Running a Windows Repair (basic)

1. Put a Windows XP disk into the CD-drive

2. Restart the computer and boot to the windows CD (press whatever f# button gets you to the boot menu)

3. The software will load to a blue screen with three options

4. Press”R for the repair

5. If you get a screen starting with “Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer,” go to step 10.  Otherwise continue with step 6.

6. Select the drive you want to repair. (usually this is ‘1’)

7. Type in the Administrator Password

8. Type in the command ‘ chkdsk /r ‘. There is a space between the ‘chkdsk’ and the ‘/r’

9. If errors are found and fixed, restart the computer and run the repair again. If errors are found again, there is a good chance that the repair software didn’t completely fix the issue. If no errors were found again after restart, the repair was successful.

Installing SATA Drivers

10. Uh Oh, you need SATA drivers. You need to first find these drivers on your harddrive maker’s website and download them and put them on a floppy drive. (this might work other ways – flashdrive – but i’ve only done it with a  floppy. Plug in the floppy drive, but do not insert the floppy disk yet. Then Reset the computer and boot to the windows CD and put in the correct floppy disk.

11. The first setup at the load asks if you want to installed a 3rd party or RAID driver. Press F6 at this screen. If you miss it, restart and try again. This is pretty much the 2nd choice offered at the loadout screen so it comes up pretty quick.

12. If the SATA driver does not load automatically, press ‘S’ to configure a SCSI adapter.

13. Choose the Mobile ICH8M-E/m and press enter (if this is a laptop). Also its probably not the RAID one if you don’t know what that is.

14. When the next screen pops up (setup will load support…) press enter to continue. Continue with step 6.

Running a Windows Repair Install

(warning, you will need the exact disk that either came with your computer or has your exact type of windows ie home,pro,etc and you will need your windows serial code)

15. Follow steps 1-3

16. Press enter

17. Choose the Repair option. This will delete all windows files (but save your document files) and pretty much reinstall windows. You will then need to go through windows setup again.