Ok... i am trying to repair a friends computer (Intel Celeron 2.8Ghz 1GB Ram - custom build from some computer shop) initially the problem was that it no longer turned on... so i replaced the power supply. The computer now turns on, however it does not boot from the hard drive (Maxtor 80GB) or the CD drive (Lite-On cd-rw SOH).

I have successfully installed windows on the hard drive from my own computer as a slave and then transferred the hard drive back over to my friends PC and tried just booting windows off it that way as the master, however that didnt work. I also tried booting it with the hard drive wiped clean, and formatted (during windows setup). im certain the cd drive and hard drive are connected correctly... the hard drive is the primary master and the cd drive is the secondary master.

Before i used to get "BOOT DISK ERROR" after verifying pool data... now that i have tried again booting with the HD with Widows 7 already installed i get "Invalid Partition Table" which i assume is because i set it all up on my main computer (which now thinks i have two separate instances of windows 7 on it and asks me to select which to boot from every time i restart XD).

So i have come to the conclusion that there must be a motherboard issue? or something really stupid and small that i am somehow overlooking. i have fixed countless numbers of computers for my friends in the past and i have never come across a situation as frustrating as this. So frustrating in fact that i had to join my first forum and create my first thread in order to find a solution. If there is anyone out there that can save me, i will be forever grateful.

Sometimes with a Maxtor drive I found setting the Hard drive as primary master and CDRom as secondary slave helps. Is important to jumper rather than cable select, at times, on an older system.

Just for grins, have you gone through the BIOS, first setting it to defaults and saving, then setting it for the hardware installed and saving -- with the boot order you wish? Sometimes this can help if there have been hardware changes.

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