Well...I don't think you waited very long for any serious suggestions...and adding a post every hour on the hour (with changed circumstances) certainly doesn't lend itself to such from anyone trying to figure it out (IMO).
Regardless...that's always a poster option.
System manufacturer and model? So that someone can actually read the instructions for using this recovery partition and/or recovery CDs.
You say that you have a MS XP install CD also...or do you mean that you reinstalled Windows via one of the recovery/restore methods?
Louis
It's a Gateway E-Machine, Windows XP. And I reinstalled Windows via a CD, but that was due to something else, not this problem. I'm just wondering if any kind of reformat/factory recovery will affect the other harddrive. I didn't have it (the other drive) during any other reinstall. And I'm ALSO wondering if the factory recovery will have the same results as reformatting, I've read different opinions...
As for the other thing, lol, I can't keep away from the problem and rather than frustrate people by not updating my problems and having them reply to something that no longer applies, I figured I'd just update as I went along. And hey, I totally don't blame anyone if they have no idea. It seems the popular way to solve things is via HJT, and since I can't use that...I figure there probably won't be very many people who know what to do.