I have an older desktop running Win 2000, and I could tell it was on it's last legs, so I bought a DVD burner to back up all my Mp3s (5 gigs worth), old emails & addresses, and pictures; basically the only things on there I cared about.  I bought and installed at the same time an internal card reader and a USB card with internal USB port for the reader.

After I installed everything the computer kept getting a message that it couldn't recognize the card reader, or couldn't install it, so I unplugged it.  Everything seemed fine.  I installed the Nero disk that came with the burner.  When I started Nero up, the program would open but when I clicked on one of the "make CD" options it would minimize to the bottom right corner and not come back.  Then I started having problems with Yahoo messenger, Winamp, and several other programs.  When the computer was restarted it would get stuck in this cycle of showing the log in message, trying to start up, and then starting all over again and the login would show up again.

I restarted the computer in safe mode and got a message I'd never seen before saying that I might be having trouble with some new hardware, so I removed the USB card and unplugged everything from the DVD burner.  Now the computer won't start up at all.  The power comes on and you can hear something spinning, but it won't actually fire up the monitor and it won't start up.

Any help?

As a side question, if I buy/build a new computer and plug the old hard-drive into it, will I be able to recover the data I want?

You can recover data from another HD, do you know someone with another system you can hook that HD into, then you can copy your stuff over then format it.

Right!  Just remove your old hard drive, and you can do data recovery on it from a new machine.

Those external USB drive boxes (about thirty bucks, last I looked) generally will do the trick, assuming it's a standard IDE drive.

If you think you might have been having virus problems, get Knoppix or Morphix (CD-based Linux operating system, runs from the CD, won't touch your hard drive until you tell it to) and boot with that, so that the viruses won't be able to execute.  You will want to find someone who is familiar with UNIX/Linux to give you a hand, unless you are familiar with them.  They are free for downloading.

Buy a new PC, pull old hard drive out and out it in new PC. Copy files that you want to keep, remove old hard drive and get some target practice.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Quoted: Buy a new PC, pull old hard drive out and out it in new PC. Copy files that you want to keep, remove old hard drive and get some target practice. ByteTheBullet  (-:

That's what I should have done to begin with.  Now though I've got $170 invested in the DVD burner and I don't want to waste that.  What I should have done is just gone to Circuit City and bought a damn HP with all the features I want and been done with it.

Quoted: Quoted: Buy a new PC, pull old hard drive out and out it in new PC. Copy files that you want to keep, remove old hard drive and get some target practice. ByteTheBullet  (-: That's what I should have done to begin with.  Now though I've got $170 invested in the DVD burner and I don't want to waste that.  What I should have done is just gone to Circuit City and bought a damn HP with all the features I want and been done with it.

You can put the burner in your new PC and recoup $ by copying movies and selling them.

Seriously, you can use the burner with your new PC.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Quoted: That's what I should have done to begin with.  Now though I've got $170 invested in the DVD burner and I don't want to waste that.  What I should have done is just gone to Circuit City and bought a damn HP with all the features I want and been done with it.

See blue above...Yucky. I am spoiled though cause I build my own. I used to work at CC, I guess it isn't that bad really. Shop around for a good price if you can.


ByteTheBullet  (-:

Quoted: Quoted: That's what I should have done to begin with.  Now though I've got $170 invested in the DVD burner and I don't want to waste that.  What I should have done is just gone to Circuit City and bought a damn HP with all the features I want and been done with it. See blue above...Yucky. I am spoiled though cause I build my own. I used to work at CC, I guess it isn't that bad really. Shop around for a good price if you can. ByteTheBullet  (-:

I've toyed with the idea of building my own, and would like to do it 'cause in general I'm a "build your own" kind of guy.  Problem is I'm good with steel and 2x4s and plywood, not terribly good with the little gadgets.  I just know that I'd get $1k worth of parts all glued together only to find that the thingamawhatzit and the whatchamacallit won't talk to each other and are incompatible.  It's just a headache I don't want/need.  At the end of the day the HP will cost just the same but it'll come with a warranty, asian tech support, and all of the features I want/need.  Plus I can walk into the store and walk out with a computer, unlike the mailorder guys.

Paul-

That's all well and good, but the computer won't boot at this point.  The power comes on, and something in there is spinning, but nothing shows up on the monitor.

Quoted: I've toyed with the idea of building my own, and would like to do it 'cause in general I'm a "build your own" kind of guy.  Problem is I'm good with steel and 2x4s and plywood, not terribly good with the little gadgets.  I just know that I'd get $1k worth of parts all glued together only to find that the thingamawhatzit and the whatchamacallit won't talk to each other and are incompatible.  It's just a headache I don't want/need.  At the end of the day the HP will cost just the same but it'll come with a warranty, asian tech support, and all of the features I want/need.  Plus I can walk into the store and walk out with a computer, unlike the mailorder guys.

Find your neighborhood fifteen-year-old geek and have him build it for you.  Probably cost you $20 and a case of Coors.

