Question

XP new install: disk is fine, files are there, won't boot

Asked by: mrjcleaver

My wife has an IBM X22 - we need to rebuild the XP OS on it. I've taken the defunct 20GB drive out so I can experiment: that one is failing so I need to replace it fast.

The 80GB disk I want to put into it (a 5400rpm Fujitsu MHT2080AT) is about 1 year old. It worked fine in my Thinkpad X30 before I replaced it with a faster drive.

I'm using system restore CDs from IBM. I've now repeated the process 4 times, trying different things, including sizing the disk to < 64GB.

After the install process, the files are all there - I can see them when I mount the disk over firewire from my X30, or when I boot from dos on this X20. The problem is that it does not boot :( The machine just hangs, showing a flashing cursor.

I reformatted and performed an FDISK /MBR on this 80GB drive, ensured I had activated it and that it showed as the only disk in fdisk. If my memory serves it formatted as an NTFS partition.

The only weird thing I did was to get over the fact that the X22 does not have a floppy disk was to make a bootable USB key using http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
; I could not use http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm - http://bootdisk.com/txtfiles/xpquick.txt - as these were set up for people using a floppy, rather than USB, and the utilities don't provide a way to push to a different place. (I wish those sites were a wiki so I could interject my thoughts)

I've several times ensured that fdisk shows nothing. I also tried maxllf and http://www.digitalissues.co.uk/html/os/misc/ibm-wipe-zap.html to get it to an initial state.

IBM's Installation instructions for Windows XP - ThinkPad X22, X23, X24 are on http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=ibm&lndocid=MIGR-44843

I've read many articles here, including http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20483398.html http://www.auldfart.co.uk/howto/xpsupport.html

More searching today makes it look like I need to use dskprobe, but that does not work from dos on the X22, and when I connect the drive to my X30 via firewire the drive is not shown by dskprobe, even though the X30 shows the drive okay.

I have Partion Magic 8 but so far that's not helped.

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Asked On
2006-12-16 at 20:33:16ID22095758
Tags

xp

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
3
Points
250
Comments
10

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Answers

 

by: BillDLPosted on 2006-12-16 at 22:59:51ID: 18154038

How did you perform the   FDISK /MBR   command?
Did you actually use the FDISK options to delete all partitions and then create them again, or did you just use the /MBR switch?

 

by: burrcmPosted on 2006-12-17 at 01:10:56ID: 18154165

fdisk /mbr is not advised with NTFS systems - although it generally works OK. Fixboot and fixmbr - from XP CD recovery console are the correct options. In this instance, it sounds like the machine cannot cope with a drive of this size. Create a 20GB Partition, format and install. See how it goes.

Chris B

 

by: matrixnzPosted on 2006-12-17 at 04:35:44ID: 18154397

Hi MrJCleaver

Does your Bios recognise the drive correctly, even if it does I'd recommend updating your bios as it may not recognise the drive.  Are you using a restore disk or an original Windows XP CD, if so don't use Dos at all, but instead boot directly up using the Windows XP CD you should than be able to format and configure the drive from the Windows XP Setup.  FDISK is really for 9x type systems, I've never used it since moving to Windows 2000/XP CD.

If it was my drive and once confirmed that the computer is recognising the HDD correctly, I'd actually use Symantecs Ghost software to take an image of the old 20GB than reimage the new drive, that way you don't have to worry about setting anything up.  Ghost images by default just fill up the remaining space as empty space.  

Anyhow that's my 2 cents.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 10:10:47ID: 18155097

Thanks for your answers...

fdisk - yes, I had deleted all the partitions before starting.

Fixmbr - whereabouts should this be? I have two CDs - the X22 recovery disk and an original XP OEM install disk (0601 Part number X08-33951). I searched both disks - perhaps they are in a CAB or MSI file? I'll google and see whether I can download it from somewhere.

I can't connect both the old and new disks to my X30 at the same time and I don't have enough space on my X30 to take a whole image copy. Further, I don't have ghost though I note there is a 60 day trial.

How would I tell if the bios recognises the disk correctly?

Regards and thanks, Martin.

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 10:15:13ID: 18155113

I found this - http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxprcons.html - which indicates that the fixmbr.exe file should be available from the console.

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 10:51:20ID: 18155203

Ok. I have run fixmbr and fixboot - it said this was successful. So, thanks burrcm. I'll allocate points once I've verified it picks it up on reboot.

Now...
chkdsk /p says it recognised the disk at 78128544k
bootcfg /scan says it did not recognise any valid XP installation.

So, before I re-format
- does this mean I can go ahead with a full-size partition?

Thanks,
  Martin.

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 13:31:33ID: 18155631

Ok. I reformatted at full size, and rebooted. It now says "Operating System Missing" or similar. So now we have a four hour installation wait and this time, fingers crossed, I can start the ardous re-install.

I have no questions at this point. I will allocate points when done.

Cheers! M.

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 13:58:55ID: 18155691

Ok. So rebooting with the X22 recovery disk, it just told me:

  The program has detected an error 116 on the partition starting at sector 63 on disk 1.

  The starting LBA value is 63 and the CHS value is 952560.
  The LBA and CHS values must be equal.
  The program has verified that the LBA value is correct and can fix the CHS value.

  Would you like The program to fix this error?

I said yes. I'm surprised it told me this as I already formatted it, and had done fixmbr and fixboot. It succeeded "The partition table error was successfully fixed!".

Then:

  The program has detected an error 110 on the partition starting at sector 63 on disk 1.

  The length of the partition in the partition table is incorrect.
  The CHS length is 156280258, the LBA length is 156295377, and the File System length is 156295376.
  The program has determined that the length can be changed to the correct value of 156295377.

  Would you like The program to fix this error?

It succeeded "The partition table error was successfully fixed!".

Of course, I am concerned that this may be an incompatibility that will bite me later. Comments would be appreciated. Thanks, Martin.

 

by: matrixnzPosted on 2006-12-17 at 16:45:04ID: 18156129

Hi MrJCleaver

Can you tell me what Bios Version you have according to the IBM Support site, Support for over 80 GB hard disk driver (48 bit LBA mode support) was only introduced in Version 1.31 the latest bios is 1.32 so you may have the original Bios loaded which won't support the 80GB Drive.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-41230

Cheers

 

by: mrjcleaverPosted on 2006-12-17 at 17:55:07ID: 18156300

Hey, thanks for the reassurance matrixnz.

 I do have 1.32!

Cheers, M.


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