zero2

During the post this message is displayed "ide channel 1 no 80 conductor cable installed".

Next it loads windows splash screen and hangs, and will not boot into windows.

I tried to going into safe mode, I tried using use last known working configuration, and repairing an installation and all do the same thing and freeze.

I tried reseating all the ide cables, still the same message shows, and windows won't boot.

I finally replaced all the ide cables, and still the same message is showing during the post, and still it is unable to boot to windows.

Until today this computer was working great, it had Zone Alarm, Spybot Search & Destroy, Spywareblaster, Mozilla Firefox, and Trend Micro Antivirus. I would like to reformat, but there is data that has not been backed up...so I guess Im wondering what I should do next.

The computer is a GQ and has the following:
AMD Athlon +2000, 40GB HDD, 128 MB DDR Memory, CdRW Drive, CD Rom Drive, Windows XP Pro. The only hardware added was the CD RW Drive, and the OS was replaced to XP Pro, from Linspire/Lindows.

TIA, for help you can offer

-zero2