[SOLVED] Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP]

rattel · 05-19-2008, 07:15 PM

hey
I need some help getting my xp working. it is a home built computer (nvidia nforce 680i motherboard, Intel 6600 dual core processor, nvidia geforce 8500gt). i have had it for 9 months and it has been working fine. I reformatted it so i could get Xp on it (before was vista) and since I reformatted my hard drive I can't seem to:
A) connect to the internet. I believe I have the correct driver, the light on the back of my pc blinks orange, but not green/yellow.
I go into network connections and i have 3 connections (1294 connection and LAN 2, LAN 3). one of the LAN says the cable is unplugged whenever i plug the cable in. When i unplug/plung in the cable it realizes that it is there but can't seem to "talk"to it.

B) have no sound. i don't have any sound controller and i believe i have installed the right sound driver. i have installed foobar as my music player and it doesn't run. I am presuming that is doesn't run because i don't have the proper software.

any help anyone can give me would be great.

chauffeur2 · 05-19-2008, 07:55 PM

Hi rattel, Welcome to TSF!

Have you reinstalled all the Motherboard Drivers since you reformatted it?

Post back with a reply please.

Kind Regards,

rattel · 05-19-2008, 08:16 PM

thank you. I wish found this site sooner.

Yes i have installed the the Motherboard drivers

**justpassingby** · 05-19-2008, 08:21 PM

Hi !

What's the brand and model of the motherboard ? (nvidia is only the chipset manufacturer)

Go to start => run and type devmgmt.msc. Any flagged devices in the list ? (with some red or yellow icon in front of their name)

chauffeur2 · 05-19-2008, 08:22 PM

Have you also been to the Windows Update site for all the updates?

rattel · 05-19-2008, 09:33 PM

motherboard is nvidia nforce 680I SLI by EVGA
Device manager has flagged network Controller
I havn't been to Windows update, but i have been to many other sites and have tried many programs installers, all of which don't work

**justpassingby** · 05-19-2008, 09:57 PM

Download these drivers, uninstall all other nforce drivers in add/remove programs, restart the computer in safe mode (repeatedly press F8 while it starts) and install them from there :
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...glish_whql.exe

Go to windows update and download all the latest critical updates as chauffeur2 suggested.

rattel · 05-19-2008, 10:21 PM

i can't download from windows update because i can't connect to the internet. i have 2 computers one of which is fine which is why i can connect to the internet.

I get an error saying i don't have enough free space when i try to install it. This is false, my "c drive' is labeled "f:".....could this be an issue?

**justpassingby** · 05-19-2008, 10:48 PM

The system drive will need to be labeled c: for Windows to work properly. You're not supposed to change the system drive letter after Windows is installed but you can try this method. IMO the only sure way to have a stable installation would be to format (or better wipe the whole drive with dban if you don't need anything from other partitions) and reinstall from scratch.

Before you reinstall check that the system drive is set as the primary master drive (check the jumper position, refer to the sticker that's on the drive), hooked at the end of the IDE cable that's on the primary IDE controller (or on the SATA 1 port if it's a SATA drive). Remove unneeded hard drives (leave only the system drive and cd) until Windows is installed.

Once Windows is properly installed on the c: drive first thing is to install the chipset drivers (download them with another computer and copy them to yours with an USB drive).

rattel · 05-19-2008, 11:22 PM

Chipset drivers...
They would be on my cd that came with my motherboard and graphic card, right?
tried to change drive name.that failed. I am reinstalling xp so we can start from a clean slate.

chauffeur2 · 05-20-2008, 12:12 AM

All the necessary Drivers that you'll need for the Motherboard will on the original CD.

rattel · 05-20-2008, 10:28 AM

I have 5 partitions on my hard drive, would this be a problem in making my system drive is labeled C:?

**justpassingby** · 05-20-2008, 12:59 PM

Yes it could if you don't install XP on the first FAT32 or NTFS partition. I don't think XP can see an ext3 linux partition but if there are other NTFS or FAT32 partitions on the drive they may get the c: volume letter. Windows itself will work fine with another volume letter but some programs will want to install on c: by default.

If Windows still gets another volume letter see if you can install the drivers, either from the motherboard CD or from here (latest version) and get your network card to work.

Also, what's the error message under device status when you double-click on the network controller in the device manager (devmgmt.msc) ?

If it still can't find the proper driver then use the unknown device identifier to find out about the brand and model of the network adapter.

rattel · 05-20-2008, 03:19 PM

well after i reinstalled xp (no error messages or anything that looked like a problem)...i have an " disk error press any key to retry" when i restarted my computer.
After that i installed ubuntu and it works just fine but xp still doesn't want to load. I tried to install vista but the same thing happened, same error message as when i installed xp.

any suggestions?

