Error Loading OS (XP) cont. from earlier thread

[Vince vW]

Hi,

This is a continuation from my problem, reported here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=...fe=off&group=comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage

A quick recap:
I tried to copy my system-partition using PM 8.1 to a newer HDD
(Samsung 160 GB), it messed up, Svend fixed it and helped me recover
my data.

Now what happened:
After backing up all my data, unplugging the old drive, and trying
unsuccessfully to rewrite a bootsector to the new drive, I decided to
erase all the partitions on the new drive and install XP from scratch.
XP copied all the files it said, asked me to reboot, and after I did
that it gave me the error: "error loading operating system". Tried
reinstalling several times, but no success and same error.

Now I'm back running XP on my old drive and can once again, just like
in the earlier thread, not able to see the SAMSUNG in windows or
Partition Magic, which just crashes. The only difference is that
nothing needs to be restored, as my data is already backed up.

The drive is seen in the Bios however, as well as in windows XP setup,
although lately WinXp-setup has taken the strange habbit of rebooting
or crashing itself on the 1st run, but running fine thereafter. Don't
know if that is somehow related?

Someway or other, I would like to install XP on the other drive
though...

I have searched around for this error. The following solutions I have
found, and was wondering if someone with experience could shed some
light on their validity.

Solution 1) Check for bad sectors with HDD-utility -> for unreadable
sectors?
Solution 2) Run a low-level format with my HDD-utility -> format
bootsector?
Solution 3) Goto the XP-console and type FIXMBR and/or FIXBOOT
Solution 4) Same, but from Win98 or linux fdisk /mbr
Solution 5) selecting LBA mode instead of CHS mode in the CMOS ->
don't know what this does

That's as far as I got. Does anyone concur with any of the suggestions
above or perhaps offer one of their own? Help would really be much
appreciated!

Thanks!

Vincent

 

[Rod Speed]

This is a continuation from my problem, reported here:

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=...fe=off&group=comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage

You should manually edit that back to just
http://groups.google.com/[email protected]
basically just keep the threadm field, or the selm field if its a link to a single post and not a thread.

A quick recap:
I tried to copy my system-partition using PM 8.1
to a newer HDD (Samsung 160 GB), it messed
up, Svend fixed it and helped me recover my data.

Now what happened:
After backing up all my data, unplugging the old drive, and trying
unsuccessfully to rewrite a bootsector to the new drive, I decided to
erase all the partitions on the new drive and install XP from scratch.
XP copied all the files it said, asked me to reboot, and after I did
that it gave me the error: "error loading operating system". Tried
reinstalling several times, but no success and same error.

Looks like from the below that there is some
basic problem with the system or its config.

Now I'm back running XP on my old drive and can once again,
just like in the earlier thread, not able to see the SAMSUNG in
windows or Partition Magic, which just crashes. The only difference
is that nothing needs to be restored, as my data is already backed up.

The drive is seen in the Bios however, as well as in windows
XP setup, although lately WinXp-setup has taken the strange
habbit of rebooting or crashing itself on the 1st run, but running
fine thereafter. Don't know if that is somehow related?

Yep, bet it is.

Someway or other, I would like to
install XP on the other drive though...

I'd try resetting the motherboard bios to bios defaults and
making sure that ACPI is enabled and try another clean install.

If that still doesnt boot, pull out everything except
the bare essentials of video card, hard drive and
cdrom drive and try another clean install.

If that still doesnt work, likely there is something
about the hardware XP doesnt like, even tho it
did work on the original drive.

XP can have a massive brain fart about some
hardware and be quite happy to install without
it and happy to have it added later after the install.

I have searched around for this error. The following
solutions I have found, and was wondering if someone
with experience could shed some light on their validity.

Solution 1) Check for bad sectors with
HDD-utility -> for unreadable sectors?

Check for any complaints about anything.

Solution 2) Run a low-level format with my HDD-utility

Not a good idea.

-> format bootsector?

Use Samsung's clearhdd is certainly worth trying.

Solution 3) Goto the XP-console and type FIXMBR and/or FIXBOOT

Its never a good idea to kludge up an OS install like that.
You should be working out why the clean install fails instead.

Basically an OS install uses the hardware quite a bit harder
than normal use with most personal desktop PCs and a clean
install can make hardware problems visible that you dont
normally see with normal use. The OS install should be used as
a test program to pin down where the hardware problem is.

Solution 4) Same, but from Win98 or linux fdisk /mbr

Pointless. XP installs its own.

Solution 5) selecting LBA mode instead of CHS
mode in the CMOS -> don't know what this does

You should be using AUTO in the drive type.

If you arent, that may be the problem.

 

[Vince vW]

Solution 1) Check for bad sectors with

HDD-utility -> for unreadable sectors?

I did a check last night and it reported that everything was fine with my drive

Solution 2) Run a low-level format with my HDD-utility

-> format bootsector?

Samsungs utility basically offers me the following options:
(found here: http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm)

PROCESS
TARGET LBA [39179952]
TARGET SIZE [19130MB ]
ERASE MBR
ERASE THE ENTIRE AREA
LOW LEVEL FORMAT

Do any of those sound like they might solve the problem?

 

[Rod Speed]

I did a check last night and it reported
that everything was fine with my drive

Samsungs utility basically offers me the following options:
(found here: http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm)

Thats not clearhdd. Use the clearhdd utility.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/clearhdd.htm

PROCESS
TARGET LBA [39179952]
TARGET SIZE [19130MB ]
ERASE MBR
ERASE THE ENTIRE AREA

Those last two are basically what clearhdd does.

LOW LEVEL FORMAT

Do any of those sound like they might solve the problem?

Safer to use clearhdd. I doubt it will fix the problem tho,
its much more likely your hardware has developed a problem.

 

[Vince vW]

Thank you very much for your assistance. ClearHDD seems to have solved my problem.

I did a check last night and it reported
that everything was fine with my drive

Samsungs utility basically offers me the following options:
(found here: http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm)

Thats not clearhdd. Use the clearhdd utility.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/clearhdd.htm

PROCESS
TARGET LBA [39179952]
TARGET SIZE [19130MB ]
ERASE MBR
ERASE THE ENTIRE AREA

Those last two are basically what clearhdd does.

LOW LEVEL FORMAT

Do any of those sound like they might solve the problem?

Safer to use clearhdd. I doubt it will fix the problem tho,
its much more likely your hardware has developed a problem.