The fact that Dell are sending you a mobo/HDD free, well, maybe they know something about your error that I don't, I'm working on a 'you have error due to Windows update'[/i'] and if this is the case they could easily send out a tech guy to reinstal Windows for you. So either they are being weird and non-sensible (in sending you a mobo/HDD) or they know something we don't about the error.

Yeah 5614, I suspect the problem has nothing to do with windows update. My laptop was updated with KB 890859 last april, so my desktop must've been updated also.

 

Anyway, I talked to the Dell tech this a.m. he is letting me keep the HDD.

 

If I understand you correctly, I cannot use my HDD as a secondy in my win 98 computer, but I can use it as a secondary when the tech replaces my HDD.

 

You said there's a jumper that make the HDD a slave instead of a master, is this an actual soldered jumper on the HDD?

 

Thanks

Not soldered, no. You can look at the harddrive when you have it out of the computer and see the jumpers and how they are configured. Here is a small picture: http://www.cheapcomputersandparts.com/Images/Parts/HardDrive-Jumper.jpg

 

The center section in that picture is the jumper area, and the small black rectangular piece over the two pins on the far left is the jumper itself. It can easily be pulled from the pins and placed elsewhere. In some cases, especially newer drives, the various configurations are shown on the harddrive itself so that you can easily see the master and slave configurations.

Not soldered' date=' no. You can look at the harddrive when you have it out of the computer and see the jumpers and how they are configured. Here is a small picture: http://www.cheapcomputersandparts.com/Images/Parts/HardDrive-Jumper.jpg

 

The center section in that picture is the jumper area, and the small black rectangular piece over the two pins on the far left is the jumper itself. It can easily be pulled from the pins and placed elsewhere. In some cases, especially newer drives, the various configurations are shown on the harddrive itself so that you can easily see the master and slave configurations.[/quote']Hey thanks Aronathas, that's a good piece of information. When I get my new HDD, I'm going to try to hook up the old one as a "slave", to get a bunch of folders off it.

Right, so you're getting a new HDD... are you getting a new motherboard too? I think I remember you saying you might/would at some point.

 

Once you got that and all is working then connect your current broken HDD as slave/secondary into your "new" winXP computer and then you should be able to access files on it.

 

On this link:

http://www.harddriveupgrade.com/jumper_pins.shtml

which I gave in my last post there was an image of the jumpers, see here:

http://www.harddriveupgrade.com/jumpers_master_closeup_cr.jpg

it's basically the same as Aronathas's link though, so nothing new there.

Yes, I'm also getting a new motherboard.

Thanks for the links, I thought I was going to have to asked how to access the HDD after installation, but it looks like everything is there......thanks

Sorry I'm late, I just ran across this. For future reference, this is how you fix this problem:

1. Enter Bios. Either DEL or F2 should do it.
   
2. Disable all DVD, CD, CDR, DVD-RW drives.
   
3. Reboot.
   
4. F8 for Boot Options, then choose "Safe Mode with Networking".
   
5. Control Panel then Add/Remove Software.
   
6. Upper-right Check "Display Updates".
   
7. Remove Hotfix #890859
   
8. Go to Windows Update website and tell it to hide that Hotfix so it never installs again.
   
9. Shut Down.
   
10. Turn back on then enter BIOS, enable your drives and boot normally.
    

That should do it... oh unless you want to go to Microsoft's HQ and throw a hammer through the biggest window you can find. They still don't take full responsibility for this conundrum.

Thanks for the feedback; I'm sure someone might find that useful in the future