Drive]
It's that's fine, press ESC to get back to the main Boot menu and go down to Hard Disk Drives. The HD should be listed there.

If those are OK, then you probably need to restore the bootsector on the disk you have left. Boot with your Windows disk and select the option to repair using the recovery console. When you get the console prompt, type
fdisk /mbr
Then exit from it and reboot.

[tigerboyce]

seeing as you can get into windows, backup everything you need and just do a fresh OS install? bit of a rough job but you get a nice clean PC too

[MKA]

thank you for all the help. it is very much appreciated.

i will check the hard drive priority via bios first.

i do want to reinstall my OS, but i am currently on the 2nd from last level on halo, difficulty level legendary. if i lose my progress on that i may have a nervous breakdown. i know it sounds silly, but unless i know 100% that halo will still work after backing it up and a fresh OS install i dont want to risk it.

but once again thanks to everyone, i will keep you updated with my progress.

[Teh_1337_0n3]

thank you for all the help. it is very much appreciated.

i will check the hard drive priority via bios first.

i do want to reinstall my OS, but i am currently on the 2nd from last level on halo, difficulty level legendary. if i lose my progress on that i may have a nervous breakdown. i know it sounds silly, but unless i know 100% that halo will still work after backing it up and a fresh OS install i dont want to risk it.

but once again thanks to everyone, i will keep you updated with my progress.

Back it all up and then make sure you won't lose halo and then re-install your OS.

[MKA]

Go into your BIOS (press the DEL key as the machine starts up). Once there, go to the Boot screen and select 'Boot device priority' make sure your hard drive is listed there. It should go something like:
1st Boot Device: [Removable]
2nd Boot Device: [CDROM]
3rd Boot Device: [Hard Drive]
It's that's fine, press ESC to get back to the main Boot menu and go down to Hard Disk Drives. The HD should be listed there.

If those are OK, then you probably need to restore the bootsector on the disk you have left. Boot with your Windows disk and select the option to repair using the recovery console. When you get the console prompt, type
fdisk /mbr
Then exit from it and reboot.

done

i am guessing the repair shop messed about with my bios and changed the boot priority as all of them had "CDROM" next to it. problem is now fixed though. i made the boot priority as you instructed.

thank you charleski, Teh_1337_0n3, tigerboyce. you guys are ace. i can breath easy at last. i`ve been stressing over my pc for days now. first there was not knowing whats wrong with it while it was in the repair shop, then there was this problem when i brought it home.

but thanks again people. this is a top forum

i will still be reinstalling my OS at some stage. i have a new hard disk ordered, won't get here till next week now. when thats here, i will back up everything and do a fresh install. in all fairness it probably needs one.