Ok, will do. I really appreciate the help. I want to get this thing running again.

Thanks for the thanks. Let us know how it goes.

The hard drive is an IBM Deskstar 80 gb. I have tried other sources for help, and all the solutions involve reinstalling the drivers for my hard drive. I am not entirelly sure how to do that.
Oh, new developement: I get past the (cannot find hard drive) screen and get through the terms and conditions. Windows asks me to select a drive to install it on, but no drives show up as options! If I touch any buttons, I get a "Stop error" message.

The hard drive diagnostic would be:

Download Windows diskette creator (2,127 KB) - creates DOS bootable diskette | Readme | Having trouble creating the bootable diskette?

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT


Also there is a firmware update for that drive:

IBM DeskStar hard disk drive firmware update

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site...cid=MIGR-42215


If it were a driver issue this would be on the motherboard. As the BIOS detects it I doubt that this is the issue but anyway motherboard drivers and or BIOS upgrades would be found here:

Soyo Dragon

http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/?la...nglish&gtype=3

But you need to ID your exact model #.


You might also try a new IDE cable and or other hard drives. Do not use RAID hard drives at this point.


If you continue to receive error messages could you please post them verbatim.