Hi John, thanks for take the time and trouble to dive into this quagmire.
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Originally Posted by johnwill
Well, I'm sure that XP doesn't leave anything behind that would cause it to fail to install.
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You wouldn't think so, but my experience leads me to no other conclusion. lol, I didn't claim it made sense .. quite the contrary, in fact.
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Originally Posted by johnwill
In general, Windows multi-booting wants the oldest O/S versions to be installed first, followed by the later ones.
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Ok, I understand that is the reason that installing XP made the 2K inoperable. But that's not what has me scratching my head.
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Originally Posted by johnwill
However, when you installed XP over the boot drive, you probably killed off the BOOT.INI file, as well as a few others.
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I could understand things getting tangled up if I was installing an os over top of another one, i.e., doing an upgrade (or in this case, a "downgrade"). But, as noted above, I am doing a fresh install of a new os. There is no currently installed operating system on the partition in question. The partition is freshly formatted, and at one point I even went so far as to zero out the entire drive. So there is no boot.ini file .. or any other file. I am booting from the 2K CD and trying to do an install.
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Originally Posted by johnwill
Have you tried booting from the 2K CD and running a FIXBOOT from the recovery console?
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No, I haven't delved into the recovery console at all. My thinking was that its purpose is to fix data on the disk, and there is no data on the disk. After the drive was zeroed out, I did run FDISK /mbr to re-create the master boot record. I don't know how that compares with a recovery console fixboot. My intention was to re-set the disk the way it came from the manufacturer, thinking that would make the problem go away .. and to my shock, it did not.
Thanks again,
Ted
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Originally Posted by Grinch
A few weeks ago I was setting up two machines. I pulled a Belkin ATA 133 controller card from one and placed it in the other. I then had a problem somewhat like yours. After a few days of messing around I went out and got an Adaptec card. Everything works fine now.
Maybe you should look at the controller card as the source of the problem. Do you have the OE drive disc for the card?
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And a big thank you for your response.
I don't believe there is anything wrong with the controller card. And yes, I am using the original drive floppy from the manufacturer. I also tried downloading and using the latest and greatest version of these drivers from the Promise website. Same result.
Both hard disks are hooked into the controller card during normal running of the machine and everything is fine. It's only the W2K install process that suddenly quit working.
Over a period of years I have successfully done many Windows 2000 installs booting from the W2K CD. F6 makes setup prompt me for the floppy, and the controller card drivers are installed. This process still appears to be working (no error messages), but now it's not "taking". The only thing new is that the primary hard drive has had XP on it. If I replace it with another hard drive that has never had XP on it, the problem vanishes.
Again, I didn't claim this made sense ......
Thanks,
Ted
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Originally Posted by music21
To quote you "If the drive has never had XP in the primary partition, Windows 2000 setup works fine. If it has had XP in the primary partition, I get the error, even if that primary partition has been re-formatted .... even if the entire disk has been zeroed!"
You're right there. if you try to reinstall a lower version of XP(win2000 and NT) on a partion which already had XP you wont be able to install that lower version(win2000 or NT).
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This makes no sense to me. As I said earlier, I could understand things getting tangled up if I was installing an os over top of another one, i.e., doing an upgrade (or in this case, a "downgrade"), or in a multiboot scenario. But I am doing a fresh install of a new os. There is no currently installed operating system on the partition in question; it's freshly formatted, and at one point I even went so far as to zero out the entire drive. That should wipe out EVERYTHING (including all traces of XP), shouldn't it?
My intention was to re-set the disk the way it came new from the manufacturer by wiping out everything on it (which would presumably include all traces of XP). Since that did not happen, I can only conclude there is something hiding on the thing somewhere that I don't yet know about.
Besides, the problem is not that Windows 2000 setup balks at the install because it sees something it doesn't like on the hard disk. The problem is that Windows 2000 setup can't FIND the hard disk.
Why am I not considering some other factor, like controller card problems? Because if I replace the hard drive with a different one that has never had XP, the problem goes away. Then, if I repeat the sequence of os installs on that different drive, it acquires the problem also.
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Originally Posted by music21
Promise FastTrak Serial ATA RAID Controller 'mirrors' one drive onto the other but you can disable this card's property in BIOS.
When your Operating System no longer boots after creating a Security (RAID 1) Array using your existing boot drive;
This condition is due to hard drive geometry issues. To verify this condition, move the original hard drive back to the motherboard controller and see whether it boots successfully.
Each controller views a hard drive differently. This can be an issue for a new controller that loads the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem translating it or the Operating System boot record.
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Not sure I get the connection here. The controller card is not new, and I'm not having any problem booting from a hard drive ... once WIndows gets installed.
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Originally Posted by music21
To correct this situation, Promise Technology recommends a clean installation of the Operating System. This action restores the MBR and OS boot record. This action will require you to repartition and format the hard drive.
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I was thinking the same thing, and this is what I have done.
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Originally Posted by music21
about Hal.dll (i have previously posted this under Missing Hal.dll)
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I read the same stuff on the net about this exact problem; it sounds like 2000 and XP have different needs for one or more system files in that primary partition, and they are incompatible. This doesn't work for me; I need access to both 2000 and XP.
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Originally Posted by music21
It seems likely to be a boot and/or configuration problem your having .... Good Luck Sir!
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I don't think so, it's limited specifically to Windows 2000 setup <shrug> ... but thanks so much for your time and trouble,
Ted
Thanks,
Ted