Computer will not boot up...Help!

[rhinoman7]

I recently upgraded my mobo, and had trouble getting it to boot up into XP, so I finally just reformatted the HD and tried to do a re-install. After several attempts, I finally concluded that my HD was bad, so I got a warranty replacement. The replacement came in the mail today, and here is what I have tried to do today:

I installed the HD. The only other components I have installed on my mobo are the video card, one stick of 512MB memory, and the DVD drive. The HD is a Western Digital 40GB HD. I booted the computer up with the Data Lifeguard Tools disk that came with the HD. I formatted the HD into two partitions: 30GB FAT32, and 10GB NTFS. This was how I had the drive formatted originally before swapping out the mobo. I then took out the tools disk and put in my XP disk and restarted. The system boots up and everything seems to be fine as far as the setup goes. Since I have an upgrade disk, it asks me to put in a qualifying disk to prove that I had an original Windows product, so I put in my Windows 98 CD. It then asks me where I want to install XP, so I choose the 30GB FAT32 partition. It then prompts me to put the XP disk back in. It then proceeds to copy the needed files onto the HD. When it is finished, it tells me to reboot. Upon reboot, I enter the BIOS so that I can change the boot order from CDROM first to HD first. In the past I have tried leaving that alone, and it then boots off the XP CD again and attempts to go through the setup again. After saving my changes in the BIOS, it reboots and just when it should be booting from the HD, it give me a simple error message: "Disk Error / Press any key to restart"
This was the same message I was getting on my other HD, which led me to believe the HD was bad. Now I am beginning to think it is not the HD after all, but I don't know how to get past this. I have even tried installing Windows 98 to do an upgrade from that, but it won't even let me install 98. It seems to me that I should not have a problem just installing XP from this disk and getting up and running again. I have been fighting with this problem for almost three weeks now, and am at my wits end.
I have verified that all of my components are compatible with XP, so I don't think that is the problem. I have also tried formatting the HD into one partition only with the same results.

Any suggestions? If more information is needed, please let me know.

Thanks!!!!!!

 

[killians45]

a few things to check. try to disable boot virus protection in the bios. as its a new HD I would rule out a boot sect virus, but however the bios maybe causing problems in its anti virus protection.

 

[preet2u]

I agree with Killians45 ... the bios based virus protection prevents the OS from writing on to the boot sector .. But normally ..it would warn u ..

What's the error msg that u get when u try installing Win98? is it the same error??

 

[rhinoman7]

The only thing I could find in the BIOS relating to virus protection was "Virus Warning", which was already disabled.

As far as loading Windows 98, it goes through all of the motions, and then when it does it's final reboot, it comes back with the following message:

While initializing device VKD:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.



Any other ideas?

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

Have you tried replacing the IDE cable? Also have you tried running scandisk after everything was installed? Sometimes certain cd-rom drives mess data up when transfering the information, esp if its a cheap cd-rom drive. If all else fails you can check to see if your motherboard has a revision update for the bios. Also check to make sure LBA support is on for your hard drive in the bios.

 

[killians45]

try a flat install. create a sub directory on the HDD, copy the cab files over and run the installation from there without the cd. xp uses winnt.exe.... I think, if I'm wrong on the file name could someone please correct me, thanks! the above from chaos is especially helpful, I'd do as he suggests. look for MBD specific drivers, too but usually that wont cause it to not boot at all or not recognize the HDD, just run like sh!t.

 

[stumanoo]

recently i built a system where the os would install (98 & xp) up to a point then when it got to "starting windows for the first time"

the system would restart with a quick flash of an error message

sometimes it would install fine but on a restart same problem would crop up

anyway this took about 3 weeks to sort , eventually i narrowed it down to the stick of ram i had (brand new)

replaced that and have had no problems since, so try a different stick of ram

might work might not ,good luck

(btw tried a diferent hd with xp preinstalled on this system and it had same symptoms also corrupted xp in some way , when placed back into its original system all kinds of error messages popped up eventually had to wipe that drive and reinstall also.

all down to some faulty memory)

 

[rhinoman7]

Thank you all for your help! I finally got it to work.

I ended up changing the IDE cable, and I also found a setting in the BIOS called 'IDE HDD Block Mode' which I set to DISABLED. Since my old IDE cable seemed to be OK, I am assuming that this setting is what did the trick. Any ideas if this is an important setting?

Thanks again!!!

 

[killians45]

IDE HDD Block Mode feature speeds up hard disk access by transferring data from multiple sectors at once instead of using the old single sector transfer mode. NT has a problem with it and it can corrupt data. If using NTFS, then I would keep it disabled. Otherwise, you can just finish the installation, and then reenable it when its done installing to see if it will work. More than likely windows has a hell of a time installing with this feature enabled, but I dont see any problem after a windows installation.