4 harddrives trashed after SP1 install

[lexsis]

I had windows xp home on 2 harddrives and windows xp pro on two others.

( I did this to evaluate the performance of win XP before I go out and buy it so I dont get screwed like I did when I purchased win ME)

all was well and then I decide to apply SP1 to all of them. upon reboot, all of the harddrives failed. non of them will boot to XP.

on two of them I had win 98 (dual boot) and win 98 will boot and run fine but xp will not.

I tried to reinstall (over a period of 3 days now, and on one day with NO-Sleep for over 24hrs) and every single re-installation attempt, I get all sorts of errors. mostly, a failure to copy all the files from the CD.

I finally got a copy of win xp home installed but strangest things are happening. when it boots, it gets to a point and then reboots. I try to boot in safe, debug etc etc and I get the sceen that says "it wasnt shut down properly...checking files....." and it either crashes or reboots by itself.

out of about 25 attempts to boot in debug mode, in loads all the way up to the desktop and then it crashes.

I put one of the harddrives into another computer (thinking that my BIOS on my other board has some how been locked by SP1. and still same errors.

I slaved the same harddrive to another harddrive in yet a 3rd computer and still...error messages durring the install.

I even used another copy of XP so if the problem is NOT

- BIOS locked
- scratched CD
- some sort of Boot Sector issue ( I formated after each unsuccessfull install just to make sure the HD is 'clean'
- Voodoo spell.

what could be the problem. can somebody help me out, I would hate to have to buy 4 new harddrives. these were small old harddrives of only 8gigs each. (my regular working drives are one 30 gig and one 40 gig)

I use the small drives to test out software before I install it to my 'main' drives.


thnx.
:shoot3:

[[jfun]]

this sounds like a urban tale for xp hackers:p

[FL.vid.geek]

:devil: :devil: :devil:

start from floppy.........fdisk/mbr
format
install



:flames: :flames: :flames:

[lexsis]

FL.vid.geek,

ok....let me see if I understand you. I should

- boot from a floppy (to get to the C:\ promt)
- type the command fdisk/mbr
- then format the harddisk
- then install windows xp

Question; the floppy that I boot from, should it be a win 9X startup disk or should I make a bootable floppy with some specific files. if so, which?

Question; after I fdisk/mbr and then have to format. do I format with the disk utility that came with my harddrive (maxtor) or should I format using some other methood, if so, how.


thnx for your help, I hope this all works.

:shoot3:

[FL.vid.geek]

:devil: :devil: :devil:

if your HDD is FAT32 you can use a 9x start disk.

if it's NTFS......I'm not really sure. The only time I put an NTFS partition on my drive I later converted it back to FAT32 using third party software. I think it was Partition Magic.

when you format use a 9x start disk. fdisk to do whatever partitioning you want and then "format c:" from DOS

I personaly would recommend that you stick with FAT32. NTFS is mostly for better file security. I think that the linear nature of it slows down performance. I suppose it's just a tradeoff you need to decide on.......security vs convenience

[lexsis]

I followed your instructions and still it didnt work. dont know what the hell xp has done to my harddrives.

if I had this problem with only one of them, then I wouldnt mind. but 4 different haddrives and still wont re-install on them. thats crazy.

still though, win 98 will re-install just fine.

do you have any other suggestions. I dont care about the three 8gig harddrives, but I do want to use the 30 gig.

thnx.

[FL.vid.geek]

when you use fdisk do you see all of the partitions you made? if any of them are missing you have an NTFS partition on your drive that is not readable in DOS. select the fdisk option for "delete non-DOS partition"

if that still doesn't work for you, I have something I can e-mail that should do the trick. It's called "killit" you may also be able to find it with a google search.

[lexsis]

what is it, how does it work.

email me at [email protected]


thnx.


do you think I could 'ghost' from a working XP drive?