Topic: AAARGH hard drive woes

[daveeb]

Right i'll try that, XP on the 60 Gb drive as ntfs.  then i'll reconnect the slave with the dodgy partitions.....deep breath
no more dual boot for me either  

all the advice is very much appreciated sandra and simon  

[daveeb]

Chapter 10.  i put the 60 gb (ME) drive as master.  the cd won't boot so i ran the ME startup disc to get into dos.

found the i386\WINNT files on the XP cd.  started ok but then said smart drive not installed, do you want to continue.  as i've no idea what smart drive is (s.m.a.r.t is enabled on the disc normally...if this is the same thing) i continued.

anyway i carried on, loaded loads of files then had the message "please wait while setup copies files to hard disc".

there were no more messages, the hard drive light was permanently on.  after 45 mins i decided nothing was happening and did alt ctrl del.

now when i switch on i get three boot options, none work

"ME"   following file missing  "Windows root\ system32\hal.dll

"XP Install"    cannot find end user licensing sgreement   press
 f3 to quit

"XP"   cant read from selected boot disk.

i'm back on the xp drive now, thoroughly fed up and feeling very out of my depth.   :'( :'( :'(

[Sandra]

H Dave, I cant really understand why your are having all these problems, you werent a blonde in a previous life were you  

Have you managed to save the data that you wanted to save from your 60 gig drive, either to your XP drive or to another partion on your 60 gig drive ?

If so set your 60 gig drive as a single master, disconnect the XP drive, use the ME boot disk to be able to use Fdisk and format either the primary partition, (if you have your data saved to a second partition), or format the whole drive if you have moved your data to the XP drive already.

Then just do a clean install with XP which will allow you to select the size of partition that you would like it installing on.
I think that you are somehow missing reading some of the options, or misinterpreting them, during installation of XP.
Dont forget after booting from your ME boot disk to reset the bios to boot from teh CD rom  

[Sandra]

After our phone call Dave and you explained that you had XP installed on the second partition of your slave drive then this would have been the boot.ini that should have worked :

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)rdisk(0)disk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)
        \WINDOWS="Windows ME"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)
        \XP="Windows XP"

We (Scrumpy Jack and me), had summised that your XP OS was on the first partition of the second drive, so the information would have had the pc looking for an OS on the first partition not the second one  

Anyway its hopefully academic now as you are going to wipe your 60 gig drive and install XP on that as the single OS for the pc  

[Tony]

After our phone call Dave and you explained that you had XP installed on the second partition of your slave drive then this would have been the boot.ini that should have worked :

I've got to say,

If Dave had posted the HDD and partition arrangements on his PC. Plus on what HDD/partitions ME and XP were installed, Sandra and Scrumpy Jack would have had it sussed in no time.

Anyway there is always a positive in any situation however bad it may appear. And I think on this occasion it is apparent, information is KING, and if peeps take from this thread that conclusion, it has been a worthwhile exersize.

Sandra.......accept the PC-Pals medal of patience
Dave ........put this long pointy hat on and go stand in the corner.  

[daveeb]

thanks for the help line support sandra  , there could be a problem with getting the cd-rom to boot on startup but i'll check that first.  the ME hard drive won't work now anyhow after my sterling efforts  :-[ so wipeing it of ME forever is the best way.   So what i intend to do (as i understood sandras advice) is....

1. disable all boot options bar cd-rom to check the xp cd will boot then restore original boot options.

2. use ME startup disc to run FDISK to.....
   a.  remove existing partition
   b.  create a new partition.

   (do i bother with FORMAT afterwards or will XP do that)

3. boot with XP disc and let it format the partition (as ntfs  ) and hopefully get a lovely working OS.

Are there any glaring mistakes in my plans, please let me know of mistakes or omissions as i've messed up enough recently.

Thanks

dave the blonde

[Tony]

I assume you are starting from scratch Dave, and are consigining ME to the Bin, I mean why the hell would you want to keep it anyway.

Make sure all the "data" you wish to keep is on a partition OTHER than C:Drive, if your going to install XP on that particulare Hard Drive. If your data is on the the other drive it will be OK where it is, whatever partition it is on. Only have the Hard Drive you wish to install XP on and use as you Master Drive connected up inside your case. {this way, no matter how Blonde you are, it can only install to C:Drive on the HDD you want to use as Master ]

Set CD-Rom as first boot drive in Bios, with whatever HDD you chose to use as second boot option, then run setup from the XP CD. Choose clean install, delete existing C: Drive, create new C:Drive and  format in NTFS, and install XP.

Assuming you have your data on the other drive, if you delete all partitions on the HDD you are going to use as the Master. And reformat as one partition in NTFS, your drives will be C:Drive [HDD], first CD-Rom D:Drive, second CD-Rom  E:drive. If you then add your second drive,after installing  XP they will be assigned new drive letters following on from E:    

[daveeb]

Yes Tony i'm very much starting again  . I want to wipe the drive clean of a messed up ME OS & botched XP installation, then have it with just one partition with XP on. then when all is well i'll reintroduce the slave.  The bit i still don't understand is.....

 i don't want to risk running straight from the XP disk bearing in mind there's a botched XP part installation already on.

i've been advised to run FDISK first, but.....

do i run FDISK to delete then recreate a single partition, then go straight to the XP disc

or

run FDISK to delete then recreate a single partition, then run FORMAT to format the partition as fat32 (will FORMAT do ntfs)
Then go to the XP cd to allow it to format as ntfs and install windows.  

(The link to the instructions simon gave seem to say the drive has to be partitioned AND formatted before running the CD)

I just want to get it 100% right this time.  Do my babblings make any sense  

p.s.  part of my problem may have come from the apparent inability of the pc to boot from the cd-rom as first boot device.  is it always the master device that will be accessed (dvd = master  cd= slave on ide 2). i may have to get the xp install boot discs.

[Tony]

Dave if you abit doubtfull about doing it straight from the XP CD, you can run FDISK, as it does not take long. Just delete every thing, I dont think there is a need to create a new Primary Drive, and or format it, but if you want to you can do. But in any case when you are installing XP, you will be given format options.

In Bios you will be given the Master CD-Rom drive as an option for "first boot" so I suggest you use that as first boot and your hard drive will be the "second boot" option, save and exit.

Pop in your XP CD and just follow the on screen instructions. it will give you the option to format in Fat32 or NTFS, choose the later. And as Sandra said, during the proccess it will reboot and you will see the "on screen boot from CD" option AGAIN. If you hit that choice again, all you will do is be starting the install process again, so just ignore it, and it will carry on with the installation it is currently in the procces of doing.

[Sandra]

The XP CD should allow you do do everything you need Dave, but as you said it seemed to start booting from the CD then booted from the hard drive, I suggested using the ME start up disk to format the drive completely so that it cant boot from anything but the cd rom as it wont have any files anywhere to do it other than on the cd  
I am just wondering if you are missing the "Press any key to boot from CD rom" on your initial boot Dave  
You must press a key to start the process off but as Tony says when it starts installing and subsequently reboots do not press any key when given that option again or you will be going round in circles  

[daveeb]

Okey dokey   If the cd-rom boot fails i'll get the XP install boot disks from the site simon suggested.  

[Sandra]

This page, a link from the page that Simon posted earlier, has a good pictorial guide for what the screen shows at each stage Dave.

http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/InstallXPPro/installxppro1.htm

I suggest that you study each screen picture, especially the first page of pics, so you can see what to expect and what your options are, as I am certain that you missed a step or hit the wrong key during the previous attempts  

Good luck  

[daveeb]

Thanks