XP install from hell...advice needed

[Fausto]

A friend of mine attempted to install XP on his computer yesterday. He initially attemped to go the "upgrade" route, but got some error messages indicating this wasn't possible (he had a buggy 98SE install....this was the initial reason to upgrade to XP). So, he decides to take all his MP3's and other important files, move them to the non-OS partition on his HD, and install XP over 98 (wiping the 98 install in the process). This results in a blue screen with a lovely "your XP install is completely FUBAR" message. Now the only way to get anything other than this screen is a boot disc. He calls me, I come over with my handy 6-floppy XP boot disc and attempt to get things to work. I can get to where I tell XP to format the former-98 partition in FAT32 or NTFS, but get an error message saying it can't format that partition. I'm stuck, any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Fausto

 

[jema]

Can you format the primary partition from a bootdisk using fdisk and is it large enough to contain XP?

 

[Fausto]

I tried that, but I cannot format the C: partition (it's plenty big enough)....I haven't tried to format D: yet as that is where all the MP3's and other files are that we're trying really hard not to overwrite.

One other thing, I do have an extra HD sitting around that should be big enough for an XP install....can I install XP on this, install it as the primary HD and use it to get into the corrupted HD to clean it up and rescue his files?

Fausto

 

[GregMal]

I would hook up the extra harddrive to the system and copy the MP3s to it.
Then use the Win98 emergency boot disk to use fdisk to remove the partitions.
Then make new partitions and format. Then boot to the XP CD and start fresh...
Greg

 

[Fausto]

Well, the catch is that the extra HD isn't big enough to rescue all the files (he's got about 3.5gigs of various stuff).

Assuming I can dig one up that's big enough...how do I transfer the files to the extra HD without the benefit of an operating system? I've got a C: prompt right now (via boot disc) and that's it.

Fausto

 

[Banana]

Fausto: This is a silly question on my part, but I'll ask anyway: Have you tried booting the system from the XP CD?

1YP

 

[Fausto]

It won't recognize the XP disc as a system disc for whatever reason. The only thing that gets me somthing besides the blue "you're f*cked" error screen is a floppy boot disc.

Fausto

 

[Banana]

Hmmm . . . I wonder if the XP CD is defective and is causing all the problems. Might try to exchange it with the vendor.

1YP

 

[Fausto]

Nope, not a defective disc. Installed XP on his laptop without a hitch.

Fausto

 

[GregMal]

Once you hook up a backup HD (it'll probably be the D: drive, and the old
D: drive will become the E: drive) you can boot with the floppy and use
DOS commands to copy from the E: to the D: drive.
Then remove the backup HD and you'll have the original C: and D: drives.
The reason I'd use fdisk to remove the partitions is that I'd want to
start from scratch with a new MBR. Also, my WD HD comes with a utility
that's much better then Scandisk. It will find bad sectors and flag them so
they won't be used by the OS. Maybe your HD has such a utility?
WD's is booted from the floppy.........Greg

 

[NogginBoink]

Are you getting a STOP 0x00000024?

If so, this is a problem with XP's setup. XP is trying to mount hard drives to scan for previous OSes and there's just enough ntfs filesystem corruption that the ntfs driver bites the dust and brings the OS with it.

Suggest you fdisk the drive with a DOS/9x boot floppy and nuke the questionable partition and try again.

Or, put this drive in another W2K/XP box and chkdsk the filesystems on all partitions of the drive.

I really need to know the STOP code to do any further guessing.

 

[OmegaStarRed]

You need to either boot to XP cdrom and delete the partion or to a boot disk and use fdisk. If you cannot boot to XP cdrom there is a problem with either the cd or the hardware. If its a retail cd and it worked booting to it on another computer its not a bad disk. Then it would have to be the hardware, first thing I would do to troubleshoot this is make sure he has the latest bios revision and make sure the boot order is set correctly. And if there are multiple cdrom drive try both. And as long as the motherboard and cdrom are atleast as new as 1996 they will be able to boot a cdrom unless there is a defect. And seeing that you are already seeing an ide problem it may be that there is a bigger underlying problem and I would probable replace the defective part. Because you will be able to boot to the cdrom even if you had no hard drive installed so if you cant boot then there is a big problem.

 

[NogginBoink]

<< You need to either boot to XP cdrom and delete the partion or to a boot disk and use fdisk. If you cannot boot to XP cdrom there is a problem with either the cd or the hardware. >>



This is not necessarily true. You didn't read (or understand) my above post, did you?

There are times when filesystem corruption on a hard drive can cause the XP installer to fail. The setup blue screens before you're able to select/delete/create partitions. This is not a CD problem nor is it a hardware problem. It is a bug in the XP setup program.

Under these conditions, it is totally impossible to install or repair XP from the XP CD. And it is caused by filesystem corruption. Not hardware or CD problems.