OK
Heres my problem

I recently just did a fresh install of XP (same install disk as i always use )

All was going well, have aquired sp1 on disk so put that on to save downloading it all, still going lovely, downloaded all the critical updates from the web, flying along now, and then i downloaded (from the MS update site) an update for the AMD K7 (am running a slightly clocked Athlon xp 2800), on reboot got the dreaded blue screen, computer shut down to prevent damage blah blah blah.

So try and restart it and wont even post proper, not detecting ide drives.

repeated attempts make no difference. Cleared the biosback to basic, now when booting all seems fine, well to detect ide's anyway, but after posting and when looking for os it says invalid or missing os.

Booted from cd fine, so thought well i aint got too much to reinstall anyway so will start from scratch.

Starts installing reformats (long method just to be sure ), copies files over and then wants to reboot, just as normal, only on reboot comes up with missing operating system error again, done this a couple of times with different install disks.

went into recovery console on install disks done a reformat from there, still the same afterwards.

Somehow (cant remember where now possibly a 95 install disk) got partionmagic running and it reported partition error 110 and a MBR error, which it wouldnt do anything about fixing , so went back into the xp recovery console and run fixboot and tried to reinstall xp again, no joy still same problem, then back into recovery console again and run fixmbr and still no joy

Anybody now if there a way to sort this or is drive total U/S as a boot drive now. Or as i have a nice new sata drive on order anyway, could this drive still be used for staorage (gutted at the thought of scrapping a 120gb drive totaly ) or recon it may be on its way out or more chance the windows update screwed the mbr somehow.

Any input REALLY appreciated, may take a while for me to reply as am on my laptop and depends when i can get on

Dont think i left too much out lol

Thanks

Mo
AKA Steve

 

could really do with some ideas on this pls peeps, and am off to bed now so cant keep it up during the day so if someone wouldnt mind BTTing it a couple times for the clever people that live a normal life on the day shift, would be appreciated

Mo
aka Steve

 

Isnt there a FIXMBR command on the recovery console?

Could try that.

 

i had the same sort of problem once .. everything loaded fine .. then errors ... fitted a new hard drive .. all 100%

 

hard disks are that cheap m8 a repair is unviable as when there fooked, they really are fooked. now go and put it in the bin.

 

get an old win95/98 bootdisk

do run fdisk and remove all partitions

then do fdisk /mbr

then try installing again

if it dont work aftr that, sorry you're fucked

 

Re-read my original post thx anyway

Yep already got one on order ordered it Sunday, just probs aint gonna get it before weekend due to bank holiday and busy weekend (Trax )

That fine but what if u r a tight Cnut like me lol still after a bit of input on my second question, could i still use it for storage, aint ever had any probs with the drive before so was wondering if I could still use it for storage , as it seems to be the update that destroyed the mbr not physical fault type thing

Ye looking that way aint it
will try the old 98 disk as u say as aint tried that yet


Right another question the new drive i ordered is a 200gb sata drive, have read conflicting reports about how to set this up as a boot drive, so expect to run into some probs there as well point one is some people recon xp (when installing wont be sp1) wont see above 150gb so will have to partition it first do you guys know if this is correct, point b do i have to hit the f6 key on install to install drivers for it as i got a set up disk with my mobo, but that says for sata RAID and i aint setting up raid just one sata disk, point c do i have to set the boot order in bios to scsi (spose will depend on mobo as may have an option to select sata no matter how it runs it, just aint looked yet since ordering new drive )

Mo
aka Steve

 

just go thru the normal motions... and make the normal partition as big as possible... (as big as the setup program will let you... take the defaults make sure you format it as NTFS and NOT FAT32

then any left over un-partitioned space, set that up AFTERWARDS (control panel, administrative tools, computer managed, storage devices)

or do what i do... DONT BOTHER leave the unpartitioned space there and only bother to partition it if you actually even NEED it... as it confuses me having more than one drive/partition on my PC... lol

 

good point about leaving it alone (unpartitioned)

actually did a speed test of a drive i partitioned once and slowed the main drive down a bit but the second partition (drive) was a lot slower, dont understand why this happened tbh, but was on my laptop (compaq) running something called speedsys or something (for when running on batteries and or power consumption i think) maybe that why

Anyway borrowed a drive off a mate now so just gonna try and do a basic install (if the win 98 disk dont work) just to check there aint some silly setting in my bios i missed or anything worse

Mo
aka Steve

 

have you tried debuging the drive better than an fdisk

 

whats better than fdisk, pls

 

had another though m8. did you purchase the drive your self or was it in ya pc when ya got it? if you got it yourself or your pc IS NOT main brand like DELL etc you should have a 3year manufacturers warrenty. you can check this on the web by going to the manufacturers web site and checking the serial number. pm me if your stuck. cheers. adz.

 

hmm interesting

lets go have a look