shanenin

you could try running a live linux distro . if it does reboot while running that, then you can assume it is a hardware isssue. If it does not reboot, then you can assume it is a software(windows) issue. My gut says it is a hardware problem. At least this would narrow your search down. edit added later// if you have two sticks of ram, run one at a time, in different slots. See if that makes a difference.

running recovermyfiles in demo mode found all of the important stuff. I need to buy the version for $70 to actually recover them. I found this freeware version I am going to try http://www.pcinspector.de/ here is the link to recovermyfiles http://www.recovermyfiles.com/

being part of the linux gang, i am pretty certain knoppix can't read a drive if the partition table is corrupt, no better then windows. Knoppix may contain tools that allow me to fix the partition table.

of course, it is valuable pc repair tool :-) since I deleted the partition table, Don't I need to recreate it, so any system, linux or windows can read it?

I accidently formatted a 200gb usb drive. It had one fat, and one ntfs paritition on it. I did not actually format it, but I ersased the partition table so it apears all as unallocated. I have been looking at some different recovery software, but am not sure what might be a good choice. I would appreciate some input. In this particular case, I am looking to recover jpeg files.

I would do it this way. Open up a terminal, then enter the su command. It will give you root privledges without having to enter a password. now start any editer from the command line. For simple text diting I like nano nano -w menu.lst

Thanks for clarifing that :-)

I read that, but they may say "not an operating system", because it does not have a key or licence. It may still have all of the OS files on it.

I came across this cd. I am not sure what it is . Does this contain a windows xp OS, but without a cd key? If you have an oem cd key(an licence), can that be used with this cd to do a reiinstall? http://www.9software.com/ProductDetails.as...STCD&Click=5673

I am not a big anime fan, but would prefer a hot anime girl over a regular girl for a desktop.

it seems like you have your master and slave opposite as you thought they are. You initially said XP was on your master, and ubuntu on your slave. According to your grub.conf, it seems to be the opposite. Take a look in your bios and see what it says. Or after booting up ubuntu try this command /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda this should print out the partition table, including the size, of your master drive. My hunch says it will list the 20gb drive.

thanks for the suggestions

I need to make a very simple websight. I suppose I should get used to doing some basic stuff using photoshop. I want to purchase a copy of photoshop elements. I was looking at some used copys on ebay. Are the older versions of elements failry good, or does the newest version have much better features. edit added late// in particular, is photoshop elements-2.0 a pretty good product?

you could put it all in one command ipconfig /release && ipconfig /renew

not on my root directory, or anywhere for that matter.

I am able to hibrenate using that method. I did a search of my c partition, including hidden and system files bnut did not find it. do you mean c:\windows ?

I just changed the registry to enable the hotfix to work, but I do not think I have actually installed the hotfix. I am not even sure where to find this hotfix. edit added later// does the following mean they will sell me the hotfix?

I think I followed the directions properly, and rebooted, but it still does not work. In all honesty, I do not even need the feature, i was curious to WHY it was not apearing :-)

I found this, this looks promising http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;893056

that was my thought, but I did not like the thought of the cpu frying while waiting to see if it would turn on.

I was working on an old 400mhz p2 laptop. I noticed the case fan only ran when I was in the bios menu. When it was running either linux or windows xp, it(the fan) never turned on. Could this be normal behavior, could it be the computer never got hot enough to turn on? It must have been on a good 10 -15 minutes. I turned it off, I was kind of worried I woudl fry it out.

My computer definately supports it. I am able to hibernate using the methods you gave earlier in the post. When I first purchased the computer, it had the hibernation icon as a forth option when I chose "turn off computer" . I decided to erase and reformat my computer using a generic xp home oem cd. Since then I am not able to get the icon to appear. I wonder if I need to edit the registry to allow this? Thanks for all of your research :-)

Thanks that is neat little suggestion. I am more curious how to have the hibernate option apear as a forth option.

That is a good thing, not sure what else the problem might be

it sounds like it may be a DMA(direct memory access) issue. you can check to see if your slow drive is using dma or pio mode(this mode is slow). This is how you can check in XP, I am not sure about 98. first you need to goto your device manager. r-click on "my computer", then choose "properties", then the "hardware tab" then choose, "device manger" after getting to the device manager, goto "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" , then r-click on "primary IDE channel", choose "properties", then look on the "advanced settings" tab . It will tell you the transfere mode. Let me know what tranfere mode it is