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jaydee2 0 Light Poster

Sorry about that. Let's start over.

I have a win 2k box that I can't install SP4 on. (see previous posts). Since my win2k is an upgrade, I thought I would spring for a new XP Pro and start again.
I bought an OEM version with SP2 on it and while waiting for its arrival, I started up Partition Magic and commenced to merge 3 small partitions into my primary (C) partition. Went through and changed sector sizes and gave the go ahead to merge drives d, e and f into c.

Later, when I came back from helping wifey unload groceries I notice I have the partition magic "...hang on we're doing stuff for you..." screen on the monitor.

10 minutes later it's still there....long story to short...it was still there over night.
Next morning I tried 3 fingering it...nothing....So I dumped the power.

Long story to interminable I can't get into the machine. It won't boot. The Partition Magic screen re appears but that's it.

I also bought a new hard drive 320 GB to replace my dinky 15 GB drive.

Installed the new drive, jumpered as master, changed jumper on the 15GB non booting drive to slave then finally unplugged it.
Unplugged the floppy drive cables (did I mention I got a "Drive A not working press F1 to bypass" or something like that.

The bios apparently sees the new 300GB drive as the primary but no amount of striking the "DEL" key gets me in to the BIOS.

The machine won't boot on the XP CD, It won't boot on the Western Digital CD...it just
won't boot.
Obviously, I need help and soon...(wifey dislikes my commandeering her PC to send this)
don't know how long I can get away with using her machine.
johnd

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Dani AI

Generated

Brief, practical checklist for the situation described by — steps that still help years later when a machine will not enter firmware setup and will not boot after an interrupted disk operation.

Start with power/firmware basics

  • Fully power-cycle (unplug, hold power button 15–30 seconds) to drain caps, then try again.
  • Clear CMOS: remove the motherboard coin battery for 5–10 minutes or use the CMOS clear jumper per the board manual, then retry entering the firmware setup with the correct key shown at POST.

Isolate storage and boot media

  • Disconnect every non-boot drive and any removable media (optical, floppy, USB) so only one drive is attached. This forces the firmware to look at a single device.
  • Try booting from a known-good external boot medium (a bootable rescue CD/USB). If the firmware will not boot external media, focus on firmware access/reset steps.

If firmware still refuses to respond

  • Inspect keyboard connection: try a different PS/2 or USB port and a different keyboard. Some systems ignore USB keyboards until USB legacy support is enabled in firmware.
  • Look for a stuck key or shorted front-panel header. Temporarily disconnect front-panel power/reset switches and use the motherboard power pins to start the board.

When you can boot or access a rescue environment

  • Do not run further partitioning tools until an image or sector-level backup is taken. Use a rescue tool that can inspect partition tables (MBR/GPT) and the filesystem, and attempt safe repair, or clone the disk to a second drive for recovery work.

Cautions

  • Avoid repeating interrupted partition operations. If firmware/drive geometry confusion persists with a newer large drive, confirm jumpers/cable positions and that the motherboard supports the drive size (older BIOSes may need translated mode or vendor-specific drivers).

These steps prioritize getting firmware access and isolating hardware faults before attempting data or OS recovery.

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