Hi all, my HD just a dump last night and wont boot anymore...I have done alot to my FS and have always backedup a bit of stuff. I was planning on creating another back soon, but I guess not soon enough. I get this error message when booting my computer:Reboot and select proper devise or insert boot media in selected boot devise and press a key.Anyway, can I just get another harddrive and make the unbootable one a slave and tranfer my fs files to the new one?...I heard that could be possible. I have alot of stuff that I cant risk loosing. Is there anything I could do? Im getting depressed about this. Yes I know, its just a computer.Thanks,Bill

>Hi all, my HD just a dump last night and wont boot>anymore...I have done alot to my FS and have always backedup a>bit of stuff. I was planning on creating another back soon,>but I guess not soon enough. I get this error message when>booting my computer:>>Reboot and select proper devise or insert boot media in>selected boot devise and press a key.>>Anyway, can I just get another harddrive and make the>unbootable one a slave and tranfer my fs files to the new>one?...I heard that could be possible. I have alot of stuff>that I cant risk loosing. Is there anything I could do? Im>getting depressed about this. Yes I know, its just a>computer.>>Thanks,>>BillSo long as it's only the boot block you lost, and not the whole drive it should work. What you would need to do is with the new drive install FS2004 from the installation discs, and apply patches. This will setup the new registry entries for you. Then you can copy the FS files from your old disc to the new one. Note though, that any addons you have require registry entries, these will be lost, so you should reinstall these separately from their installation files. I would recommend you check with the developers, if you are not sure which ones require registry entries to run. Most scenery, and aircraft (With the possible exception of developers like PMDG or LDS) will probably not require them, but external addons like Active sky, Flight Environment etc... may.

Hi.>Anyway, can I just get another harddrive and make the unbootable one a slave and tranfer my fs files to the new one?...I heard that could be possible.

HelloCheck the cables to your drives if they are secure and in good conditionthe the following may be the faultYou have either lost your MBR (master boot record), typing fdisk /MBR from the command prompt will reinstall a good copy.Or a problem with your bios settings.check in the bios that your drives are recognised correctly and that the order of boot prority is set as 1 floppy, 2 HD , 3 cdrom if that does not work then reset the bios to its defaults, finally if neither of these work go to the Motherboard manufacturers site and download the latest bios for your board.

How do I get to the command prompt after the bios screen?Bill

>How do I get to the command prompt after the bios screen?>>BillYou will need to create a bootable floppy, preferably from a system with the same OS that you have/had on your old HD. It doesn't have to be the same but could not hurt. Then boot with it and at the -a:- prompt type in "fdisk /MBR" without the quotes.the dashes enclosing the prompt are just put there by me; for clarity for you, you will not see dashes when you boot the floppy.

hello billTry pressing F8 or F5 at bootup you may get in that way, if you cannotget a prompt like that then boot with a boot floppy.If you dont have a bootdisk go here and download a bootdisk imagehttp://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

Hi Bill,Unplug the data cable from the HD and re-plug it in again. I had one like this 2 weeks ago do the exact same thing and this cleared it up. I did replace it, but it is working fine for now as a secondary drive.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg