Can't reload XP home-it says Drive maybe damaged -what can I do?

[lucien14]

Hi its me again.
i still can't get into Xp home to fix crash problem. I've tried recovery console with Xp boot up disk-chkdsk said some irrecoverable errors. I did what linney suggested(see Xp crash 04/24/03) nothing seemed to work So i tried to reload Xp home again-said it would reformat. Half way through error came up said it can't format due to MAybe disc damage. Don't tell me its the hard drive- because Iv'e partioned hard drive and i've got Win98 on one part and Xp on the the other and Win 98 boots up fin. So what is going on- just tell me how to get to get in and fix it.(Yes wolluf- Win98 is Fat23 and the Xp partion is Nfts) It must be a virus.
You guys are great out there- I know one of you could sort this. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

[bcastner]

If there are hard sector errors, and it sounds like it, you need to go to the manufacturer's web site for a diagnostic disk and see if you can remap the sectors. This unfortunately will also wipe your drive.

If the drive is S.M.A.R.T. enabled, you may be able to get by with a BIOS setting change to disable SMART support for the drive.

But, quite frankly, the drive is FUBAR, and if under Warranty you should replace it with an RMA; and if not, you should just replace it. If you bite the bullet now to go this route then you can temporarily install the old drive as a slave and use any of the many utilities to do a partition drive-to-drive copy. Many of the manufacturer's drive utilities support this feature, and its free. Otherwise look to a third-party solution from On-track, Acronis, Powerquest or Norton.

If you play with trying to repair the faulty sectors on the drive you run a very real risk of losing everything and having to do an RMA or drive replacement with no backup disk to copy from.

 

[paparazi]

Mine is a last resort fix!
Use the Hard Drive manufactures HD utility program to low level format (gets rid of all known germs lol ) well usually! and carry out S.M.A.R.T "bring drive back to factory settings" or similar.
These things usually take an age but are the proper manufactures tests and drive recovery procedures that they insist you carry out before any warranty returns, they will in most cases recover the drive to a good working state.
These programs are free from the manufactures website and once downloaded and extracted they produce a bootable floppy disc that you use to boot from, then just follow the instructions. Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[lucien14]

From Lucien14
Thanks for the help guys. The truth is I don't know the manufacturer's name as a friend built the computer for me and so assembled all ther bits. The drive was created when i upgraded from Win 8 to XP home by using partition magic. I'm quite willing to do a complete reformat as I have a back up disc thats saved all my crucial files. Any further ideas. this is areply message to bcaster and paparazi as i don't know how to use the reply system on this wonderful servive.
cheers guys.

 

[linney]

If you want to find the manufacturer of your hard drive you might have to open the back of the computer and take a look.

Here are some common manufacturers

http://www.seagate.com

http://www.maxtor.com

http://www.westerndigital.com

http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html

http://www.ibm.com

http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm

http://www.fujitsu.com

If you want to cross reference a thread just copy the underlined thread from under your post heading and paste it into your new post.

thread779-532784

 

[lucien14]

Thanks linney- I tried to reload through recovery console and it worked this time(wasn't quick format) and for a while it looked like it was going to work. Then I booted up again and straight away it detected a missing kernal and dll file and now it s locked up again and says it can't load windows. I think your solution to get the manufactures disc is the only course-but if the hard drive has bad sectors or corrupt files why is it that my Win 98 partition is fine. That's what I'm using now to write this.
Anyway thanks for all your help. I will keep you posted. bye for now.

 

[linney]

Your question as to why 98 is OK and XP not so may be answered in this article.

"NTLDR Is Missing" Error Message When You Upgrade or Install Windows XP Over Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q314057

"The Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code ignores the Heads value in the BPB and starts those programs even though the value is invalid. However, the boot code in Windows 2000 and Windows XP needs this value, and the boot process does not succeed if the value is invalid."

 

[j3w3ll]

i had a problem alike to this, i updated the bios on the motherboard and then had no problems re-installing

 

[lucien14]

Hi Guys,
Thanks to Martin (paparazi) and linney. Well I have done what you said to do. My Hard drive was a Maxtor-so I promptly went to the website and located the correct HD utility disc and did a low level format that took about 3 hours(Why does this get rid of all the germs I thought it just isolated bad sectors?)and it said it was successful . I then did a short format and it said it had failed. Nevermind not to be deterred i then loaded win XP and it actually works, no bad sectors , no boot up problems, its as good as new- Thanks alot guys particularly linney and martin. I have a cynical friend who says that it will go within aweek. He believes once you have a bad sector on a drive its had it. Is this true- has all my work be in vain. you can tell me guys I can take it.
Thanks again
Nick(Lucien 14)

 

[wolluf]

Nick - only time will tell - post back in a week! (but its certainly a possibility)

PS. How about handing out some stars for the good guys (paparazi & linney)?