Seriously, do some websurfing.  It is *easy* to part one together nowadays.  Takes you an hour or two to research it, a few minutes clicking on a mailorder website, and two hours to put it together when the parts arrive.

If you buy a barebones like a Shuttle XPC, it's a matter of putting a drop of thermal grease on one spot, putting four parts in place (memory, CPU, DVD drive, hard drive), and tightening six regular screws (for the drives) and  seven thumbscrews (heatsink, case cover).

NewEgg.com will treat you right for the parts.

The only issue is making sure that you don't touch any of the electronics' pins with your bare hands while assembling.  If you can do any sort of detail work -- building models, cutting checkering, whatever -- you're golden.

Quoted: .... I've toyed with the idea of building my own, and would like to do it 'cause in general I'm a "build your own" kind of guy.  Problem is I'm good with steel and 2x4s and plywood, not terribly good with the little gadgets.  ...

After you build the case out of 2x4s and plywood, take picture and post it Camper

Quoted: Quoted: I've toyed with the idea of building my own, and would like to do it 'cause in general I'm a "build your own" kind of guy.  Problem is I'm good with steel and 2x4s and plywood, not terribly good with the little gadgets.  I just know that I'd get $1k worth of parts all glued together only to find that the thingamawhatzit and the whatchamacallit won't talk to each other and are incompatible.  It's just a headache I don't want/need.  At the end of the day the HP will cost just the same but it'll come with a warranty, asian tech support, and all of the features I want/need.  Plus I can walk into the store and walk out with a computer, unlike the mailorder guys. Find your neighborhood fifteen-year-old geek and have him build it for you.  Probably cost you $20 and a case of Coors. Seriously, do some websurfing.  It is *easy* to part one together nowadays.  Takes you an hour or two to research it, a few minutes clicking on a mailorder website, and two hours to put it together when the parts arrive. If you buy a barebones like a Shuttle XPC, it's a matter of putting a drop of thermal grease on one spot, putting four parts in place (memory, CPU, DVD drive, hard drive), and tightening six regular screws (for the drives) and  seven thumbscrews (heatsink, case cover). NewEgg.com will treat you right for the parts. The only issue is making sure that you don't touch any of the electronics' pins with your bare hands while assembling.  If you can do any sort of detail work -- building models, cutting checkering, whatever -- you're golden.

+1

Newegg is the place to shop!!!  Read the reviews for components in there, its an excellent guide to whether the part sucks or rocks.

Get yourself a good motherboard from Asus, the board comes with a excellent  instruction book that walks you thru the process.  Even comes with a sticker that you can put on the case with a diagram of whats what on the motherboard for reference.

Get yourself some good memory from a reputable manafacture like Samsung, Micron, and NOT a no-name brand.

Get a Excellent Powersupply from a reputable maker - Don't ever skimp on powersupplies, quality is golden.  Get one that is 400 + Watts.

Get a nice AMD processor, they are priced as not to kill your wallet and have plenty of power.  My new AMD processor came with a decent heatsink and all I did was use Artic Silver Alumina (Artic Silver is good shit)instead of the generic heatsink grease.

I'd get a new HD with lots of capacity (partition it so it isn't one monster partition that takes days to defrag) and slave your old hard drive.  

You can cannablize your old machine for DVD drive, floppy, video card, etc.

+(what everyone else said)

I haven't purchased a PC for many years.  Your DVD-burner is golden and can simply be installed in your new machine (provided you go that route).  Likewise with your current hard drive that won't boot into your current machine.  After you get your new machine going, you can pull your old hard drive and install it as a secondary drive in the new machine and get the data you need that way.

Will the OS on the old drive cause me any problems in getting the information off of it?

What's the best (cheapest?) way to get XP pro?

Quoted: Paul- That's all well and good, but the computer won't boot at this point.  The power comes on, and something in there is spinning, but nothing shows up on the monitor.

recheck all your internal and external connections.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: That's what I should have done to begin with.  Now though I've got $170 invested in the DVD burner and I don't want to waste that.  What I should have done is just gone to Circuit City and bought a damn HP with all the features I want and been done with it. See blue above...Yucky. I am spoiled though cause I build my own. I used to work at CC, I guess it isn't that bad really. Shop around for a good price if you can. ByteTheBullet  (-: I've toyed with the idea of building my own, and would like to do it 'cause in general I'm a "build your own" kind of guy.  Problem is I'm good with steel and 2x4s and plywood, not terribly good with the little gadgets.  I just know that I'd get $1k worth of parts all glued together only to find that the thingamawhatzit and the whatchamacallit won't talk to each other and are incompatible.  It's just a headache I don't want/need.  At the end of the day the HP will cost just the same but it'll come with a warranty, asian tech support, and all of the features I want/need.  Plus I can walk into the store and walk out with a computer, unlike the mailorder guys.

Theres your problem, don't use glue.

It is really easy to build a computer these days. If not get a Dell or IBM. Not HP!!!!