**justpassingby** · 05-20-2008, 05:09 PM

How many hard drives do you have and what OS's do you want to install : only XP and Ubuntu or do you want Vista as well ?

Had you wiped the drive completely before reinstalling XP ? If not it may not have the correct boot loader for XP. If Linux or Vista's boot sectors overwrote XP's then XP won't start.

Grub and Lilo (linux boot loader) both have options to detect other operating systems and reinstall the proper boot loaders. If you can do so I would wipe the drive with dban to erase all boot sectors informations. If you don't want to wipe the drive then follow these guides :

How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first)
How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first)

Also, have you checked that the hard drive is set correctly : jumper set as master and drive hooked on the end of the IDE cable if IDE (your motherboard only has one IDE controller), on the SATA1 port if SATA. Check in the BIOS that your drive is detected as the primary master drive.

Since this is a dual-boot issue with Linux I'll move you to the Linux support section. Once XP is installed properly reinstall the drivers and see how it goes with your network adapter. I subscribed to this thread so I'll still follow your progression.

rattel · 05-20-2008, 06:30 PM

in a perfect world i want vista,xp, ubuntu, backtrack, pentoo all working together around some empty space where i can put my files into. I have no problem with installing ubuntu or backtrack. It is just the xp that is causing havoc.
I believe I did completely wipe xp (and vista). i used G.parted to reformat the partitions.
I installed xp before ubuntu and linux and it wouldn't boot. Just make sure my hard drive was in good shape I installed ubuntu, then i tried vista.
I only have one hard drive and it is set as master, the settings are all correct.
I can get the dual boot working, i just can't seem to get xp installed (again) and running properly.

**justpassingby** · 05-20-2008, 06:53 PM

I'm not sure that Gparted erases the boot sectors. Can you boot into the recovery console with the XP CD : boot on the CD and press 'R' at the first screen. If so from the c:\windows\ prompt type fixmbr then fixboot and retry to boot into XP.

If that didn't work then run dban once on the drive to make sure nothing comes in the way then reinstall XP alone on the first partition. See if it boots fine then install Ubuntu and use Grub as the boot loader.

There's only one boot sector per hard drive and each operating system needs its own boot sector (each time you'll install a new operating system on the same physical drive it'll overwrite the previous boot sectors) so you'll have to use a boot loader to load the different OS's.

rattel · 05-20-2008, 07:41 PM

just thought i would mention that after i installed xp, I reboted (error message appears), i reboot again on to the xp install disk and hit install i get this picture. It is very odd.....

**justpassingby** · 05-20-2008, 07:57 PM

What error messages did you get ? What XP CD do you use ? Make sure the CD isn't scratched : see if you can copy its whole content on another computer. Use an XP SP2 or SP3 CD for better hardware compatibility, if your CD is SP1 or prior then create a slipstreamed CD (slipstream SP3).

If you wiped the drive with dban and used a retail XP CD to partition the drive, format a partition in NTFS and install XP on it the only problem I could see is some hardware problem.

Enter the BIOS at startup and report your temps, fan speeds and voltages from there.

Test the hard drive and memory for errors :

Find the brand and model of your hard drive (look on the sticker that's on the drive) then download and create the manufacturer's diagnostic floppy or CD (dos bootable version). Boot on it and run the long/extended test.

Download, unzip and burn memtest86+'s bootable .iso image file. Boot on it and leave memtest run overnight or at least do 3 full passes on your memory. Report if it finds any errors.

rattel · 05-23-2008, 08:38 PM

the error message was on my disk.i still have no idea how i got it...
I have solved the problem. I completely wiped my hard drive (i don't think gparted does erase the boot sectors) and installed xp. everything works just fine and now i have ubuntu and backtrack also installed so i'm triple booting. it all woks just fine. drivers installed and everything is back to what it is supposed to do.

Thanks for you help.

05-19-2008, 07:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	[SOLVED] Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP] hey I need some help getting my xp working. it is a home built computer (nvidia nforce 680i motherboard, Intel 6600 dual core processor, nvidia geforce 8500gt). i have had it for 9 months and it has been working fine. I reformatted it so i could get Xp on it (before was vista) and since I reformatted my hard drive I can't seem to: A) connect to the internet. I believe I have the correct driver, the light on the back of my pc blinks orange, but not green/yellow. I go into network connections and i have 3 connections (1294 connection and LAN 2, LAN 3). one of the LAN says the cable is unplugged whenever i plug the cable in. When i unplug/plung in the cable it realizes that it is there but can't seem to "talk"to it. B) have no sound. i don't have any sound controller and i believe i have installed the right sound driver. i have installed foobar as my music player and it doesn't run. I am presuming that is doesn't run because i don't have the proper software. any help anyone can give me would be great.

