Is comp store screwing me? MAJOR PROBLEMS!

[dogus1]

My computer has been in some bassackwards repair store for nearly a month now, and they've been dodging my questions and making excuses, blah blah -- I took it in because the computer would power up but not load into windows ...it would crash along the way, or simply never get beyond powering the fans -- no component would seem to load. In their wisdom, I got a new cpu and mobo, and now the problem is SLIGHTLY different -- now the system seems stable until right before it loads into windows, then I get a blue screen for a milisecond before it restarts. This is different than before, becaue before it would crash before it ever got into, or right when it was in BIOS -- now I can go through bios, and I can enter bios utility all day long if I wanted ..before, had I entered bios, it woud have crashed in seconds.

NOW they are telling me that the reason it is crashing right before windows is because I switched mobo chipsets from VIA to NForce. Is this reasonable, or are they bullshiting me simply because they don't really know whats really wrong. They tell me if I reload windows, it'll work fine. IS THIS TRUE?

I'm a bit desperate here, not having had my computer for a month -- now they tell me that I have to pay them to back up my hard drive, if I want it -- and I must have the files on there!

HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT BACKING UP MY HARD DRIVE if the computer crashes before windows? Is there a boot disk utility I could download- -- I'm uxing XP/NFTS, so I don't know how to get to a dos prompt and do it the old way -- I only need a few dozen word documents, nothing more. ANY SUGGESTIONS!?

I'm running now (and before):
Asus NForce2 a7nx8 Deluxe (Biostar VIA KTS400)
Athlon 2500+ Barton (Athlon 2100+)
512 MB Corsair PC3200 RAM
128 MB GeForce 4200
Windows XP Home Edition

 

[TheMASK]

Yes, you need to re-install the Operating System when you switch ur motherboard from one chipset to another.

i cud suggest u one thing. i believe u have more than one partition on ur hard drive. U cud install Win XP (Fresh Installation) in any drive other than the drive u had previously installed Win XP. Suppose u had installed Win XP in C-Drive (C. Now install Win XP (Fresh Installation) in D, E, or F Drive (D:, E:, F: etc...) After installation, u cud copy all the data u need from the C-drive to other drive (D, E, F etc.). and if u want C: to be your primary drive, then u cud format C: and reinstall Win XP along with all the software in C:.

<A HREF="http://www.teenirc.net/chat/tomshardware.html" target="_new"><b><font color=red>http://www.teenirc.net/chat/tomshardware.html</b></font color=red></A>

 

[sonoran]

Reinstalling Windows does *not* wipe out all the data on your hard drive. They (or you) should boot Windows from the CD and install from there. If that won't work, it's not a software problem.

Had it for a MONTH??? Are those guys idiots? I suggest finding a different store....

 

[ironmike]

sonoran or mask
cant he just reinstall windows over the existing windows, remove information to cd disk, then reformate and reinstall new????

The man of steel said that

 

[TarGator12]

You can reinstall XP without losing any of the data.

The only problem is that you have to uninstall a lot of the programs i.e. any anti-virus, office and those types of apps. You also have to uninstall all hot fixes and services packs. Than you have to go into your device manager and uninstall all the drivers.

Change the mb and do a reinstall of XP. I have moved three different hard drives using this method. Sad to say it's probably too late for you to try this.

It works but it is a pain in the butt to do. I had a link that shows how step by step. I will try to find it and post later.


Soltek SL 75FRN2-RL
2600+ TI 4200
Corsair 2x256 3200
If your PC has bugs - del *.* C:\ will kill them.

 

[Shielder]

Install a small HDD as the master drive (just to install Win on) and then you'll be able to get at your data on the old drive (which you should put as the slave.)

There are lies, damn lies and statistics - Mark Twain.