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I posted this message to one of the Microsoft newsgroups but did not receive
any responses. I am reposting to this group and hope someone here will be
able to offer some suggestions.

I have been trying to help a friend at long distance (she lives several
states away). It has been very frustrating because I cannot see her
computer and I have never had the problems she describes -- and also because
she knows very little about computers. In essence, here is the problem as I
understand it: she is using an IBM laptop computer (ThinkPad, model 1412,
with memory upgrade). She purchased XP-Professional Edition and installed
it. USB devices worked correctly. At some point, she did a repair
installation XP. She also has Partition Magic, and she had to repartition
to provide more space in the C drive when she did the repair install. It
appears that she still has a few files that refer to SE and 2000, but it is
not clear what these are.

Now she cannot use *any* USB devices. When she used the CD that came with
her SanDisk card reader, it indicated that she did not need to install
anything for XP drivers. However, plugging the device into the USB port did
not give any reaction at all. She later used the CD and selected 2000
(desperation move on her part, I guess). This time, the yellow light would
light up on the SanDisk reader, but that was all -- the green light showing
which media was being used does not react, and there is no reference to
SanDisk under MyComputer. None of her other USB devices works -- such an HP
printer. *All* of them worked correctly the first time XP was installed;
all of these problems occurred after she used the repair installation. She
has not installed any other programs because she is still trying to get XP
to work correctly.

We made several attempts with start>run>msconfig, but had no success. She
was not even able to use modified boot.ini because it is grayed out (but I
suspect it would not have helped).

Help, please. Any ideas?

MaryL

Since I am even further away from the problem then you,
my guess is that PartitionMagic has lost her drivers...

Do you know if she did her resizing using PM in Windoz
or if she used the DOS based disks that can be made and
did it at command line??? If she attempted the Windoz
method I can fairly confident that the results of PM is
either the problem or part there it.

Since she has multiple partitions (I'm guessing she
does since she's using PM) why doesn't move her data to
another partition (or better yet back it up) and then
she can format her Windoz drive and reinstall--she
still likely will wave some cobwebs since she can't
refresh the MBR but she should get a cleaner copy
including her drivers...

BTW, I couldn't get anything off of IBM's site for the
1412, has it enough resources to properly run XP???
--
br1ght
_____________________________
"MaryL" <-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote

: She purchased XP-Professional Edition and installed
: it. USB devices worked correctly. At some point,
she did a repair
: installation XP. She also has Partition Magic, and
she had to repartition
: to provide more space in the C drive when she did the
repair install.
:
: Now she cannot use *any* USB devices. When she used
the CD that came with
: her SanDisk card reader, it indicated that she did
not need to install
: anything for XP drivers.

"br1ght" <nitrox_frogy@/screw_your_spam/.yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsqJ%b.2$...
> Since I am even further away from the problem then you,
> my guess is that PartitionMagic has lost her drivers...
>
> Do you know if she did her resizing using PM in Windoz
> or if she used the DOS based disks that can be made and
> did it at command line??? If she attempted the Windoz
> method I can fairly confident that the results of PM is
> either the problem or part there it.
>

I think you are probably correct. I am going to call her tonight, and I
will check on this.
>
> Since she has multiple partitions (I'm guessing she
> does since she's using PM) why doesn't move her data to
> another partition (or better yet back it up) and then
> she can format her Windoz drive and reinstall--she
> still likely will wave some cobwebs since she can't
> refresh the MBR but she should get a cleaner copy
> including her drivers...
>

Good idea. I think she allocated Drive C to Win and keeps just about
everything else on Drive D, so she may already be in good shape to do that.
>
> BTW, I couldn't get anything off of IBM's site for the
> 1412, has it enough resources to properly run XP???
>

The IBM 1412 was originally mine. You are correct that the computer would
not have supported XP; it was configured with Win 98 when I bought it. I
was no longer using it, and she didn't have a computer; so I shipped it to
her. At the time, I thought she would make limited use of it primarily for
email, surfing the Internet, and some word processing. However, she got
more ambitious than that (even though she had never touched a computer
before), and she upgraded it. Her space is so limited that she needed to
use a laptop, even though I told her that she would probably get a better
deal for the money she spent by getting a basic desktop. At any rate, the
upgraded 1412 does have the resources for XP (although I'm not sure if I
would say to "properly" run XP), and it apparently worked well before she
did the repair install. All of her USB devices worked well at that time.
Then she purchased a lot of inexpensive programs, something conflicted, and
that's when she reinstalled. She is a lot braver than I was when I first
began to work with computers!

MaryL
>
> --
> br1ght
>