Ok diskpart finished and was successful. I typed exit and still at command prompt typed the following:
Chkdsk c: /r
Got the following message: cannot open volume for direct access
What should I do next?
Reboot & try to install windows all over again?
STILL getting the BSD. This is crazy.
It absolutely boggles my mind how this HDD got so corrupt.
Odds are good that you have a hardware fault. Most likely RAM or hard drive. I wouldn't keep trying to install windows until you test some of your hardware. If you do have faulty RAM or hard drive you'll likely never get windows to install reliably. At the very least I would re-seat your RAM and any add-in cards like Video, sound or network. Also check all your power cables and data cables, like SATA or IDE to make sure they have a good solid connection. In most cases the diagnostic utilities linked to above will let you make bootable media so you can run them without having to load an operating system. Hardware fails, sometimes for what seems like no reason at all. And it can be really frustrating if there is no obvious clue as to what went south. If you don't have spare parts to swap in diagnostics are the other alternative.
I've got 8g or ram (4 - 2g sticks) which I just resat all of them. Also resat my 2 video cards.
Should I run a memory test? I honestly think it's the HDD.
So is this HDD totally shot, or is there anything else I can do to save it? It's a 500g don't reallly want to just throw it out.
I've got another 80g HDD, but it's got all of my ubuntu stuff on it that I really don't want to lose.
But I really only use win7.
If I hook up the 80g, can I partition off the Ubuntu (which is currently the only partition) and make a new one for win7
If I was a betting man I'd bet on the hard drive being the culprit. Only way to know for sure is to run the manufacturers diagnostic utility. You should be able to find a utility to zero out the drive too. It writes all zeros to the drive. If it is just a really messed up file system that should fix it. Windows might have a hard time with the Linux Ubuntu partition so you may have to use something else to adjust the partitions. I've never used Linux so I'll leave that to someone else if you go that route.
Ok so I was able to get it installed on the other HDD.
it's asking me for registration key (which I have and worked fine to activate it before) and now it's telling me it's invalid?!
I hate computers.
Double check what you have written down against whats written on the COA sticker. Sounds like you made a typo when you tried to enter it.
I still have the COA sticker and that's what I used like 3 times.
Is it because I already used that code last time to activate win7 originally?
If its rejecting it when you try to enter it (type it in), its either mistyped or not for the version you installed. Did you install from your original DVD? Does the version shown on the System page (windows key + Pause/break key) match the version listed on the COA sticker? Using the same product code before won't stop you from entering it during the install. Using your product code too many times or on more than one PC only comes into effect when you try to activate windows. I've re-installed windows on this PC many times and used my same product code to activate on line without any problems. Even after upgrading/adding hardware. Mines OEM so I should be able to swap just about everything except the motherboard without having activation fail.
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