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URGENT HELP NEEDED!!!

NTL1991NTL1991
edited April 2005 in Hardware
OK. I have 2 HDs... One is a Seagate 18.5GB and one is a Quantam Fireball 40.0GB... I have XP Pro on both and I decided to put the 40GB in the Best PC... I placed it in and wired it up and everything. Its set on master. I put the Windows XP Professional Disk in to install it and after it copies the files and restarts I get a NTLDR Couldnt Open Drive Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) message... What do I do now??? I really need this PC up and running ( Im on my mac now)

Thanks
Nick

Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    Well, I think I already tried that! It gives me an error message and doesnt complete Quick or Unconditional Formats...
  • BODBOD
    Just boot from the XP CD and format it from there
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    OK... The Story from the Beginning...

    I wanted to put the 40 GB HD into my Duron 900 that had a 18.5 GB... I took the hard drive out of the other Presario (the 1 that had thr 40gb) and placed it into the Duron 900... I then placed the Windows XP Professional Disk into the CD-ROM Drive... I then Installed Windows XP Professional. After the Setup Program Formats and Copies the Install Files to your Hard Drive, it reboots to continue the installation. Instead of Continuing to install, I got the 'NTLDR Couldnt Open Drive Multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) message'. I repeadedly Installed Windows XP Professional and got the same error message. I then placed the 18.5 GB HD that was in the Duron 900 back in as the Master and the 40GB as the slave so I could format it in Windows XP... I tried the Quick Format, No Luck. I got a 'Windows cannot format this disk' message. I then tried the Unconditional Format and I recived the same message, only it took 2 hours more. I then set the 40GB as the Master and completely took the 18.5GB out. I then I used a spare Windows 98SE Bootdisk to try FDISK. I repedidly got a fatal error... What am I to do Now?
  • nighticenightice
    Perhaps there are bad sectors. Fireballs are known to be not the greatest drives around.
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    I was thinking it was that... The last time I formatted it I lost 8Gbs of space... The Capacity dropped from 40GB to 32.4GB... Is that a sign?
  • nighticenightice
    Filesystems need a bit of overhead, I recall my friend's 40GB drive having about the same usuable space. You don't get 40GB of space after formatting a 40GB drive.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • JackTheStripperJackTheStripper
    Uhhh ... I don't believe you have bad sectors NTL1990.

    As for Nightice, you're a retard. That's because when you buy a 40GB, it's really 40,000,000,000 byes.
  • nighticenightice
    No, he said that *after* he formatted it he lost 8 gigs of space. I always thought it was file system overhead, but now it looks like working in powers of 2 contributed to losing space from what was advertised.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    Just like my 20GB is 18.6 really... But when I got the PC with the 36.8(?) GB Drive, there was much more space than 32GB... Now when I have it plugged in and I go to the drives properties the Capactiy is 0...
  • nighticenightice
    Tomchu wrote:
    He just thought he had 40 GB to start with. You should know that no drive sold is exactly "40 GB".
    It's 40GB with creative math. :P
  • BODBOD
    Tomchu wrote:
    That's not due to file system overhead. That's due to 40 GB being 40,000,000,000 bytes according to the drive manufacturer.

    Computers work in powers of 2. 1 GB = 1024 * 1024 * 1024, not 1000 * 1000 * 1000.

    My "120 GB" drives are actually 111 GB each.

    Mine shows up as 114GB
  • wingzeroisminewingzeroismine
    anyways, he seems to be having trouble taking one drive and putting it into another machine. Either of those machines have something of importance that needs to be located on the hard drive? If so then it isn't there now... I know older machines had portions of the bios on the hard drive itself, and I know some OEM computers have hidden partitions (or visible) that have something of "importance". Perhaps he damaged/wiped one of them and now windows is trying to write over it and it's screwing up. (have you tried repartitioning?)
  • nighticenightice
    I know Windows doesn't like being cloned directly onto another drive, I eventually got it working tho, and then swapped the DosDrives values in the registry to make the new one show up as C:....unfortunately it seems to have fucked up Office, but that's for another thread...
  • BODBOD
    wingzeroismine wrote:
    anyways, he seems to be having trouble taking one drive and putting it into another machine. Either of those machines have something of importance that needs to be located on the hard drive? If so then it isn't there now... I know older machines had portions of the bios on the hard drive itself, and I know some OEM computers have hidden partitions (or visible) that have something of "importance". Perhaps he damaged/wiped one of them and now windows is trying to write over it and it's screwing up. (have you tried repartitioning?)

