URGENT: First boot-up Failure :(

S

sa3dos

New Member
Folks,

I have just finished building my new system, which consist of:

ASUS P5B Motherboard
Intel E6600
Kingston DDR2 Ram 1GB (Installed in DIMM_A1)
Power Supply: Antec TP3-430 -> 430 Watt
Hard Disk: Maxtor SATA Drive, 200GB
Graphic: Geforce 256mb 7900GS OC

I boot the system,

1.the first window starts shows the specefications of the Video Card.
2.second window shows that the system detected the CD-ROM/DVD Drive and the Maxtor Hard Disk,,
3. Since I start the boot with the CD-Rom inside, it asks me if i want to boot form the CD.. I have Windows XP in it, so I go for it.. after that, I get the Blue window with the things loading at the buttom of the screen.. and then when the buttom bar states: "Starting Windows" it stays there for 10 seconds, and then I get a new blue window with statement saying "The windows has shut down to prevent damage to the system,, if this is the first time you encountered such an error,, restart. Check your system for Virus, make sure the configuration of your hard disk is currect.. bla bla." And then an Error number at the buttom.

Some Info about possible reason of Hard Disk Failure: The Hard Disk which I am using (200GB) was connected to my previous Computer, and I use to Run Windows VISTA on it. I had two hard-disks on the previous computer (one is 200GB and the other is 30GB), the other hard disk (30GB) has Windows XP on it, so I went into windows XP, formatted 2 of the 3 partitions (D: and F:) using Full Format method, the third partition (E:) wouldnt let me format it except using "Quick Format".. if I try to make normal Format to it, i get a msg saying "Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again." ???

Please folks, i need to fix this system as soon as possible. What do you suggest for solution?
 
Are both or just one(200gb) drives installed when trying to install XP? Since you had Vista running was that installed to the 3rd partition? You would be trying to format with XP over a newer version of Windows which won't work. If you are looking for a clean install of XP on there you will first need a tool to remove Vista entirely off of the drive.

You can use zero fill utilities like drive tools provided by drive manufacturers or something like Active Killdisk to clean the entire drive. Or you can use a free Linux partitioning tool that boots from a cd-r if you have a cd writer available. Active Killdisk boots from a 3 1/2' floppy for zero filling drives. That is found at http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

With a cd writer and a freeware like BurnOn found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/ you can easily burn iso images like the GParted live for cd(Gnome Partition Editor) to a cd-r. This will create new NTFS type partitions as well as removing current ones. GParted is free to download from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828
 
thanks PC eye for the quick respond

Only the 200gb drive is installed in my new system when I try to boot and install windows XP. (And this is the same hard disk that had Windows XP earlier). What I did is, I started the new system with Windows Vista CD.. it started fine, and it took me to the Install steps,, when it asked me to select on which partition I would like to install windows Vista, I selected each partition and select "Format" and then I canceled installation. But then I tried putting Windows XP cd... same problem. I am trying your method now using Active Killdisk.. because i dont have a burner on my system ! I will update you with what happens
 
i would just make a win98 startup disk (if you have a floppy), and remove all the partitions using fdisk. you shouldn't have any problems installing after that.
 
I did the method using KILLDISK.exe, same problem :(

I am going to try the Win98 boot up disk, yes I do have a disk, but where can I get the win98 boot data from ?
 
just for future reference: bootdisk.com


totallydrivers.com has saved my butt a few times as well. they have some obscure drivers if you ever need them.
 
When you first formatted with the Vista cd and quit you left a newer signature with VIsta's own tools. The XP installer will fail due to this. I was hoping the Active Killdisk would have helped there. Your option now is either disk utility from the drive manufacturer or some 3rd party partitioning tool like GParted. The live version version is a usetool to have onhand even later for custom installs of either Windows or Linux.

The fdisk probably will be found useless if you used the Vista installer to initially create the three partitions. With plans to run XP you could installed XP first on the front end and VIsta afterwards on the second partition. The boot loader would give you the two options when first starting the system. Since the XP installer couldn't remove RC1 when that was installed to a second drive here GParted solved that fast!
 
Finally, but not too happy!!

I have been trying for so long to get this machine working, I used KILLDISK, all my partitions on the harddisk is gone, which is GREAT!! but Windows XP installation still does not work. I put the stupid Windows Vista RC1 dvd and the installation went fine. I am finally using the machine, but with vista RC1 :S..

I am already planning on purchasing the final version of windows vista when it comes out next week, for the time being, should I wait for it to come out and then format this and install the complete version, or am I still going to be facing problems with the complete vista version?
 
Upon cleaning RC1 off with GParted since the XP installer wouldn't on the second drive here the Pro version saw a nice clean install without problems. I still have the Home edition on the primary. With Killdisk you wipe everything out period. Did you remember to create a new primary when going to install XP? You first have to create a new partition for Windows to install onto. Vista's installer probably went through those steps automatically.
 
PC eye said:
When you first formatted with the Vista cd and quit you left a newer signature with VIsta's own tools. The XP installer will fail due to this. I was hoping the Active Killdisk would have helped there. Your option now is either disk utility from the drive manufacturer or some 3rd party partitioning tool like GParted. The live version version is a usetool to have onhand even later for custom installs of either Windows or Linux.

The fdisk probably will be found useless if you used the Vista installer to initially create the three partitions. With plans to run XP you could installed XP first on the front end and VIsta afterwards on the second partition. The boot loader would give you the two options when first starting the system. Since the XP installer couldn't remove RC1 when that was installed to a second drive here GParted solved that fast!
Click to expand...

why wouldn't fdisk work in this case? i have no experience with vista, but aren't partitions partitions? it shouldn't matter which program you use to partition the drive. i just thought that fdisk would be the easiest and most easily accessible way to remove all traces of any os. if i am wrong, i'd like to know why, just so i know for future reference.
 
Fdisk itself is based on the old MSDos file system not NTFS. GParted also allows you to move and resize partitions as well as remove and create new ones. You can use to create new Fat16 and Fat32 partitions as well as NTFS, VFat types for Linux, and even other OSs. On many systems at this late date there is no floppy drive to even use fdisk on anymore.
 
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