Ok, about 1 week ago I was having problems with my computer. Everytime I started it up I would start loading my desktop and it would just freeze and do nothing. I called Gateway Tech Support and they said nothing could be done to save it and they'll send me out a new one. It would be delivered in about 3-5 days...

Well about 2 hours after I called them I was able to get the thing working (I ran Scandisk from one of the restoration CDs I have and it did a scan on these things called "clusters", out of 1.5 million it found 6 bad ones). After Scandisk was done my computer worked fine but gave me a warning like there is still possible something wrong with my hard drive.

Now that the new hard drive is here I installed it and I keep getting error messages like "Operating System Not Found" and something like "disk not found, please insert disk and hit enter". I tried the IDE Jumper in every slot and it still doesn't work. I also tried to install Windows but the disk says that there is an error on the hard drive.

Ugh, I finally gave up...took out the new drive and reinstalled my old one. So what do u think? Did they give me a bad hd?

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All I will say is that Gateway is worthless and that next time you go to buy a computer, build your own.

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Evil is an art and I'm friggin' Picasso!! ~Veldrid

quote:

Originally posted by TeKnoHe@d2025 Now that the new hard drive is here I installed it and I keep getting error messages like "Operating System Not Found" and something like "disk not found, please insert disk and hit enter". I tried the IDE Jumper in every slot and it still doesn't work. I also tried to install Windows but the disk says that there is an error on the hard drive. Ugh, I finally gave up...took out the new drive and reinstalled my old one. So what do u think? Did they give me a bad hd?

Dude there are many reasons explaining why your comp is being fucked up.

First of all u said "...messages like "Operating System Not Found""

Now it depends on what u have (i hope u dont use windows 3.11 or DOS but something better ).
Tell me can u load just DOS without Windows??If u didn't use any programs like partition magic to make new sections on your hard drive AND if u use Windows not *nix then the logical disc u must boot from is C

Then if u can get to DOS, study this file MSDOS.SYS
Before windows 95 was invented, it was an important part of DOS but since later it became just a text file where directory of windows and other *windows* options are located.So make sure all of that is there.

Finally, try to start windows with your hand from DOS.The file is win.com.If Windows is loading and your comp is freezing at that moment - it's the Windows problem not your hard drive's!

And i know it's stupid but tones and tones of people keep making those silly mistakes:
---make sure the boot options are properly set through SETUP program

---if u don't know where SETUP is, just remove all the floppy discs and CDs from their drives when booting

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quote:

Originally posted by Veldrid All I will say is that Gateway is worthless and that next time you go to buy a computer, build your own.

That's what I plan on doing. When I first got this computer I didn't know a whole lot about them, but now I do know alot and will be able to put my own together whenever the time comes.

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well it sounds like they sent you an unformatted drive with no operating system on it. If you have a window 2000 or ME disk u should be able to just boot off the cd-rom and it will guide you through the steps that partition, format, and install the OS on your hard drive. Otherwise if you just have a system recovery disk try to figure out how to use that. If the above fails call gateway again and tell them what you did and they'll guide you through the steps..

Has the new hdd been fdisked??

Crusader

i was just gonna say that.. you need to fdisk and format before you install your apperating system.


this might help if you have never done it before. toss in the windows startup floppy or cd-rom. fdisk is in the tools dir i believe.. its been awile. basically you just figure out how many partitions you want, make one of them the primary partition and set it active.. than you should me good to go with a format.. that will happen automatically when you try to install windows on a fdisked drive

^^under examples there is a fdisk simulator that explains all the options.