ETA: Take a gun and hold it up to the CPU and say "Start or die"

Try reloading windows 2000.  Your problem is with the operating system and you can reload win2k on top of the existing OS and only replace the files in the WINNT dirctory.  After that you only have to load the software you want to use.  

Lots of people buy new computers when all they have wrong is a corrupted OS.  If the processor speed is less than 500mhz you might take the advice of those telling you to buy a new system.  Or better yet have someone build you one.  I'm still using win2k and will switch only when I have to.  XP sucks in my book.  

Quoted: Try reloading windows 2000.  Your problem is with the operating system and you can reload win2k on top of the existing OS and only replace the files in the WINNT dirctory.  After that you only have to load the software you want to use.   Lots of people buy new computers when all they have wrong is a corrupted OS.  If the processor speed is less than 500mhz you might take the advice of those telling you to buy a new system.  Or better yet have someone build you one.  I'm still using win2k and will switch only when I have to.  XP sucks in my book.

What part of "it won't start" are you having trouble with?

I no longer have the Win 2k disk, and since I am using XP Pro at work I'd like to use it at home as well.  There are features within XP that I like, and it's possible to configure it to at least look like Win 2k.

recheck all your internal and external connections.

sounds like you might have screwed up the master/slave relationship when you were hooking up the DVD drive...check to make sure the OS hard drive is master on IDE channel 1 and that all jumpers are either set to Cable Select or a proper master/slave arrangement.  Post more information on what's going on after rechecking all connections.

ETA - a new PC is nice if you can afford and justify it...but unless you are buying a BTX case with PCI Express don't bother right now, REALLY...buy a new hard disk (maybe return the dvd drive if applicable) and do a brand new OS install to it, then hook up your old hard drive as a slave and pull relevant data off it.

Quoted: Will the OS on the old drive cause me any problems in getting the information off of it? What's the best (cheapest?) way to get XP pro?

Cheapest 'legal' way I know of to get XP Pro is from Newegg...they sell the OEM version of XP Pro (so long as you buy any piece of hardware....even a mouse or a computer cable will work) for $140.

No, the OS on your old drive won't cause problems. You set up the new system, it boots from it's own drive. Your old drive when hooked up will show up as a different drive and you'll be able to ream through it no problem.

Quoted: What's the best (cheapest?) way to get XP pro? no longer have the Win 2k disk, and since I am using XP Pro at work I'd like to use it at home as well. There are features within XP that I like, and it's possible to configure it to at least look like Win 2k.

you have a computer dept  at work?
will you be doing sometype of work related stuff on your home computer?
if so ask them they maybe able to get you a copy of it.

Quoted: Quoted: Try reloading windows 2000.  Your problem is with the operating system and you can reload win2k on top of the existing OS and only replace the files in the WINNT dirctory.  After that you only have to load the software you want to use.   Lots of people buy new computers when all they have wrong is a corrupted OS.  If the processor speed is less than 500mhz you might take the advice of those telling you to buy a new system.  Or better yet have someone build you one.  I'm still using win2k and will switch only when I have to.  XP sucks in my book.   What part of "it won't start" are you having trouble with? I no longer have the Win 2k disk, and since I am using XP Pro at work I'd like to use it at home as well.  There are features within XP that I like, and it's possible to configure it to at least look like Win 2k.

Fuck you too!

What does "won't start" mean in your case?  No video at all or just locks up in the middle of the boot process?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Try reloading windows 2000.  Your problem is with the operating system and you can reload win2k on top of the existing OS and only replace the files in the WINNT dirctory.  After that you only have to load the software you want to use.   Lots of people buy new computers when all they have wrong is a corrupted OS.  If the processor speed is less than 500mhz you might take the advice of those telling you to buy a new system.  Or better yet have someone build you one.  I'm still using win2k and will switch only when I have to.  XP sucks in my book.   What part of "it won't start" are you having trouble with? I no longer have the Win 2k disk, and since I am using XP Pro at work I'd like to use it at home as well.  There are features within XP that I like, and it's possible to configure it to at least look like Win 2k. Fuck you too! What does "won't start" mean in your case?  No video at all or just locks up in the middle of the boot process?

Read the posts and it will tell you.

Quoted: Quoted: What's the best (cheapest?) way to get XP pro? no longer have the Win 2k disk, and since I am using XP Pro at work I'd like to use it at home as well. There are features within XP that I like, and it's possible to configure it to at least look like Win 2k. you have a computer dept  at work? will you be doing sometype of work related stuff on your home computer? if so ask them they maybe able to get you a copy of it.

No dice, our parent company is publicly traded and has our computer guy scared shitless about any grey areas when it comes to software.

Quoted: After reading the thread, I was going to say, "hey look, NORMAN74 can play well with others, he just has to get something out of it". Then I read the rest of the thread and realized, even when he wants help, he's still an A-hole. GL with your issue.

Something tells me that if someone can't even comprehend simple english (I tried to only use words with 2 syllables or less) that their computer help isn't worth too much.  YMMV

Tannerite?