LOTS of problems... because of vista! HELPPPP!!! I BEG YOU!

[matqc20]

Hello. I have been trying stuff all night to make my computer work properly.. but now I have no more ideas/options so im asking for help.


Here are my computer's specs:

Asus striker II formula mobo
4gig ocz reaper ddr2 1066 fsb
Seagate 750gig Sata 32 megs hard drive
Evga gtx 260 graphic card
antec twelve hundred ultimate gaming case
windows vista premium 64bit
intel quad core q6600 cpu


My original problem was that I was unable to connect to the internet. I would constantly get a limited connection warning when booting up the pc and the it would become local only. I tried to connect my older comp with xp, my laptop and my friends computer in the internet plug and all worked fine. I browsed the web to find a solution, and found that many vista users had the same problem. I tried multiple fixes and nothing worked. I the tried to restore my system since last night it was working fine. This didn't change a thing. SO finally, after long hours of trying to fix this, I kind of got pissed and decided to install windows xp on my new computer. I put in the windows vista cd, formatted my hard drive, then put in the windows xp cd and tried and install it. I was surprised to se I only had NTFS format for my hard drive, but decided to format it anyway. What I quickly realized is that windows xp wouldn't boot. It formatted and created the files on the HD but the installation wouldn't continue after reboot and it would just stall at a black window. So I decided to put the windows vista cd back in and try to reinstall it. I quickly realized that windows vista couldn't find my HD. I went to see in bios and it detects it just fine as a sata device. I can select to find a drive but I have to select the drivers. So I went to nvidia's web page and downloaded the nforce7 vistaX64 9.64 drivers and 9.99 drivers. Extracted them, selected the IDE/WindowsVista64/Sata_IDE file (With nvstor.inf,idecoi.dll,nvata.cat,nvide.nvu and nvstor64.sys) wich I assume is the SATA drivers for my mobo and put them on a usbkey. I then tryed to use them so windows vista would recognize my HD but it doesn't. The workbar acts as if it is loading the drivers but it then puts me back to the same page without any HD appearing. So I decided I would stick with my original idea and go back to XP. I downloaded Nlite to merge the windows xp cd with the nforce Sata drivers, made the bootable disc and then tried to install XP once again with SATA drivers.. to my great surprise this didn't work cause I didn't get the option to format in SATA, only in ntfs like before. So Now im stuck with a computer with no operating system, I cant install either xp or vista on it and I don't have a clue what to do. Can someone pls help me? Are those files really the drivers for my SATA HD? I tried using my striker II cd but vista doesn't find any Sata drivers on it to recognize my HD either. HELPP!!!!

 

[Zoron]

NTFS is the file sytem... you will only ever get a choice between NTFS or FAT... SATA refers to the type of interface of the hard drive... not the file system.

At this point, you probably have things so messed up that I would suggest getting a utility that will write zeros to the hard drive... completely wiping out any data in the process. Then, install Vista.

You didn't mention how you connect to the internet... cable or DSL and whether or not you use a router. If you are connected directly to a modem that doesn't have DHCP, you'll always see "Limited or no connection". That message is displayed when the NIC can't obtain a local IP address. You either need to obtain a newer driver for your NIC or your internet connection wasn't configured properly.

 

[Scotteq]

Agreed - You have turned what should have been a simple problem into a big mess by piling on more and more (unrelated) changes. I wouldn't even want to try to untangle that. Advise doing a complete reformat and starting again from scratch.


Regarding the Hard Drive - Hit up the Bios and ensure the drive options are set to IDE mode.

 

[maximiza]

yeap start from scratch

 

[4Ryan6]

Wow what a mess!

Calm down and take some deep breaths, so you can approach this situation logically and methodically, as you've already been advised by scotteq, make sure the SATA header you're using is set to IDE, then you need no additional SATA drivers to install the operating system.

Do not overclock anything until you're up and running, then tweak until your hearts content.

Make sure your boot sequence is set to first boot CDROM second boot Hardrive, with the BIOS setup set like this, you at least attempt one more Vista install and delete the previous partition and create a new partition in the unallocated space and format after the new partition is created, if you can get to that point???

Otherwise as Zoron has advised you'll have to use the Seagate diagnostic setup utility to wipe the entire drive of data, including the boot record.

Now when Vista begins its installation you will get to a black screen where it seems nothing is happening when in fact it is, check your HDD activity light it will be flashing and do not stop the installation, it will continue.

I understand your frustration I just went through quite a bit of it myself, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, just calm down and try again.