Reformatting Main Drive - Will I lose

Okay I'm in the bios and in one part - ASUSTeK EZ Flash 2 BIOS ROM Utility v3.37 it has three drives listed. C, D, E.

In my computer E has always been my SSD drive and D my DVD drive until this problem. In this utility it has C: as my main drive and when I load it I see all the programs it lists. It has D: as my SSD drive and when I load it it show WoW and InnerSpace. It has E: Optiarc DV which had nothing in it when I tried to load it due to nothing in the DVD drive. I put in a data disk and it shows it and loads it and you can see the files on the disk. When I click on "Drive Info" for this volume it says: Drave Name: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200A (I assume that's my DVD drive brand and model).

So not sure what any of that means.

In Boot Device Priority it shows the Optiarc DVD as the #1 boot option, then my hard drive as the 2nd option.

I had a DVD drive show up as inaccessible and then disappear on me a while back on XP. It was due to a corrupted registry node.

See if you can even find this node in your registry and see if this helps. http://www.sony-europe.com/discussions/message/439352

Okay... well crap.

There was a reason I said up above I didn't want to go mucking around in the bios.

I didn't change anything that I know of and when I exited the bios I just hit enter, not thinking that the option of save changes and exit would do anything since I didn't make any changes (that I know of). Now it won't boot at all.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Reset defaults. Or can you not even get into BIOS anymore?

I can't even get into the bios anymore.
Nothing boots. I swapped out my DVD drive for another I have here and tried booting with the windows disc and that didn't work either.

wow, sounds like you may have entered the area where its time to turn it over to a pro onsite.

you need to start unplugging devices from the power supply. no sounds or bios comming up is a sign that POST hasn't occured. reasons why may be a bad load on a line of you Power supply. the bare mim you need to have plugged in is your video card external power connects, the main power plug for the mainboard, and the supplemental power cable for the mainboard.

if you are happy that your Power supply isn't the issue, take all of the ram minus one chip, that you reseatted from the board. that should get you to a bios screen at least

if you can get to the bios screen, look for an option, "Load defaults Options" or something simular, just like Uhg said

If you are not certain about doing all of this on your own, seek a trusted friend, or pro to do it for you, or at least assist you in getting this fixed.

I am reading that you can reset your bios by taking out the battery on the motherboard. However I can't locate one for my Asus.

I may have to take it in and let it spend a few days at the shop until they can either fix and/or reformat it. I will lose some pictures that I haven't backed up but the rest I can reinstall.


EDIT: I found the battery. It was located under my two video cards. It's quite big, and can't be missed. It's about the size and shape of a quarter. The site said to leave it out for 2-3 minutes and put it back in and plug everything back in you disconnected. I'll see if that works.

The ongoing Malgor computer saga is at least stalled for now.

Taking out the battery did reset the bios and I was able to load the default settings and get my computer at least functioning for now. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks again for everyone helping out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Malgor

The ongoing Malgor computer saga is at least stalled for now.

Taking out the battery did reset the bios and I was able to load the default settings and get my computer at least functioning for now. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Thanks again for everyone helping out.

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You're on the path to becoming an expert at this young grasshopper...

You use the Braille method and just feel it out as you go... it's the way most of us learn how to do this stuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fenril

You're on the path to becoming an expert at this young grasshopper...

You use the Braille method and just feel it out as you go... it's the way most of us learn how to do this stuff.

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/agree

its nice to have someone around who tells you to keep on pushing a topic vs finding another solution / problem. but be warned, there aren't many people who can do a remote hardware troubleshoot without good background information that you provide, and even then, it may be a crap shoot.

GL