Help!!! Drive C, D, and A are in MS-Dos based file system!!! Going so slow!

I need urgant help! I just got my new ata100/133 IDE rounded cables (one 18" for cd rom drive, one 10" for HD, and one 10" floppy cord for the floppy drive) today along with a few other lighted goodies. I took off my IDE cables one by one (the old ones) as I replaced them with the new ones (one by one). That way i couldnt get them in the wrong spot. I had everything setup and good to go (just the ide cables, and cathode light, the rest was for later), and i booted up. Hmmmm 10 beeps from the pc chips m817LMR board. It said "Please Wait" after it read my ram and it was there for a while so i turned it off and put back my normal IDE cables. Now it boots (no beeps), but either takes more than 15min to load windows, or dosent load windows in nonsafe mode. So then I tried safemode and after 5-10min wait it loaded up. I went to my computer and rightclicked to properties. There it said something like

Drive C: is in a MSDOS based filesystem mode.
Drive D: " " " " " "
Drive A: " " " " " "

Well that was odd. I went into System and no devices were conflicting. I rebooted once again to safe mode but this time to find that whenever i do anything (click on the start menu bar, right click somewhere,etc) it says Exlporer had an illegal operation and then brings up the box that says u went into safe mode blah blah blah

HELP!

Its not a virus becuase i scanned with the cleaner yesterday. It hasnt been doing anything like this before, just until i installed my stuff. Could it be that my motherboard/hd/something dosent accept ata133/100?

Specs:
PC CHIPS m817LMR
1333mhz Athlon cpu
ide cables (normal)
ide cables (ATA100/133 UV reactive from SVC)

[DoctorReno]

I think you mean MS DOS compatability mode. This usually means that it is a driver issue and Windows is unable to load the 32 bit real mode drivers.

First, what OS are you using?

Next, although you say you changed cables one by one it really sounds like something got switched. You can get a flashlight and maybe a magnifying glass and if you look really closely by the IDE connectors on the MoBo you will see something to the effect of Primary IDE and Secondary IDE screened on the board respectively for the 2 connectors. There is absolutely no way you could have gotten a floppy cable and an IDE cable mixed up.
Most cables have a tab that fits into a notch on the MoBo connector and the connector on the HD and CD so you can plug the cable in only one way but double check to make sure that the cable "flipped".

Anyhow, make sure that the Primary IDE is going to your HD and that Secondary it the one going to the CD Rom.

Next, preferably from Safe Mode, I would go into your Device Manager and under the IDE tab expand the selections and delete/uninstall the IDE controllers. (Note: for the IDE controllers there will probably be 3 components displayed. The first will be something like Intel xxxxxxxxxx bus master and below that will be the Primary IDE and the Secondary IDE. You only have to remove the Intel one to remove them all.)
While there you might just as well go into Disk Drives and delete/uninstall the HD(s) and the floppy drive(s) and then go into CD Rom and delete/uninstall the CD drive(s). Uninstall all the HD's, floppys and CD drives if more than one is shown so that when it redetects only your currently installed components will be detected.

Then restart the machine and let Windows redetect and configure all the components. Hopefully, this will get the right drivers initializing for the devices.

I'm using Windows 98SE. Thanks for your help, I really need it right now. I'll try what you said and post back.

Ugh, I can't get into windows anymore, all i get is illegal operation (explorer.exe), and then it reloads back from when it says you are in safe mode and repeats itself. Would reformatting defanitly fix my problem? That wouldn't be a hassle, i needed to reformat anyways.

[dustyrun]

Yes reformatting should fix the problem. When you removed the eide channels and hdrives, you should have had it redect hardware before shutting off computer. Also sometimes you need to move the inf dir in windows. this is where all drivers are stored and windows looks there first.

Rick

[Detritus]

Ugh!!! Don't rush to a reformat, first, swap your new cables out one by one with the known working old ones, expecially that cd-rom cable. cd-roms aren't ultra ATA and sometimes don't like ultra ata cables. Then try removing the cathode lighting, you may be overdrawing your powersupply, sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back.

Hope I can help

[thronka]

Maybe a picture of the insides would be good.

Well a lot has changed.......i couldnt even get to windows, or even read the drive!!!! I booted to dos and i went to c and "Invalid Drive Specification", I Used the new and the old ide cable and even got a new one from my buddy across the street and none of those worked on my 40GB (the one i normaly use). I put in an old ass 2GB (which i was lucky to find btw), and it boots up, loads and can install windows (thats what im doing right now). I tried putting my 40GB in another computer with no luck. The 40GB will read in bios but when you go to fdisk or to windows setup it says "Error reading/writing/accessing (i forget which one) your fixed Hard Drive". Or something of that sort anyways. Could replacing an IDE cable really mess up my HD that way? If I tell SVC what happened you think they would refund me a 40GB (i REALLY doubt it but, hey its worth the 2 minute email to try).

I'm burning Knoppix and installing Windows98SE to my 2GB hard drive right now. (Burning Knoppix on other computer)

Hello, im posting from my normal computer. With an almighty 2GB hard drive! It seems that my old HD must have gotten fried somehow but seems vvverrryyyy odd. Could this happen again? If I got a brand new 100GB and it fried, my friends, i would be pissed. Anybody got suggestions or comments?

[DoctorReno]

Hmmmmm.... Put your 40gig drive back in and then go into the BIOS setup and redetect and configure the drive. Possibly that is why you were getting the invalid drive specification. When you restart, Windows should detect the drive but you may have to go back into Device Mgr, delete the 2 gig, restart and Wiindows "should" detect it. I have only had a couple HD's that I had to go into Add Hardware to get windows to install.

The only other thing I can think of is: IF you didn't ground yourself out thru the systems chassis before you touched your HD it is possible that you discharged your static buildup into the HD and damaged it.