win2k "Disk I/O error. NTDETECT failed"

[METALWORK]

Help me Floyd. I had a new installation of Win2K running decently but games just weren't cutting it. I decided to reinstall using the F5 input so that (1)devices would have unique IRQs and also (2)reformatting with FAT32. I used IBMs DriveGuide utility to reformat after having no luck in Windows reformatting the partition Windows was installed on.
Now when I attempt to install Win2K with the startup disks I get the error message "Disk I/O error: Status=00001000
NTDETECT failed." The harddrive is a Deskstar 30. GB. Any suggestions on how to fdisk/reformat or what to do will be greatly appreciated. For now it's off to get the Xmas tree.

 

[METALWORK]

I cry out for help. How can I get Win2K running again on this HD?
What does this error message mean? By the way got a great $10. deal on a tree fresh from the woods, a really huge one this year.

 

[bigshooter]

Are you sure its booting off your floppy. If you formatted and win2k is gone, then ntldr is looking for your win2k install which is gone. If you are booting off of floppies it should go straight through the setup process. Also why don't you just format through the win2k install. One last thing, why are you using floppies? If you have a computer that's fast enough to run win2k you should be able to boot off its cdrom instead of using floppies. It's a lot faster that way.

 

[METALWORK]

Yes it is booting off of the floppy. The CD isn't being read now though the drive is showing up in the BIOS. It is spinning and it was working fine before I screwed things up. What I would like to do is to start over with things the way they were. Could you suggest how I
can get a program for a reformat? Or what to do?

 

[noxipoo]

remake the bootdisks using makeboot on the cd-rom. mkboot32 screwed on me and gave me the same error msg

 

[METALWORK]

Yeah I tried that.

 

[Floyd]

The error is most assuredly related to the hard drive or controller. Are you using an add-on controller card like a Promise or Maxtor ATA/100, or is the drive on the motherboard's IDE port (and if so, what transfer mode is the IDE port...ATA/33/66/100)? And am I correct to assume the haven't been any hard drive or controller changes since the initial successful installation?

If you are installing Win2k as the only operating system (i.e. not dual booting with anything), make sure the drive is totally clean...no residual partitions or anything. It sounds like the partitions and/or the FAT may be corrupted. If you have any data (email, documents, images, etc), be sure to back them up first. I'm not sure if DOS fdisk will allow you to remove an NTFS partition, but if not, download a low-level formatting utility from IBM and use it to wipe the drive. Then try installing Win2k again...I'd recommend booting from the CD rather than the diskettes because it is much faster, just check to see that your BIOS is set up to boot from CD (boot sequence like A,CDROM,C). Furthermore, errors are less likely with the CD-ROM. If you can't boot from the CD, go ahead and use the diskettes and let us know how it turns out.

BTW, sorry I didn't see your thread earlier.

Best regards,
Floyd

 

[METALWORK]

Thanks Floyd. I got the diagnostic/format utility and I hope to give it a whirl soon. When and if I get things ready for Win2K install I am wondering if you or others have any insights on using Standard PC and suggested IRQ assignments for Abit KT7 MB. Only after I chose Standard PC on my reinstall did the problem reading the floppy startup, and then I booted from the CD. Could the problem have started because of a setting in the BIOS and new IRQ assignments? Still I want sound and video on their own IRQs, though I am going to stick with NTFS partitioning.

TB900, Abit KT7 RAID, ATA-100 IDE
Leadtek GTS Geforce2 32 MB
IBM 30.7GB Ultra-ATA100 7200RPM
Mem-man 256 MB 133 MHz Mosel Vitalic
CreativeLabs SBLive Value
Antec SX1030 300W
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