05-19-2008, 07:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
chauffeur2 Manager Emeritus Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 10,180 OS: Xp Sp3 with all updates + Vista™ Ultimate SP1. My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Hi rattel, Welcome to TSF! Have you reinstalled all the Motherboard Drivers since you reformatted it? Post back with a reply please. Kind Regards, __________________ Dave T. Submit New Articles If it works, Don't fix it! Especially if Bill Gates had anything to do with it!!

05-19-2008, 08:16 PM	#3 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp thank you. I wish found this site sooner. Yes i have installed the the Motherboard drivers

05-19-2008, 08:21 PM	#4 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Hi ! What's the brand and model of the motherboard ? (nvidia is only the chipset manufacturer) Go to start => run and type devmgmt.msc. Any flagged devices in the list ? (with some red or yellow icon in front of their name) __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs

05-19-2008, 08:22 PM	#5 (permalink)
chauffeur2 Manager Emeritus Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 10,180 OS: Xp Sp3 with all updates + Vista™ Ultimate SP1. My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Have you also been to the Windows Update site for all the updates? __________________ Dave T. Submit New Articles If it works, Don't fix it! Especially if Bill Gates had anything to do with it!!

05-19-2008, 09:33 PM	#6 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp motherboard is nvidia nforce 680I SLI by EVGA Device manager has flagged network Controller I havn't been to Windows update, but i have been to many other sites and have tried many programs installers, all of which don't work

05-19-2008, 09:57 PM	#7 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Download these drivers, uninstall all other nforce drivers in add/remove programs, restart the computer in safe mode (repeatedly press F8 while it starts) and install them from there : http://us.download.nvidia.com/Window...glish_whql.exe Go to windows update and download all the latest critical updates as chauffeur2 suggested. __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs

05-19-2008, 10:21 PM	#8 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp i can't download from windows update because i can't connect to the internet. i have 2 computers one of which is fine which is why i can connect to the internet. I get an error saying i don't have enough free space when i try to install it. This is false, my "c drive' is labeled "f:".....could this be an issue? Last edited by rattel; 05-19-2008 at 10:23 PM.

05-19-2008, 10:48 PM	#9 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp The system drive will need to be labeled c: for Windows to work properly. You're not supposed to change the system drive letter after Windows is installed but you can try this method. IMO the only sure way to have a stable installation would be to format (or better wipe the whole drive with dban if you don't need anything from other partitions) and reinstall from scratch. Before you reinstall check that the system drive is set as the primary master drive (check the jumper position, refer to the sticker that's on the drive), hooked at the end of the IDE cable that's on the primary IDE controller (or on the SATA 1 port if it's a SATA drive). Remove unneeded hard drives (leave only the system drive and cd) until Windows is installed. Once Windows is properly installed on the c: drive first thing is to install the chipset drivers (download them with another computer and copy them to yours with an USB drive). __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs Last edited by justpassingby; 05-19-2008 at 10:53 PM.

05-19-2008, 11:22 PM	#10 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Chipset drivers... They would be on my cd that came with my motherboard and graphic card, right? tried to change drive name.that failed. I am reinstalling xp so we can start from a clean slate. Last edited by rattel; 05-19-2008 at 11:49 PM.

05-20-2008, 12:12 AM	#11 (permalink)
chauffeur2 Manager Emeritus Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 10,180 OS: Xp Sp3 with all updates + Vista™ Ultimate SP1. My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp All the necessary Drivers that you'll need for the Motherboard will on the original CD. __________________ Dave T. Submit New Articles If it works, Don't fix it! Especially if Bill Gates had anything to do with it!!

05-20-2008, 10:28 AM	#12 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp I have 5 partitions on my hard drive, would this be a problem in making my system drive is labeled C:?

