I just built a computer with all brand-new hardware. After installing XP Pro on a 500Gb WD SATAII HDD using the entier disk as one partition, i get "Missing NTLDR" upon a reboot. I tried copying ntldr and ntdetect.com back to C:\, and after reboot, i get Missing of corrupt hal.dll. After replacing the hal.dll i get the same message. I tried to run bootcfg /rebuild to repair the boot.ini and it fails stating it cannot find the windows installation, make sure... blah blah blah. Usually when i see this, a simple chkdsk /r will fix the problem. Running chkdsk /r stops @ 50% on verifying security descriptors and stays there. I let it run over night, and never moved. I naturally replaced the HDD as the next step, to find the exact same problem on another new hard drive.
I went ahead and tried installing XP on the same HDD but cut the partition down to 200Gb (from 500Gb) and it works fine. Why? My understanding was NTFS has no partition size limit (yes i know there is a limit, but it's no where near 500Gb) and I am unknown of any XP size limit (except for the original XP CD's, but im using MS Part# E85-03210 - XP Pro w/ SP2 Student Media Edition). I have also tried using my copy of XP Pro w/ SP3 OEM that i bought 3 months ago, and get the same issue. Anyone have any ideas why it is doing this? Is there any way to get XP installed on the entier 500Gb partition?
Thanks in advance.
I have allocated 500 points for this question due to it's urgent nature. I build computers for a living, and need to know why this is happening and how to install the OS on the entier 500Gb partition.
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