Help Installing WinXP... Possible Hard Drive problem

[neonfiremanqtip]

Summary about says it all... I have a 200 GB hdd I'd like to install XP on. I've been using this 200 GB drive for the past few months simply for storage. It's broken into a 40GB and 146 GB partitions, both NTFS.

I go to install XP on the 40 GB partition. First series of copying files goes fine. When the computer reboots, I get the "Error loading operating system" message. When using FIXMBR or FDISK /MBR, I get a message saying that the MBR is corrupt and if I try to fix it, I may destroy data or partions, etc, etc.

If I fix MBR, and try installing from scratch again, cycle repeats...I've drive destroying both partitions, repartitioning, and attempting install... still no go.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

bad media/optical drive/cable(s)/etc. ..possibly the harddrive but more likely one of the first 3 listed..gl

 

[DaveSimmons]

Have you run Memtest to check RAM?

Is the first partition a primary partition set active? You can't boot from a logical drive in an extended partition.

 

[neonfiremanqtip]

cables and ram were ok...

problem solved by running a low level format and writing all zeros...thanks for the input though!