Such thing as too many fdisks?

[Lunchboxah]

IBM 75GXP 30.0 gb..

I've repartitioned and formatted this drive an ungodly amount of times (probably 25-30) total tweaks...including merges with Partition Magic 5.1

Yesterday I blew away all of the partitions, created one 30gb Primary Partition, formatted, copied the Win98 Cabs over to a c:\i386 directory and ran Win98 setup. I get a winuser.exe error.

I repeated the blow away/recreate process and this time Win98 Setup exits after the initial menu.

I'm wondering if a Low Level Format utitlity (like loformat.exe from Abit's KT7 CD) would remedy this. If not, have I fdisked this puppy to death?

 

[PCResources]

Jeeesus, you must really love partitioning... Maybe i should hire you, cause everyone here just hates it. ;-)

But seriously, partitioning your HDD doesn't strain it at all, i think you have a problem with a current bad PT.

Try clearing it with a low level partitioning program, if it doesn't work you are welcome to contact me through this thread again, i'll help you solve it.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Lunchboxah]

Thanks for the response. I do have that loformat.exe utility, but it detects my 30 gb partition as an 8 gb (I know, the old dos limitation)

I know next to nothing about low-level formatting. Could this harm my drive in any way?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Use IBM's low level formatting program. It will detect the drive properly. You can't be sure the Abit program will work properly even if it did detect the size right.

There's nothing wrong with fdisking a lot, except the chance of a bad partition table. Low level formatting just writes zero's to the entire drive surface, wiping out any partition tables and formatting (so it becomes as if it was straight off the factory line).

 

[Lunchboxah]

I'm thinking you're both right. I'm searching the IBM site but can't find a low level format utility in either "Downloads" or "Support."

Anyone have a link? It would save a sloth from moving his fingers more than necessary...

 

[Lunchboxah]

IBM's quasi- IDE Low Level Format Utility;It rights zeroes to every sector of the drive.

Unfortunately, this didn't solve my problem. Here's the errors I get...and remember, this is after a low level format, fdisk'ed to create a new primary dos partition, and a format c: /s from the win98 boot disk:

1) W98SETUP Has caused a General Protection Fault in module KRNL386.exe at 0001:812B

2) Also an SUWIN.EXE error, which I don't have memorized and I'm on another box now.

 

[Noriaki]

I've seen winusr and suwin errors before.
It was either bad RAM or a bad CPU. I think it was CPU, can't remember 100% though.

I don't know if that's your problem, but I've never heard of partitioning to many times as hurting the drive, especially after a LowLevel Format.

 

[Cnuke]

Not sure if this will help, but it is worth a try.
Boot to a:\ and type fdisk /mbr
This will repair the Master Boot record.
I have had similar issues that I type this in 2 or three times (why 2 or 3 I do not know but it worked)

Good luck

 

[lostnthenet]

Actually,
Check to see if you have the antivirus activated in the Bios. That will cause errors like this. Please let me know the results.

Thanks,
ESP

 

[vi edit]

You aren't by chance using an Asus A7V or a TBird-800 are you?

Same problem I had. Couldn't install Win9X, Win NT, or Win2k to save my life. Bluescreens and error messages the whole time.

I ended up RMA'ing it. The tech that checked it said that the board was fine, but there were some changes in bios that he made to get it to work. He failed to tell me what they were.

Well, at least I got it back and it functions now.

 

[lostnthenet]

BUMP

 

[Lunchboxah]

1st things 1st:
Abit KT7-RAID
Duron 700@930 w/Chrome Orb
Corsair 128 CAS-3 and Sync Max 256 CAS-2 (both running CAS-3)
Evga GeForce2 MX Twinview
Sound Blast Live! Value w/ Digital Outs
IBM 75gxp ata100 31gb
Maxtor ata100 81gb
Plextor 12/10/32a
By the way, Sync Max 256 CAS-2 is $91 at www.jcshopper.com

Background
The MS Knowledge Base had suggested that it was an incorrect/conflicting setting within the bios, like several of you had mentioned. MS states that the most commond conflicts are with CPU speed and Memmory Timing. Wouldn't ya know it, I tinkered with both prior to this last reinstall attempt. a)I bumped the FSB to 103, b)I set both in use memory slots to run on turbo

Now my fix
As could be expected from the Background, I set the memory modules from Turbo to the Abit Softmenu III default of SDRAM. And Vualah...I'm writing this from the same misbehaving SOB it all started with.

Is this weird?
Yes, considering I was running my Duron 700@930 and memory at Turbo successfully with a Win98SE/2000 dual boot. Another oddity is that I couldn't set the Multiplier to 9 or the memory to Turbo until I jimmy rigged an AC unit to the inside of my case. But when I took the AC unit away, there was apparently no related stability issues. In fact, the initial file loss disaster may have been caused by the now infamous 933mhz, ata100 shutdown issue on Win9x boxes. Thankfully, after applying the patch (if you need it, reply with a request), I've had no trouble.