Gparted ate my hdd

[El Guaraguao]

windows vista 64bit
gateway fx p-7805u laptop

Ive spent the last two days trying to fix this severe issue. It all started two days ago. I decided to make a simple partition with win XP using gparted live cd. popped in the disc, I made a 20gb partition. Thats where the "fun" begins. To make a long story short, I ended up nuking the laptops hdd clean. I dont have any recovery disc. I dont want to call gateway and ask for one...yet.

I have a windows 7\vienna disc here I can install in the meantime. except when I try to install it, I get a bsod after the setup loads up some necessary files for installation. I looked up the error code and found out its related to my laptops hdd. it gave me a number of reasons, all related to the hdd. So just to make sure it wasnt damaged, i hooked it up to my PC and installed windows7 perfectly fine. I even got to play with it. After that, i disconnected that hdd and placed it in the laptop. After the windows logo finishes loading, monitor flashes blue (bsod) so fast, i cant read it. then restarts itself.

I need help finding out how to restore my laptops HDD so I can install an OS without the bsod stopping my progress. Or at least find out wth is going on.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you load W7 (or any other Windows OS) onto the hard drive when it's attached to another computer, the resulting hard drive will likely behave like yours did when you put it back into the laptop:

It'll start to load and then reboot itself.

Try booting the computer to a Vista or W7 Recovery environment. When the DVD boots, tell it you want to "Repair your computer" (second boot screen). Then tell it to enter the "Command Prompt". This will give you the equivalent of XP's Recovery Console. Along the way, it'll tell you if it needs device drivers to see the hard drive.

Once there, try examining the disk with the "DiskPart" command. It'll tell you what Windows sees on that hard drive, including partitions that are normally hidden from Vista's or W7's Disk Management tools. You can remove anything that's interfering with the installation or boot of Windows 7.

 

[El Guaraguao]

I have a vista recovery disk I download the other day. The cd is about 120mb in size. I can get into command prompt in there and get to the diskpart program. List disk, shows 1 disk, list partitition shows 1 partition (all of my hd). I dont see nothing wrong really. Should I clean the disk?

 

[El Guaraguao]

ok i managed to pull up the error code

stop: 0000007b

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316401

pretty much telling me to repartition and reformat my hd, which ive done a couple of times already and to think of doing it again pisses me off because it takes a couple of hours to partition an empty drive using gparted.

 

[RebateMonger]

The error you are seeing is what happens if a Windows installation is moved to a different computer with a different chipset.

There's no reason why deleting or adding partitions and formatting them should take more than a few seconds. You don't need a "full erase or full format".

If you are having problems with a Windows install, be sure that your hard drive and memory will pass a thorough diagnostics test. There can also be disk cabling, drive controller, and CD/DVD read issues. Those five things are the biggest causes of failed Windows installs.

 

[El Guaraguao]

ok then, in diskpart, which command should i type up for a clean wipe for a xp installation?

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: mofoe2001
ok then, in diskpart, which command should i type up for a clean wipe for a xp installation?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520

"To use the Diskpart.exe utility to clean the hard disk, follow these steps:

Insert the DVD into the DVD drive.
On the disk selection screen, press SHIFT+F10. A Command Prompt window opens.
Type diskpart, and then press ENTER to open the diskpart tool.
Type list disk, and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed.
Type sel disk number, and then press ENTER. number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean. The hard disk is now selected.
Type det disk, and then press ENTER. A list of partitions on the hard disk is displayed. Use this information to verify that the correct disk is selected.
Make sure that the disk does not contain required data, type clean all, and then press ENTER to clean the disk. All the partitions and all the data on the disk is permanently removed.
Type exit, and then press ENTER to close the diskpart tool.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Click the Refresh button to update the disk selection screen. This step lists the disk.
Run Windows Vista Setup to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista."

 

[El Guaraguao]

OK I performed a lengthy clean all command, followed by a reformat (ntfs) and a new partition. I still get the BSOD after windows finishes loading its files for installation.

I managed to boot some diagnostic tools from western digital and my hdd passed with flying colors, no damage has been done. Looks like this is all a driver issue. Anyone know where I can download my laptops recovery disk? or can i use *Any* gateway recovery disk?

 

[RebateMonger]

I looked over the manual for the Gateway notebook. Looks like it has complex drive controllers, unlike a "normal" notebook which often just does IDE emulation for its SATA drive.

When delivered, the Gateway offers the ability to create a set of restoration disks. It also has a built-in recovery partition (accessed by hitting F10 upon boot). But it sounds like you've removed those two options.

You are likely going to have to get drivers from Gateway's Support site for your particular computer.