Error writing to C: when installing software...

[Brian07]

I am getting an error, blue screens telling me there is an error writing to c:, so I cannot install various pieces of software. Some stuff will install while other pieces of software will not. I replaced the hard drive and everything fires up and installs just great. The drive in question is a Maxtor 15 gigger, I've ran the powermax utilities, utilizing every option to try and get an error code to RMA the drive, but it checks out as being ok. Since other drives work, I can rule out the controller on the MB. Any ideas? I have jumpers settings correct, disabled DMA, I'm lost...

Asus P3V4X
P3 500E oclocked to 701 - yes I reset this
Geforce 256 SDR
128 megs of memory 2 sticks - yes I swapped this


Any help would be great!

 

[Zeppy]

Only three things I know of could be causing that:

1) Out of HD space.
2) Bad sector.
3) Two programs accessing the same sector at the same time.

I'm not a wiz on Hard Drives though. Someone else probably will have more substantial advice.

 

[formulav8]

Or you have it write protected

 

[Brian07]

Ok it was working just fine for months and just started doing this. You guys please enlighten me on what i can check. I've been playing with it and now when I try to do a clean windows install I get a little black dos pop up box that says Error writing to drive A: (abort (r)etry) and I have no clue why this thing pops up, I happens everytime when windows starts copying system files to c:

Thanks!!!

Brian

 

[Zeppy]

Wha?! Error writing to drive A:? Hmmm...that's flat screwy. Try and put a formatted floppy into A: to see what happens. The only other thing I can think of is that for some reason Windows is trying to install itsself to the A drive. ACK!

You got a fun one there...

 

[AMB]

From a post I made:



Ahh,

I?ve been getting the exact problem, sometimes I get a BSOD saying 'Error Writing to C:' (though it is normally E, or sometimes the HDD makes a funny noise, and then ten seconds later, it will freeze,

Music will stop,

Mouse activity will stop.

When I click the restart button, the BIOS will say 'Detecting IDE Drives...? I need to unplug the power cord from the PSU, and start again. And it will be detected

This only happens about once a week, and has been happening for about 6 months; I should do something about it, before the warranty runs out .

It normally happens when copying data to E:, my Data/Documents drive. I will loose the data during the crash.

I have thought it was a graphic card problem, as sometimes, on restart, there have been numerous artefacts on the screen. But have ruled it out.

I have also thought it was a PSU problem, as the BSODs appear if the HDD suddenly looses power, and the need to 'reset' the PSU by taking the plug out.

BTW, my HDD is the Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 40 40.1Gb. I have partially concluded that it can?t be the HDD, as I haven?t lost my data after this happening for six months. Lets hope I didn?t speak too soon.

Hope you can help,

AMB

 

[jimmygates]

Happened to me before when I had 1) overclocked CPU or 2) incompatible memory. After I changed the memory to something more stable (Crucial) the errors went away.


-Jimbo

 

[AMB]

I have Crucial memory, so I guess it wouldnt be that, I have been changed the CAS from 3 to 2, for a while, I wonder whether it is that?

 

[Brian07]

I've tried unclocking the CPU, swapping memory, blowing away all partitions and reformatting as c: only. I can get windows to load, but loading software is not always successful because I get those long pauses that AMB was talking about.

 

[AMB]

In my other post, I was recommended to download Maxtor's Power Diag 2.4, and do a low level reformat, ahhh, I might as well try it.

 

[Brian07]

I've already tried that, didn't work for me. I don't get any errors at all when using power diag, so I can get an RMA for the drive. If I could find out a valid error code I would just ship the drive back.....