Black screen of death

[clark33]

Hi -

I have a major headache with my PC.

I clean installed windows last week. During the install, it got stuck - so i switched the power off and on, instead of resuming the install, my PC said something like "setup cannot find harddrive". Now i have no OS and no way to install an OS. I have tried loading optomised BIOS settings and booting from XP floppy boot disks but it doesnt work. After i power on my PC, it runs POST and then just goes into a black screen. Is my PC doomed?

If it's something to do with my Hard Drive, i have a:-

PCIE to SATA II / IDE Raid controller. My computer was custom built though, so im not sure what to do.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Clark

 

[Remeniz]

Well it looks like you need a driver for that PCI RAID controller that you have there.

Although it isn't needed if you are installing on a drive that isn't connected to this PCI card or isn't in a RAID array.

 

[clark33]

Ok, thanks - i typed "PCIE to SATA II / IDE Raid controller driver" into google and was able to download this. It said to copy the contents of a folder onto a floppy disk, which i done.

After POST runs, it reads the floppy and then says "remove disk or media and press any key to restart". Which i do - it then comes back onto the black screen again.

I dont think it's worked, as it still wont boot into the XP Home install CD and goes back to the black screen.

 

[~mr mixx~]

try going into bios and selecting the default set up then exit.

after that if you have a second computer, put the hhd in there that you are trying to install windows on.

make it a slave drive then re-format it... then put it back into your 1st computer and try the install again. do not use the restore option or you may end up in the same position.

 

[clark33]

I take it i would just open up my other computer, take out the hard drive that's in it, replace it with my problem one (which is easy enough to connect?) and then, somewhere in the BIOS there is an option to make it a "slave drive"?

and to reformat it - how do i do that, use recovery console or command prompt then?

Thanks,
Clark