05-20-2008, 12:59 PM	#13 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp Yes it could if you don't install XP on the first FAT32 or NTFS partition. I don't think XP can see an ext3 linux partition but if there are other NTFS or FAT32 partitions on the drive they may get the c: volume letter. Windows itself will work fine with another volume letter but some programs will want to install on c: by default. If Windows still gets another volume letter see if you can install the drivers, either from the motherboard CD or from here (latest version) and get your network card to work. Also, what's the error message under device status when you double-click on the network controller in the device manager (devmgmt.msc) ? If it still can't find the proper driver then use the unknown device identifier to find out about the brand and model of the network adapter. __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs

05-20-2008, 03:19 PM	#14 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp well after i reinstalled xp (no error messages or anything that looked like a problem)...i have an " disk error press any key to retry" when i restarted my computer. After that i installed ubuntu and it works just fine but xp still doesn't want to load. I tried to install vista but the same thing happened, same error message as when i installed xp. any suggestions? Last edited by rattel; 05-20-2008 at 03:23 PM.

05-20-2008, 05:09 PM	#15 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp How many hard drives do you have and what OS's do you want to install : only XP and Ubuntu or do you want Vista as well ? Had you wiped the drive completely before reinstalling XP ? If not it may not have the correct boot loader for XP. If Linux or Vista's boot sectors overwrote XP's then XP won't start. Grub and Lilo (linux boot loader) both have options to detect other operating systems and reinstall the proper boot loaders. If you can do so I would wipe the drive with dban to erase all boot sectors informations. If you don't want to wipe the drive then follow these guides : How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first) How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first) Also, have you checked that the hard drive is set correctly : jumper set as master and drive hooked on the end of the IDE cable if IDE (your motherboard only has one IDE controller), on the SATA1 port if SATA. Check in the BIOS that your drive is detected as the primary master drive. Since this is a dual-boot issue with Linux I'll move you to the Linux support section. Once XP is installed properly reinstall the drivers and see how it goes with your network adapter. I subscribed to this thread so I'll still follow your progression. __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs Last edited by justpassingby; 05-20-2008 at 05:11 PM.

05-20-2008, 06:30 PM	#16 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP] in a perfect world i want vista,xp, ubuntu, backtrack, pentoo all working together around some empty space where i can put my files into. I have no problem with installing ubuntu or backtrack. It is just the xp that is causing havoc. I believe I did completely wipe xp (and vista). i used G.parted to reformat the partitions. I installed xp before ubuntu and linux and it wouldn't boot. Just make sure my hard drive was in good shape I installed ubuntu, then i tried vista. I only have one hard drive and it is set as master, the settings are all correct. I can get the dual boot working, i just can't seem to get xp installed (again) and running properly.

05-20-2008, 06:53 PM	#17 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP] I'm not sure that Gparted erases the boot sectors. Can you boot into the recovery console with the XP CD : boot on the CD and press 'R' at the first screen. If so from the c:\windows\ prompt type fixmbr then fixboot and retry to boot into XP. If that didn't work then run dban once on the drive to make sure nothing comes in the way then reinstall XP alone on the first partition. See if it boots fine then install Ubuntu and use Grub as the boot loader. There's only one boot sector per hard drive and each operating system needs its own boot sector (each time you'll install a new operating system on the same physical drive it'll overwrite the previous boot sectors) so you'll have to use a boot loader to load the different OS's. __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs

05-20-2008, 07:57 PM	#19 (permalink)
justpassingby Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 6,219 OS: XP Home SP3 / Ubuntu My System	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP] What error messages did you get ? What XP CD do you use ? Make sure the CD isn't scratched : see if you can copy its whole content on another computer. Use an XP SP2 or SP3 CD for better hardware compatibility, if your CD is SP1 or prior then create a slipstreamed CD (slipstream SP3). If you wiped the drive with dban and used a retail XP CD to partition the drive, format a partition in NTFS and install XP on it the only problem I could see is some hardware problem. Enter the BIOS at startup and report your temps, fan speeds and voltages from there. Test the hard drive and memory for errors : Find the brand and model of your hard drive (look on the sticker that's on the drive) then download and create the manufacturer's diagnostic floppy or CD (dos bootable version). Boot on it and run the long/extended test. Download, unzip and burn memtest86+'s bootable .iso image file. Boot on it and leave memtest run overnight or at least do 3 full passes on your memory. Report if it finds any errors. __________________ Malware removal steps. Post your logs there and not here ! Posting system specs Last edited by justpassingby; 05-20-2008 at 08:01 PM.

05-23-2008, 08:38 PM	#20 (permalink)
rattel Registered User Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 20 OS: xp w/SP2, ubuntu	Re: Recovering from reinstalling xp (dual-boot) [Moved from XP] the error message was on my disk.i still have no idea how i got it... I have solved the problem. I completely wiped my hard drive (i don't think gparted does erase the boot sectors) and installed xp. everything works just fine and now i have ubuntu and backtrack also installed so i'm triple booting. it all woks just fine. drivers installed and everything is back to what it is supposed to do. Thanks for you help.