Everything was going well until...

[floridarandy]

New Build in Progress:

P5K-E/WiFi-AP
Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
Antec 650w Turepower Trio
Crucial 2 x 2GB DDR2-800 CL4 Ballistix (BL2KIT25664AA804.000)
Zalman CNPS9500AT CPU Cooler
WD740ADFD - 74G, 10,000 rpm SATA (OS/Programs)
WD1500ADFD - 150G, 10,000 rpm SATA (Data)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Antec P182
PNY Nividia Quadro NVS 400 (32 bit PCI)
Sony DRU 840A (IDE Primary)
WD 120gb (IDE Secondary) (Existing Data/Storage)

Build/Boot OK. OS successfully loaded. Brought home and added 3rd HDD from office computer to transfer data and the video card to run my 3 monitor setup at the office.. This 3rd drive is an IDE drive as Slave to DVD as primary. Bios saw everything as did My Computer. Then a curious thing happened....

Windows stopped recognizing anything but the C: Drive (74gb SATA). BIOS could see all 3 HDD's and DVD at boot, but once windows came up only the c: drive. This stopped moving forward with installation of drivers from DVD drive.

So I went backwards. Removed all but C: drive and DVD. BIOS continued to see everything but WIndows didn't. So, I thought, I'll just reinstall Windows. Boot to Windows CD is OK, but after loading drivers it brings up a blue screen error...something about checking for viruses and chkdsk/f. Since the machine hasn't been on the internet yet i was less concerned with viruses and chkdsk of the only drive was OK.

Also, windows is now detecting hardware for which it can't find drivers?

Ideas welcomed...i'm dead in the water.

[shyster]

Just a few questions for things that are not too clear for me.

Were you able to see both hard drives in windows after the intial load, before you put in the third hard drive? Or did you never go that far and only ever went to bios where you saw it?

If that is the case you might need to format your second drive at least.

Is the third drive that you are trying to load on a drive that has an old version of windows still active on it?

That could be causing some issues I believe.

Just for testing purposes, I would leave out the ide hard drive for now and put in the second sata drive, try formatting it and see if windows can then see it.

You could also try using partition magic if windows still cannot see the drive even after formatting. I am not too familiar with the program but it is supposed to be able to rearrage and reorganize hard drives from a windows based program instead of from a boot disk program.

Which drivers are you loading that cause the BSOD? Does windows give you an error code or is it just a fatal error that you have to force restart from?

As for the hardware for which it cannot detect drivers that is common after a fresh install, since OS's do not come with drivers. It probably means you did not install a driver for one of your hardware pieces or its installation failed.

Another thing you might want to check, is actually setting bios to activate the other hard drives. I believe that bios can see drives, but still have them turned off for boot up, so it is possible that, that is your issue.

Finally if you can get the computer to recognize the two sata drives but still not the ide drive, try putting the ide drive to master, or putting it on its own connector if you have two spots.

That is all I can think of given what you have said, answer some questions and maybe I can expand or think of new things.

[floridarandy]

1. yes could see all 3 drives after adding 3rd drive. even accessed contents of 3rd drive. it was only on subsequent shutdown/reboot the problem began. 3rd drive as always only been a data drive...now windows.

error loading partitionmagic disk at boot.

error loading windows disk to reinstall OS. Took 74gb primary drive to 2nd comptuter and used partionmagic to delete partition on which windows had previously been installed. attempted to reinstall windows on 74g and get 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000,0x00000000) error.

attemped to load windows on 2nd new drive (150gb SATA Raptor) and same error messge.

BIOS continues to see what ever drive is attached despite windows problem.

[floridarandy]

Immediate problem solved...now to figure out why. After taking the system back to 1 stick of memory, one drive and dvd I still had problem. Looking further at error I found the following post in another forum here regarding 0x000007B (0xF78D25240:

Posted:9/1/2007 8:28:00 AM
It can be almost anything. Last time I had same problem it was graphic card. Here is what guys in Microsoft say about it.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324103
You should test component by component of your PC.

What I'd failed to consider is that when I added the 3rd drive from the office computer yesterday I also added the graphics card that supports the 3 monitors in the office ( PNY Quadro 4 400 NVS 64MB Video Card Part #: VCQ4400NVS-PB). I pulled the card and replaced it with the temporary video card i'd been using and problem solved.

Now, since I want to use that card I need to figure out why it happened. While I await more info I'll proceed to get the OS back, other hardware in and all drivers loaded. Then tackle the video card last.

Any NEW ideas?

Thanks