Removed Vista - Now Can't Install Any OS

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I spent all day yesterday trying to install any O/S onto this drive.
I ran the manufacturers tools, disk is ok. Ran fdisk, fixed mbr, tried to
install, 98se, ME, XP Home, XP Pro, LINNUX, and finally VISTA Out of all of
these the only one that will install is VISTA.
System is a laptop.
Pentium Celeron 2.53 GHz, 512mb Ram 40GB HDD, DVDRW.
Just getting ready to smash it to pieces now,
Question is 14lb or 28lb Sledge hammer.
Unless anyone can think of anything else to try.
 
As I understand it you have run FDISK many times and formated a primary
partition with Fat32 or NTFS and you can can not get an installation ofa any
OS other then Vista to sucessfully complerte since it does an apparently
unscheduled reboot early in the process that forces you to start all over
again instead of continuing with the installation after the reboot.
Have you reviewed all the BIOS parameters to see if anything appears
strange?
Have you tryed resetting all of the BIOS parameters to their default value
if you have that option?
 
If you have run Fdisk and removed all partitions. Have you recreated a new
partition and made it active? Then reboot and start making using to use
CD-ROM support. Then format the drive in Fat32 since that might be all that
is available.

I had a drive once I had wiped and could not get it to work using format if
I started in the system without the CD-ROM support.

Clark
 
If that doesn't work, go to the site below and download the free version and
set up a boot disc with the utilities on it.

Wipe the drive using the least involved eraser and then reboot and use the
same CD which should have Fdisk on it. Create the partitions, and make it
active, and then reboot using the Start with CD-ROM support and then format.
This should work no matter what.

http://www.killdisk.com/

Clark
 
Thanks for that tip Clark.
I've tried using kill disc and still no joy, can still only get vista to
install and even then it's not even the RC1 release that will install but the
one before that. The sledgehammer is looking more of an option now.
 
It would probably be less effort if you just sent it to me! ;-)

I do have an adapter I can use to allow the laptop drive to work in a
desktop. I don't really see if that would make any difference, unless there
was something about your motherboard or laptop itself which might be keeping
the drive from being reconfigured.

I was just thinking, does you bios have any options about the ESCD being
updated or not? Can you turn off the PnP OS option in the Bios?

Clark
 
All the tests that I have run on the drive show that it is ok. I can format
it both in fat32 and ntfs. If I run fdisk and view the partition I can see
that the partition is there. The MBR is there and ok. I install XP it gets so
far into the install with 39 minutes left of setup then comes up with the
error message setup cannot complete, cyclic redundancy, "if you are
installing from a disc it may be dirty", checked this disc is ok, tried
another disc get the same error message.
Try to install ME doesn't even begin to install same with 98, 95 and Linnux.
if I put Vista in the drive it installs straight away with no problems. This
machine has only ever been able to run the Beta 2 release. It did run XP
before installing Vista, out of options now.
I have run the manufacturers HDD tools, they show no problems with the disk.
I seem to have come to a dead end with this drive and am of the opinion that
it will be cheaper, easier and quicker to buy a new one. Saying that I would
still like to know the reason for this. I mean if the drive structure is ok
and there are no errors on the drive then an O/S should install regardless of
what O/S is being installed.
The main question is, Why is Vista the only O/S that will install on this
drive?
 
With that error message, I would try another DVD drive for the install.
Yours could be just dirty enough (or slightly out of alignment)not to be
able to read the other disks but can the one produced by itself. The drive
you are installing to is not the problem with this message. Also try
reconnecting the data cable to the drive first. Unplug and replug at both
ends.
 
Hi John,
have already thought of that and tried another 3 DVD Drives with the same
result, so that rules out the drive being DVD Drive. Thanks for the
suggestion though.
 
Drivescruber is not like the oem from seagate or western digital. It is used
to really zero drive in case you want to sell and make sure nothing remains
from your system. Will run more than one kind of zero options. You should
read about it then decide.
 
Laptop in question is a Packard Bell
--
Ghost


Kerry Brown said:
Is the computer an IBM/Lenovo? They and probably others (particularly
laptops) have enabled a hidden protected area of the hard drive in the BIOS.
If you alter the drive to remove this you may experience many problems. If
this is the case something in the following searches may help.

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=ibm+predesktop&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE&go.x=12&go.y=7&go=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=IBM+predesktop&btnG=Search&meta=
Click to expand...
 
I just encountered the same problem. When I just started vista install it said do I want to install clean or upgrade. I said upgrade, but it said I have to be in XP to upgrade so I rebooted and XP BSD'ed error 0x0000000007b before logon screen. So I decided to just install it. I did, most drivers weren't out yet for my system so I decided to bakc up to XP and now can't get that file to copy over no matter what I try.

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
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