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General discussion

Computer will not start

Feb 27, 2004 9:03AM PST

Running an American Megatrends Inc. AMIBIOS.

When I turn on the computer a screen pops up that states

"Check system health
AMD Athlon XP 1800+

Sec Master Drive - ATAPI not compatible
Sec Slave Drive - ATAPI not compatible

Press F1 to resume"

When I press F1 it asks for start up disk.

It has never done this before. Both of my home computers (networked) quit working at the same time. I think it may be a virus but I do not know. Was able to get one to work by putting in the system disc and reformatting the hard drive (all data was lost and computer was restored to out of the box condition). I do not have the sytem disc for the other computer.

What can I do?

Discussion is locked

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Re:Computer will not start
Feb 27, 2004 1:39PM PST

well you could physcially remove the drive from the dead machine and temporarily hook it up to the good one to get your key files off it . . . then put it back, reformat, and reinstall the OS. --fj

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Caution on this Advice!
Feb 27, 2004 11:35PM PST

Frank: if you move the virus-suspect HDD from the dead machine to the good machine, won't you be taking a risk of killing the good machine?