Need help with a weird problem

Hi

Think this is the correct forum to put this in, if not please move it.

Earlier today i was trying to install the Supreme Commander Demo, the setup came up with an error and when i tried rerunning it said the program was already running and so i restarted the pc so i could have another go at making it work. Upon restart i got a nice BSOD with "volume cannot be mounted" error. My initial reaction after some probing was that in some strange way the demo setup had screwed my windows install and a simple reinstall would fix the problem. So i set about formating windows drive (its isolated from all other data on its own partition so wasnt a massive thing) and reinstalling, which went fine untill windows was installed and needed to boot for first time at which point the same BSOD error apeared. Btw the same result occured in safe mode.

At this point i got worried and thought the HD was damaged (though windows installed onto it fine and its being detected fine), and so after trying installing windows again to rule out a random dodgy install i tried installing it on my second HD which produced the exact same result.

I have tried reinstalling windows with only 1 HD connected (tried both HDs by themselves) and have tried using the 2 spare SATA slots rather than the usual ones.

I dont think the HDs are broken because they are being detected, they can be formated and writen to since windows is going through the install process without error and its highly unlikely both would die at exactly the same time imo.

However i am at a bit of a loss as to what exactly the problem is. I think the most likely posibilities are that either im wrong and the HDs have both broken or the SATA bus is broken but if anyone here has any suggestions on what is wrong id be very grateful.

My system specs are:

Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester
1GB PC3200 RAM
MSI K8N Platinum Motherboard
XFX Geforce 6800GT 256MB
2x Seagate 120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD

Thanks for your help

My problem was weirder.

Seriously, sounds like some kind of partition, mbr deal. The ultimate boot cd has a lot of tools, but reseting the CMOS, by taking out the battery for a few minutes is certainly the less intrusive way to go.

Ok, this probably isn't any help, but I've come to the conclusion that many vexing computer issues can be solved with a sledgehammer and $1500.