XP with SP2 - "A disk error has occured"

  • Thread starter Thread starter snydley
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snydley

I moved a 250G hard disk with XP on it from one computer to another, the
former being a dual - core 2.93G extreme, the later a 2.93 P4. Now, when I
boot the P4 up I get an "A disk error has occurred" error message and the
machine won't boot. If I boot with the XP CD and use XP's recovery console,
use Fixboot and then exit, the hard drive boots to XP fine, all of the files
are there and everything is good, until I shut it off for awhile and try it
again, then I have to go through this process again. I was able to replace
all of the chipset drivers for the motherboard, video card drivers etc., and
Control Panel > System shows everything to be in order. Also, Control Panel
Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management reports the
Click to expand...
disk as being healthy,(system).
I'm relatively certain that if I re-install XP on this drive in the P4
machine it will straighten itself out, but I have gigs of data on it, and
don't really want to have to back everything up and reinstall it all again
if I can somehow fix this boot broblem.
Does anyone know what's wrong and what I can do to get this drive to boot
properly?

Thanks,
Snyde
 
You have discovered the problem with trying to move a harddrive with Windows
on it from one computer to another. You get unending errors, despite your
workarounds. You HAVE to reformat the harddrive and do a fresh install of
the OS when you move a hardrive that has the OS on it.
 
snydley said:
I moved a 250G hard disk with XP on it from one computer to another, the
former being a dual - core 2.93G extreme, the later a 2.93 P4. Now, when I
boot the P4 up I get an "A disk error has occurred" error message and the
machine won't boot. If I boot with the XP CD and use XP's recovery console,
use Fixboot and then exit, the hard drive boots to XP fine, all of the files
are there and everything is good, until I shut it off for awhile and try it
again, then I have to go through this process again. I was able to replace
all of the chipset drivers for the motherboard, video card drivers etc.,
Click to expand...
and


Try a repair install
 
DaveW said:
You have discovered the problem with trying to move a harddrive with
Windows on it from one computer to another. You get unending errors,
despite your workarounds. You HAVE to reformat the harddrive and do
a fresh install of the OS when you move a hardrive that has the OS on it.
Click to expand...

No you dont, you can do a repair install too.
 
A repair install? I take it that's different than using the repair console
and using fixboot? Do you mean to just re-install over top of itself without
deleting the partition when asked?
Thanks,
Snyde
 
snydley said:
A repair install? I take it that's different than using the repair console and using fixboot?
Correct.

Do you mean to just re-install over top of
itself without deleting the partition when asked?
Click to expand...

Correct. The install will say that its found an existing install
and offer to repair it if you tell it to install where its currently
installed and dont format or delete the partition. Accept the offer.
 
Before you do the repair install, try opening computer management>disk
management. Go to "Action" on the menu bar and click "rescan disks."

If that doesn't work, repair install.
 
Thanks for all the help Rod, and everyone else. I was never able to
straighten this drive out, so I "zero'd it out" using software from Seagate
and reinstalled XP and all my apps.
Snyde
 
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