dead PC and XP Help

linux seems the way forward

It/they won't be able to do any harm to Linux anyway -- viruses are the price you pay for using a piss poor OS.

Use something like Knoppix, burn it to CD, set the bios on your old box to boot from CD, away you go. But, to my mind, this sounds as much like HD failure as a virus.

sorry to dig up an old thread, but i have had some time on my hands.

i dismantled the desktop and re-attached everything and all seems operational...except BIOS/CMOS not seeing the HDD.

so i have installed Ubuntu and cant find the HDD and files (was able to test on laptop first to get to grips with it and also recover files on brothers laptop so i know how to use it) and it isnt seeing the HDD, however i can still hear the drive spinning and operating like its read/writing.

any ideas?

Is it a SATA or IDE drive? Have you reset the CMOS?

its IDE