There used to be groups where one could get a cogent answer about PCs
acting up.
I'll try here.

I have a friend with an E-Machines PC.
OS is XP home. It looked to me that the HD had failed.
I confirmed this to my mind by using a sata to usb adapter and found that
the old HD could not be accessed.
I checked that my setup was ok using other drives that were on hand.

So I had her get a replacement HD. Two restore disks are on hand so I
charged ahead feeling that all would be well.

Phoenix BIOS is set to start from the CD first and the HD next.

But when trying to start the recovery from the CD. there are two choices.
1) restore the system.
or
2) start from the CD

Choice 1 warns that all data will be lost. That's ok. It's a new HD
So I select Y go do it and the system hangs
Trying choice 2 brings an unexpected result. The system tries to start from
a nonexistent A drive.

This box has no A drive. Looking through the setup panels show no mention of
a floppy drive.

What now?

Charlie