[heidrun]

:upset: Hello all:

This is my first time out here. I have been driven to the edge of insanity this week by my PC and I am running out of options (other than the PC-off-the-roof solution, which is a little drastic at this point).

Perhaps some of you XP sages can empathize and give me direction. About a month ago, Windows started having issues with Norton System WOrks 2006. I gave in, read the tech support issues and uninstalled the damned program. This was a temporary relief until I began having registry issues every time I turned the PC on. It would not run a scan disk to completion without freezing or crashing. I installed Windows Defender while I worked on my Norton issues, and it could not complete a full system scan without crashing. I believed it MUST be a windows issue, so I used the disk and tried to repair the existing installation. THen things really got slow and sticky. I finally gave in, backed up all my data onto a separate hard drive, and decided to format the main hard drive and reinstall windows.

At first, everything went well. I partitioned and formatted the drive, but when I started to copy the installation files, I would get errors and I would have to skip certain files. THen, when it came time to actually begin the installation, the install fails after attempting to copy a certain file. Over and over again, the system tried to get beyond that point, but will not. At my wit's end, I brought my PC to work and the Techie there has been working on it. To date, we have replaced the hard drive, tried a different DVD drive to install the program, tried a different installation disk to no avail. The last things to try is a new stick of RAM (which I have) and a new Motherboard, which doesn't seem like the issue to me, but I will try it if I have to.

Does anyone have any other suggesions? I love my machine, and don't want to pitch it, but it seems like a hopeless case. This is what had driven me out here. Could this be some rotten virus that has gone deep into the system?

HELLP! I can't afford Christmas and a new PC! I want to eat and stay warm this winter, but not by the heat of a PC fan only!

Please! Suggest something.

THanks!

Heidrun

By the way, I don't always sound this pathetic. I am a multimedia info developer and technical writer, and am truly more together than this.

 

[Doby]

When you replaced the hardrive are you sure it was good?
Was it new?
You may also want to replace the data cable

I would definatly replace the ram since you have extra I have seen bad ram do exactly this. Just make sure the ram you replace it with is compatible

 

[linesman]

may sound daft ,but

make sure the xp disc is clean (the cd ) before starting

I had similar problems unable to load certain files etc. and nearly got the hammer out to attack the computer before chucking it thro' the window

turned out my disc had loads of fingerprints on it !

 

[heidrun]

Could it be the controller?

We are in the process of trying yet another strategy - the drive controller. The two HD we have been working with - both new drives, are SATA. Now we are trying an IDE drive to see if this works. So far, so good.

We did also clean the CD and try another CD copy to see if there was something wrong with the disk - no difference.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[Kalim]

WinXP won't provide drivers for SATA drives so it won't be recognized. You need to hit F6 when it asks you and load the SATA drivers off of a floppy. I have a Seagate 200GB SATA and XP was looking for the drivers off of a floppy (F6) when I tried to install on the drive just yesterday.

On an IDE PATA drive all should be good.

 

[heidrun]

re: Could it be the controller?

I guess then the next question was why did it recognize and install the first time, but not reinstall after the drive was reformatted? Could this be a problem within the controller (perhaps something repairable) or is this the result of a nasty virus or is it just that the controller has gone wonky?

Another question - if the IDE drive works, is it possible to install the SATA drives as data drives within the system?

 

[Tumbleweed36]

Hi,

I have a little different take on this one. First of all, some times when you have something like Norton on the system (I do on one of my machines), you need to go futher than you did when you format the drive. What I mean is that formatting does not totally wipe the drive, but makes it so the old stuff is not readable unless you have a recovery program.

Therefore, when you wipe the drive, you need to use something like Dban HERE which completely gets rid of all the fragments that are left on the drive. Then, you can do the normal format and loading of your OS without problems as a general rule.

Note: If you have other hard drives on the computer, you may erase that material, so only connect the one that you want to completely wipe.

Before you get started to reload check the Bios setup menu for the following:

Hard Drive Priority - Set to the Sata boot drive first.

Hard Drive Boot Order - CDRom, 1st...Floppy, 2nd...Sata Boot drive, 3rd

Don't forget to save before you exit.

Further suggestions: First, be sure you have the Sata drivers ready to tap F6 when the OS asks for special drivers and load them as prompted. Second, when working with putting a Sata drive on your computer with an OS, then just unplug all other hard drives (other Sata, other Pata) until you get the OS up and running. Reason being, the motherboard in a lot of cases will keep defaulting to the Pata area. When you get it running and installed, then plug them in and check the following:

Hard Drive Priority - Set to the Sata boot drive first.

Hard Drive Boot Order - CDRom, 1st...Floppy, 2nd...Sata Boot drive, 3rd

Don't forget to save before you exit.

Post back with questions/concerns.

 

[yankeebean]

this may help you also

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winx...exfullpage.htm