That seems to be a popular message for different hard drive problems.

Might check into you BIOS settings to see if the hard drive is set right ... maybe autoselect if you are unsure.

Another thing it might be would be loose cables on the hard drive....
or perhaps AVG removed a boot sector virus and you might need to rebuild or repair the MBR (Master Boot Record).

After trying all the different steps online to get the computer to boot back into Windows, I finally put the Windows XP CD into the computer and booted from it.
Since it would not let me repair the Windows, I had to reinstall it. Now, the Windows is reinstalled, but it is not showing my data on the main drive.
The primary drive was a 20 GB hard drive, but I had installed an 80 GB hard drive for storage. When I click on drive C, it shows all data on the 80 GB hard drive but not the 20 GB.
So, I think that maybe it installed Windows on the storage drive.
How can I tell if it has changed my 80 GB into my main drive and if my 20 GB is still working?
Thanks for any help.

Are you saying that you don't see the 20 gig drive at all? It could be that the drive failed and the only drive that is being recognized is the 80 gig drive.

Can you go into the BIOS and see what it says about drives that are installed? There's usually something as you start that says to press (some key) to enter setup. The key to press varies, but is usually either delete, escape, or one of the F keys.

Another thing to check is in the administrative tools (Start/Control Panel/Administrative tools). Go into Computer Management, then into Storage, then Disk Management (Local) and see what it shows for hard drives.

In administrative Tools, it only shows one 80 GB hard drive. If I go into device manager and click on disk drives, it shows both drives. How do I tell if the 20 GB is actually working?

Did you double-click on the 20GB hard drive in device manager to see if Windows says it working okay or not? If not, there's a troubleshooting box there that may help. HTH.

Terry

When I clicked troubleshoot it asked me if I am having trouble with a SCSI. What does this mean? I don't know what that means.

SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface or Scuzzy for short. With SCSI systems, the harddrive connected to a circuit card that was plugged into the motherboard. If your HD connects directly to the motherboard with a gray cable, it's IDE, not scsi, so you would answer no.

ok thank you Marooma,
Now it asks if my hardware is on the HCL?
It must be becasue this is the drive that came in the computer. or am i wrong?

HCL stands for Hardware Compatibility List. Its probably on the list. If not, Windows should pick a generic driver anyway. Below is the link for Windows HCL.

Terry

Here is a link that might be useful: Windows HCL

Wheni click on the 20 GB hard drive and look at the device status, it says that it is working, but it doesn't show that hard drive in the "my computer." It only shows the 80 GB HD. What does this tell you?

It doesn't tell me much. There should also be a box to scan for hardware changes. Try that. Also you need to enter the bios and make sure it's showing up there too. I think that the 20GB hd has probably crashed. That's why you originally got the error loading OS problem. The bios recognizes a harddrive on the hardware level, and windows recognizes a harddrive on a software level. Maybe that's why you are getting different indications at different places.

Terry

where is the bios? I already scanned for hardware updates and there were no newer updates than what were already on there.

BIOS stands for Basic Input/Output System. Basically it keeps the settings for hardware and turns the computer over from hardware to software so it can boot. When you first boot up your computer, the first screen you see should tell you what key to push to enter the bios.

Here is a link that might be useful: Computer BIOS

have you tried disconnecting the 80gig drive and then looking to see if it recognizes the other drive? or disconnect both then plug in the 20 gig and see?