    Like Compaq putting the BIOS on there
  • nighticenightice
    Which is the reason nobody should buy a Compaq.
  • wingzeroisminewingzeroismine
    BOD wrote:
    Like Compaq putting the BIOS on there.
    nightice wrote:
    Which is the reason nobody should buy a Compaq.
    Wait.. NTL... your machines are... Compaqs aren't they...
  • nighticenightice
    He's screwed. I think they offer a partition-restore utility, though...
  • BODBOD
    As far as I know you can still get the BIOSes online
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    OK OK OK...

    This machine hasnt seen an OEM partition for around 5 years... This is a newer Compaq that has the BIOS built-in and not on a partition on the HD like my DeskPro... The machine has had Windows 98, ME (OEM), 2000 Pro, NT4 Even, and Now it's XP Professional...

    Yes, My Main Machine is a Compaq Presario 5UVME2 and the other one I recieved from my Uncle is a Compaq Presario 5012US...


    The Support for the 5UVME2 is Here

    The Support for the 5012US is Here
  • wingzeroisminewingzeroismine
    ok, so are you doing anything different with this XP instalation that you don't usually do? Like I said before, remove all paritions and start from that too.
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    Well, I used the XP installer to delete all the partitions I could see on that drive... I then Formatted in NTFS but the 'Quick' Way. I then proceded to install and when it rebooted I got the NTLDR Cant load disk thing... I even tried a Linux Boot Disk to use CFdisk or whatever and it couldnt find the drive. I tried booting with a 98 Bootdisk and tried doing Fdisk but that couldnt find a drive... Is there a special driver that is loaded in the Setup that can see my drive? The Drive is ONLY 'seen' in Setup and in Windows (after its loaded)
  • wingzeroisminewingzeroismine
    Is the drive properly dectected by your bios? Are the parameters all correct? (heads, sectors, etc.)
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    I went into the BIOS and selected Detect Drives and Exit but I didnt check the heads or anything. But the Drive Was working on the other PC so It has to be something...


    UPDATE!!!:

    OK. I decided to install XP back on the other machine that the 40gb was originally in. I have not touched the drive for 2 days... Now when XP sets up, I get the Partition Info:

    38171MB DISK 0 AT ID 1 ON BUS 0 ON ATAPI [MBR]

    C: PARTITION 1 [NTFS] 32240MB
    UNPARTITIONED SPACE 5930MB

    So that solves the problem with the lost space. Apparently it was hiding in a partition that just popped up. I didnt make it, what did? So I am running setup now and going to see if it works. Tomorrow I will format the HD in THAT PC and will place it in this one (my main pc) and try to install again. At least I know it works on one of them...
  • wingzeroisminewingzeroismine
    Did you start with NTFS? Was it FAT32 to begin with? (this idea is from the fact that your C: partition is about 32GB (2000 and XP limit size on FAT32 partitions). Also, perhaps the problem is that XP was using the smaller one to install, but was not being marked as active, and/or because it is past the 1024th cylinder (though XP shouldn't have this limitation). I don't know, just some suggestions. I still think you should completely erase BOTH partitions. Use a 98 boot disk, Fdisk them away, then use the boot disk again to create an FAT32 partition (98 and ME will go past 32GB), this way you will have one partition using all the space. During the XP setup have it do a FULL format/convert to NTFS.
  • NTL1991NTL1991
    I did erase both partitions and I got the same NTLDR error, but I didnt have the jumpers set right last night. It was saying 'DISK 2= 38171MB DISK 3= CD-ROM

    I must have the jumpers set wrong but I had a bad headache last night... I tried all the jumpers and I either got that or 'DISK 1=CD-ROM' thats all...

    Ill try it again and have it do a Full format... The disk was FAT32 a couple months ago when I got it (it had ME on it) then I put XP (quick format NTFS) and it worked fine until I just pulled it out...
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