XP install problem linked to HDD?

compaq_killer · 01-04-2008, 09:03 AM

OK- I have an HP Pavilion 8380 (yeah, it's old). I swapped the BIOS, and it works fine(from Phoenix to an AWARD)- Before the swap, XP pro ran fine, and recognized my full 80G (WD800jb) Now, either something's not set right in BIOS, or something is Physically wrong with the HDD. The PC's been in storage for four years - it's still a fairly new HDD. I have been trying to get it back to where it once was- everything functional and strealined, but XP won't boot after a clean install. I ran NTLDRfixer to see if it wasn't recognizing the MBR and Bootsector during the reboot after setup. To no avail!
XP setup is telling me there is an operating system already on my HDD, even after several refomats (1st tried FAT32-which works with alt. jumper settings at 32G, then tried pulling the jumper and formatting in NTFS- found all 80G) I've tried using WD Data lifeguard and the Dynamic Drive Overlay(which isn't loading when I reboot.) XP setup still says there is another OS. I even went in with a 98 boot disk and ran diskpart.exe to delete the primary DOS partition from my old 98SE OS. Re-ran WD HDD setup disc, and noticed the only way to get the PC to boot to the WD cd, I have to set HDD to NONE in BIOS. Help!!!! I can't get this thing working and I am tempted to throw it in the bay for fish food...

**linderman** · 01-04-2008, 01:51 PM

use dariks boot n nuke to erase/wipe the drive then I think you will be fine

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

compaq_killer · 01-04-2008, 05:10 PM

Thanks for the tip-- I'll give it a whirl before wailing away with my hammer.lol

**linderman** · 01-04-2008, 05:36 PM

you wont need the hammer

compaq_killer · 01-07-2008, 02:28 PM

WHEW!!!! Boot 'n' Nuke did the trick! Ok I did a DoD wipe (3pass) and formatted it to Fat32 (I can't get NTFS to work with my single drive setup and a clean install of XP while booting from the CD). I loaded 98se, then re-wrote over the system folder with XP, and- success. Now why does my 80G HDD only show about 75G when I select which partition to install to? Is this the DOS for the Fat32?

**linderman** · 01-07-2008, 03:08 PM

hard drive manufacturer's describe and sell a gig as 1000mb

windows reports a GB as 1024mb

no hard drive is as really large as the label says

especially after partitioning and formatting !

compaq_killer · 01-08-2008, 05:00 PM

Yeah, I forgot 'bout that. Good ol' commercialism at its finest. Anywho, Guess I'm all set- Oh wait! One more thing... I have a 10G HDD out of another PC- Just curoius, what's the EXACT order to hook it up in? Do I change the primary slave to AUTO in BIOS, then save and restart with the drive (jumpers replaced) in? Or is it vice-versa (like shut down, put in the drive then interrupt the next boot by going into BIOS and changing the pri master)? It's so delicate, because the 80G is a pain in the a** to get to work right with my BIOS (over 32G). Am I needlessly worried, because I have the Dynamic Drive Overlay on the 80G and it's protected enough with that?

**linderman** · 01-08-2008, 07:54 PM

I will give you fair warning about DDO (dynamic drive overlay) its what I call a "great sloppy fix" from the good ole drive makers

but if you dont keep super back-up procedures for your data, someday you will really regret DDO. No data recovery programs work on drives with DDO !

a much better solution for the future is to use and IDE controller card which fits in an empty PCI slot / they have their own modern bios so they can see and use drives beyond 320 gigs !

the Sabrent line of controllers comes to mind >>>> they you will have no need for DDO

as for your drive question, I would simply power down the system.

make sure your 80gig drive is set as master and installed at the farest end of the IDE data cable, then put your 10gig drive in the middle connector of the data cable with its jumper as slave

the bios should not even have to be touched ?

keep us posted with your progress

best regards

joe

**linderman** · 01-08-2008, 07:57 PM

just out of curosit; is your 80 gig drive on the same IDE data cable with your hard drive ????

compaq_killer · 01-09-2008, 04:09 PM

The 80G has been the main system drive for about five years (I've had the tower on ice- er, in storage for the last four of those years.) At first, I bought it for the 7200 RPM feature, so I can compose music in realtime 5.1 surround sound. But then the little die-hard caviar 8.4G that came with my pavilion 8380 fizzled out completely (at about the same time my power supply went, now that I think about it.) I have ordered a Promise UltraATA-100 pci controller (40 pin) on ebay. That's nice to know about DDO- That explains why all I can really figure out how to do with XP recovery is an overwrite of sys files or a complete wipe of the drive... IT'S IMPORTANT FOR ME TO NOTE THIS: WD says it's on rare occaisions, but for anyone (if they're still out there) who has an 8380 and wants to install a fresh WD drive over 32G, I HAD to (because of so many pci cards, etc. and my AWARD BIOS swap) set up the DDO from the Secondary master IDE cable, then proceed with windows install AFTER moving the HDD back to pri-master and connecting only the secondary master cd drive. I don't know if it helped or not, but it definitely seemed straightforward without all those extra peripherals in the pci slots.

