scott wrote:
>>> Now *all* I have to do is figure out how to put NTLDR and friends 
>>> back onto the drive using the recovery console and my PC will be 
>>> usable again... o_O
> 
> How did you manage to mess that up by simply replacing a graphics card?!?!

Read again, carefully: I haven't even changed the graphics card yet. All 
I've actually done is move some hardware around so that there's a big 
enough space to insert the card.

The reason Windoze is upset is because I removed HD 0. (For reasons 
beyond my comprehension, M$ insists that the boot files must always be 
on HD 0, even if the OS itself isn't.) So I need to put the boot files 
onto the drive that has now become HD 0. Unfortunately the documentation 
for this isn't that easy to find, but I believe I know how to fix this now.

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Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> "Powering your XFX graphics card"
> 
> "XFX does not support the use of two 4-pin to one 6-pin power cable 
> converter for these graphics cards."
> 
> So, uh, why did you supply just such a converter IN THE BOX WITH THE 
> CARD???
> 
> Is it just me?! o_O

Seriously - I'm still bemused by this one... :-?

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>> Luckily those are not very expensive.
> 
> Well, that's the main thing, yes. ;-)
> 
> (Otherwise, right now you'd see my sitting in the corner crying.)

...or rather, "300W PSUs are not very expensive". Typically you can buy 


Unfortunately, I need a minimum of 500W (and the "recommended" is 630W, 
and if you ever go to SLI that becomes 680W). PSUs in that sort of range 


plugs or something daft.)

I'm thinking... if I'm going to actually spend real money on getting a 
bigger PSU, I might as well spent a little bit more on one that can do 
the job *properly*. (I.e., one with enough connectors, and a decent 
Wattage.)

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> ...or rather, "300W PSUs are not very expensive". Typically you can buy 

>
> Unfortunately, I need a minimum of 500W (and the "recommended" is 630W, 
> and if you ever go to SLI that becomes 680W). PSUs in that sort of range 


I'm thinking just buy 2x 300W ones for 12 pounds :-)

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scott wrote:
>> ...or rather, "300W PSUs are not very expensive". Typically you can 

>>
>> Unfortunately, I need a minimum of 500W (and the "recommended" is 
>> 630W, and if you ever go to SLI that becomes 680W). PSUs in that sort 

> 
> I'm thinking just buy 2x 300W ones for 12 pounds :-)

Mmm, yes... One PSU to power my PC, and the second one to power my GPU!! :-D

I'm not really sure how the case arrangements for that work out though.

(Notice that the recommended power is 630W, so 2x300W would still be 
insufficient. However, I think my current PSU might be 400W, so...)

Anyway, it seems that if you want 700W *and* two 6-pin PCIe connectors, 
you're talking about quite a lot of money. But if you settle for 650W, 
you can find it quite a bit cheaper. I'm thinking I might go for this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151295

It exceeds the recommended Wattage, it has two seperate PCIe connectors, 
and it has enough other connectors to run the rest of my stuff. (It's 

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Invisible wrote:
> ...or rather, "300W PSUs are not very expensive". Typically you can buy
 
> one of those for about £6, or anything upwards.

Like everything, the exceptionally cheap ones are crap and will die, ofte
n 
taking out other parts, in a year or so. Spend the extra and get the good
 one.

> (Occasionally you will see *one* model at £20 or so, 

And it'll either be a piece of crap or specialized for a particular produ
ct 
line.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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Invisible wrote:
> Hopefully at this point the system should become bootable again. 

You might need to use mbrfix (or is it fixmbr?)

Or use diskpart to make the partition active, I think. It's been a while 
since I tried to fix an XP partition.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Ouch ouch ouch!"
   "What's wrong? Noodles too hot?"
   "No, I have Chopstick Tunnel Syndrome."

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>> ...or rather, "300W PSUs are not very expensive". Typically you can 
>> buy one of those for about £6, or anything upwards.
> 
> Like everything, the exceptionally cheap ones are crap and will die, 
> often taking out other parts, in a year or so. Spend the extra and get 
> the good one.

Yeah, if I buy I PSU, I tend to not buy *the* cheapest one. I like to 
buy one that's a little more. Not too much, but just so that it's not 
the £6 model. Maybe £15 or something?

I'm like that with a lot of things though. I tend to avoid *the* 
cheapest one, and go for one a few notches higher up.

OTOH, when looking at something like CPUs, I tend to not go for *the* 
most powerful one, because typically it's 8x the price for 8% more 
performance. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> Hopefully at this point the system should become bootable again. 
> 
> You might need to use mbrfix (or is it fixmbr?)
> 
> Or use diskpart to make the partition active, I think. It's been a while 
> since I tried to fix an XP partition.

Yes. Actually I already did this from KNOPPIX. Just marking the 
partition as "bootable" seemed to be enough to get me to the "CAN'T FIND 
NTLDR" message. But I found the corresponding commands (it *is* fixmbr 
and fixboot BTW) in the Recovery Console also.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Invisible wrote:

> - Build a new BOOT.INI file: bootcfg /all
> 
> - This last command spends a few hours scanning all your HDs looking for 
> anything that looks like a Windows installation. It then gives you an 
> interactive prompt asking which ones to add to the boot menu.

Actually, that's "bootcfg /add" or /rebuild.

And, for whatever reason, it doesn't work. After a while it crashes out 
with an error message about an unreadable filesystem or something.

Interestingly, it seems that placing NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM onto the 
drive is sufficient to make it boot. When you boot the system, it says 
"INVALID BOOT.INI; BOOTING FROM C:\WINDOWS". I'm guessing this only 
works for certain cases. Since by Windows installation is your standard 
"the OS is in the standard place on the first HD", it Just Works(tm).

Weirdly, once Windows has loaded there is apparently no way to recreate 
a correct BOOT.INI file. However, cut-and-pasting the example one from 
M$'s website seems to have fixed things nicely.

Wee, my PC works again! :-D

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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