This time its the HDD

So I've had problems with my computer a lot lately, and I've made many topics in this forum for help, some things work but the majority only work for a while and then the problems come back.

Heres the story about my computer:

I bought it about 3 years ago now and had no problems with it when it ran windows xp. I then got a hold of windows 7 when it came out in the fall and made a partition of my hard disk. Partion D: holds my Windows XP installation and the new partition C: holds my windows 7 installation. Upon installing windows 7 my computer blue screened and when I restarted it appeared to be fine, after that I had a problem where my dvd drive quit working, or even showing up in BIOS and during my search for a solution it suddenly came back on. I quit searching and a while later my windows update kept telling me to update, but when I did it wouldn't finish, hitting an error during install, and then try again, which put me into an infinite loop until I rebooted my system. I found a fix that only stopped the updates from persistin.

Recently a new drive showed up in my computer that is designated as drive Q:. Upon trying to open it my computer errors and it takes me out of it. My dvd drive is also not working again (by not working I mean it does not show up in windows or BIOS but it will open and close and is receiving power) and now I am not allowed to format or delete partitions on my system.

So I was thinking I should back up my system and do a clean install. I plugged in my 200 GB external HDD, via a USB cord. But it will not show up in My Computer! Windows 7 makes a noise like when something is plugged in, so it must detect it, but I cannot find it in My Computer, or Hardware and Devices, or any other program.

What should I do? I'm not even thinking of fixing these problems, I just want to do a clean install, and keep all my personal files.

I agree with you on a clean install. The question is; what os do you want to use? When you partitioned your hard drive for installation of 7, did you run MS 7 compatibility/upgrade advisor for any software and hardware issues?

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

I ran the windows 7 upgrade advisor and it said im good. I have been using windows 7 ultimate (32 bit), but while I do this I may want to upgrade to 64bit because my processor supports it and I never knew the different before, now that I do I think i'll move to 64 bit.

Now I have run into more problems!

First of all I tried moving my files to my external HDD so that when I erase it they will not be lost. But since the external HDD doesn't connect I then tried moving them to the windows xp partition, but I cannot get the windows 7 partition to format. What should I do?

Go into the disk manager manager and look for the drive there. (Right click "My COmputer" then "Manage" then "Storage")

Hard drives that "belonged" to other computers will ususaly not be allowed on you machine until you "import" them. The drive should show up in the disk manager then you right click and "Import forien drive" or something liek that. It's like you telling your machine thatyou trust the drive and want to allow your machine to acess it.

Lanthus20 said:

Now I have run into more problems!

First of all I tried moving my files to my external HDD so that when I erase it they will not be lost. But since the external HDD doesn't connect I then tried moving them to the windows xp partition, but I cannot get the windows 7 partition to format. What should I do?

You need to get a working External HD.

theog said:

Lanthus20 said:

Now I have run into more problems!

First of all I tried moving my files to my external HDD so that when I erase it they will not be lost. But since the external HDD doesn't connect I then tried moving them to the windows xp partition, but I cannot get the windows 7 partition to format. What should I do?

You need to get a working External HD.

It works fine when connected to another computer, did you even read the post? Not having it connect was one of the problems I have faced with my error filled installation.

fseal said:

Go into the disk manager manager and look for the drive there. (Right click "My COmputer" then "Manage" then "Storage")

Hard drives that "belonged" to other computers will ususaly not be allowed on you machine until you "import" them. The drive should show up in the disk manager then you right click and "Import forien drive" or something liek that. It's like you telling your machine thatyou trust the drive and want to allow your machine to acess it.

The Q: drive that mysteriously appeared does not show up in Computer Management. The external HDD did and is working again, It does this spontaneously so I will back everything up now.