reinstalling XP

I have been getting the BSOD after playing music for a while ever since I updated my sound card drivers so I uninstalled them and reinstalled the original drivers however problem persisted. Actually it got worse, so bad that I can't load windows. So I think to myself well it has been awhile this computer is about 2 years old I think I should wipe the hard drive and reinstall windows. I tried to use a boot disk to transfer some files to my second harddrive and then wipe the primary drive. I will get to the dos prompt but I am unable to acess the hard drives. I first thought this was because the drives were in NTFS format so I did some searching on the web and found a boot disk that was able to read NTFS hard drives(from www.ntfs.com of all places) this resulted with an invalid command error in DOS. So I think well too bad I can't transfer the files. So I put in the Windows XP setup/install CD to reinstall Windows XP. It loads up and gets passed all the setup stuff and when it gets to the menu to choose what to do the computer shuts down for no apparent reason at all. No BSOD, not anyhting, everything just turns off. This is a repeatable error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My System Specs are:
Athlon XP 1800+
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP Rev 2.0
512 MB 2700 RAM (one stick)
WD 40 gb, WD 100 gb
VisionTek GeForce 4 Ti4200
SoundBlaster Audigy X Gamer

I would if I could but you see the main problem I am concerned with is actually being able to install windows which has proven to be difficult because everytime I get to the main installation menu the computer shuts off.

you have some kind of hardware problem. try different ram first.

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To install windows you need ONLY vid, HD and CD rom, everything else can be added after. AND you have to try BOTH drives one by one. AND you need to change the cables (or put CD+HD on the same one once at a time). Comon, play with it a bit, possibilities unlimited..

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I have switched the RAM with a different stick from a working computer and the error continues. I put the stick of RAM in a working computer and it works fine so I am ruling bad RAM out as a problem. Now I will play with the IDE cables with just the vid card, dvd-rom, and hd. I will see what happens

Alright, I played with a bunch of various setups. Both drives on one cable both on their own cable. HD with DVD-ROM, HD with CD-RW all yielded basicly the same result, that being shutting down or giving me a bluse screen with an error of 0x000008E or 0x0000007E message. I am at my wits end does anybody know what I should do?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by norbert_A_beaver on 05/17/04 01:41 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Even better, click the 'Reload BIOS defaults' button. That usually gives you the safest settings. Then get on the net and do a Google search for those errors.

Alright so I looked up the errors on microsoft telling me to update my BIOS which I do. I set the BIOS to default settings so nothing is overclocked or anything like that. I tried to used the WIndows CD again and reinstall Windows XP agian I get more errors. I looked those up on their website and they told maybe it was my RAM. Now I have ruled this out because I have used the RAM in another computer without any problems and I am currently using RAM that was in a working computer.
Now in one of the error resultions (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324103) given by microsoft said it might be a Boot sector virus and that I should scan for it and remove it. How can I scan for a virus that might not exsist when I can't boot windows? Do you see any resultion this?

Alright I think I might have solved the problem, I believe that the primary harddrive (the one with windows installed on it) Has some how become currupted and beyond my means to repair it. I don't know the exact problem with the harddrive but I am pretty sure is the root of all the problems. Thanks for all the help.

Well I came to the conclusion that it is currupted because I tried running the Western Digital Diagnostic tools and when I do so the computer would shut off when i got into the main menu of the diagnostic tool. I took out the drive in question and ran the diagnostic tests perfectly and found no errors on the second hard drive.

Also inorder to reformat or repartion the drive I would have to use the Windows XP CD or a DOS boot disk (or atleast those are the only two ways I know how). The Windows XP CD shuts the computer down or I get a BSOD before I can even choose any options and when I run DOS it doesn't see the drive to reformat.

I won't throw the drive out because it had alot of stuff on it and I want to try and save it some how, but that some how still eludes me.