01-04-2008, 09:03 AM	#1 (permalink)
compaq_killer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 21 OS: XP Professional	XP install problem linked to HDD? OK- I have an HP Pavilion 8380 (yeah, it's old). I swapped the BIOS, and it works fine(from Phoenix to an AWARD)- Before the swap, XP pro ran fine, and recognized my full 80G (WD800jb) Now, either something's not set right in BIOS, or something is Physically wrong with the HDD. The PC's been in storage for four years - it's still a fairly new HDD. I have been trying to get it back to where it once was- everything functional and strealined, but XP won't boot after a clean install. I ran NTLDRfixer to see if it wasn't recognizing the MBR and Bootsector during the reboot after setup. To no avail! XP setup is telling me there is an operating system already on my HDD, even after several refomats (1st tried FAT32-which works with alt. jumper settings at 32G, then tried pulling the jumper and formatting in NTFS- found all 80G) I've tried using WD Data lifeguard and the Dynamic Drive Overlay(which isn't loading when I reboot.) XP setup still says there is another OS. I even went in with a 98 boot disk and ran diskpart.exe to delete the primary DOS partition from my old 98SE OS. Re-ran WD HDD setup disc, and noticed the only way to get the PC to boot to the WD cd, I have to set HDD to NONE in BIOS. Help!!!! I can't get this thing working and I am tempted to throw it in the bay for fish food...

01-04-2008, 01:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? use dariks boot n nuke to erase/wipe the drive then I think you will be fine http://dban.sourceforge.net/ __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-04-2008, 05:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
compaq_killer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 21 OS: XP Professional	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? Thanks for the tip-- I'll give it a whirl before wailing away with my hammer.lol

01-04-2008, 05:36 PM	#4 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? you wont need the hammer __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-07-2008, 02:28 PM	#5 (permalink)
compaq_killer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 21 OS: XP Professional	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? WHEW!!!! Boot 'n' Nuke did the trick! Ok I did a DoD wipe (3pass) and formatted it to Fat32 (I can't get NTFS to work with my single drive setup and a clean install of XP while booting from the CD). I loaded 98se, then re-wrote over the system folder with XP, and- success. Now why does my 80G HDD only show about 75G when I select which partition to install to? Is this the DOS for the Fat32? Last edited by compaq_killer; 01-07-2008 at 02:32 PM.

01-07-2008, 03:08 PM	#6 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? hard drive manufacturer's describe and sell a gig as 1000mb windows reports a GB as 1024mb no hard drive is as really large as the label says especially after partitioning and formatting ! __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-08-2008, 05:00 PM	#7 (permalink)
compaq_killer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 21 OS: XP Professional	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? Yeah, I forgot 'bout that. Good ol' commercialism at its finest. Anywho, Guess I'm all set- Oh wait! One more thing... I have a 10G HDD out of another PC- Just curoius, what's the EXACT order to hook it up in? Do I change the primary slave to AUTO in BIOS, then save and restart with the drive (jumpers replaced) in? Or is it vice-versa (like shut down, put in the drive then interrupt the next boot by going into BIOS and changing the pri master)? It's so delicate, because the 80G is a pain in the a** to get to work right with my BIOS (over 32G). Am I needlessly worried, because I have the Dynamic Drive Overlay on the 80G and it's protected enough with that?

01-08-2008, 07:54 PM	#8 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? I will give you fair warning about DDO (dynamic drive overlay) its what I call a "great sloppy fix" from the good ole drive makers but if you dont keep super back-up procedures for your data, someday you will really regret DDO. No data recovery programs work on drives with DDO ! a much better solution for the future is to use and IDE controller card which fits in an empty PCI slot / they have their own modern bios so they can see and use drives beyond 320 gigs ! the Sabrent line of controllers comes to mind >>>> they you will have no need for DDO as for your drive question, I would simply power down the system. make sure your 80gig drive is set as master and installed at the farest end of the IDE data cable, then put your 10gig drive in the middle connector of the data cable with its jumper as slave the bios should not even have to be touched ? keep us posted with your progress best regards joe __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-08-2008, 07:57 PM	#9 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,402 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? just out of curosit; is your 80 gig drive on the same IDE data cable with your hard drive ???? __________________ Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day ! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

01-09-2008, 04:09 PM	#10 (permalink)
compaq_killer Registered User Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 21 OS: XP Professional	Re: XP install problem linked to HDD? The 80G has been the main system drive for about five years (I've had the tower on ice- er, in storage for the last four of those years.) At first, I bought it for the 7200 RPM feature, so I can compose music in realtime 5.1 surround sound. But then the little die-hard caviar 8.4G that came with my pavilion 8380 fizzled out completely (at about the same time my power supply went, now that I think about it.) I have ordered a Promise UltraATA-100 pci controller (40 pin) on ebay. That's nice to know about DDO- That explains why all I can really figure out how to do with XP recovery is an overwrite of sys files or a complete wipe of the drive... IT'S IMPORTANT FOR ME TO NOTE THIS: WD says it's on rare occaisions, but for anyone (if they're still out there) who has an 8380 and wants to install a fresh WD drive over 32G, I HAD to (because of so many pci cards, etc. and my AWARD BIOS swap) set up the DDO from the Secondary master IDE cable, then proceed with windows install AFTER moving the HDD back to pri-master and connecting only the secondary master cd drive. I don't know if it helped or not, but it definitely seemed straightforward without all those extra peripherals in the pci slots.