Several XP qualms

I'm always getting the BSOD from XP. Be it "Driver IRQ Less or Not Equal", "Memory Management", "Unmountable Boot Volume", "win2k.sys", or "*something* PDF *something*, my computer is always crashing and complaining about these.

Another thing: I've got 2 hds, each with it's own XP installed, but the 2nd hd, my 40GB refuses to boot. It always locks up everytime I try to load Windows off it, be it to boot, or to reinstall XP, where it "Searches for Windows" before you are able to format the drive. This hd also refuses to be formatted. I tried a format under the 80GB's XP, but after the 20 minutes of waiting for it, it ended off saying that the format couldn't be completed. Now I can't load windows off it, nor can I format it from Windows, but I can still access its files.

How can I remove multiple boots that I added in Windows Recovery Console? I tried using its help command, but the commands that I tried kept adding more boots. My comp opens up a menu for 4 boots now instead of an intended 2.

Can anyone help me with these problems?

Could be that your hd's are corrupted..
Did you run a diagnostic on them yet?
Here is the Maxtor utility for that..http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/techsupport/TechnicalProcedures/20014.htm
You might want to run the Low level format anyway, just to be sure.
You did "fdisk"?

If it was the multiple boot issue alone you could just edit the boot.ini to get rid of the extra boot choices. Since you are having major stability problems as well, do as OnDborder says. Run the diags, LLF and reinstall. Additionally, run a diag on the RAM before running the reinstall, as bad ram can be causing the corruption of the HDD.

Just to add to what Xaotic said, Memtest86 is free and works very well.

I agree, but I think it was Maximus Nickus who warned that even memtest86 could not isolate all problems in the memory. Try everything else first, but if all else fails to gain you stability, try a new stick of memory.

DWolf

I forgot to ask, is your system oc'd while installing?
What is your core voltage? DDR voltage?

DreamingWolf said:

I agree, but I think it was Maximus Nickus who warned that even memtest86 could not isolate all problems in the memory. Try everything else first, but if all else fails to gain you stability, try a new stick of memory.

DWolf

Click to expand...

You are right, but I generally just boot with a memtest disk on any system that's having file corruption problems and blue screens. I only let it run to about test 3, and if no errors have been found till then I assume the problem lies elsewhere. It only takes me 5 minutes to run the test, and it saves me a lot of time trying to chase down ghost harddrive problems.

But you are right that there is no one silver bullet to diagnose a problem PC.

okay i'm going to try all that. i've tried to fdisk though, but it gives me a "wrong ms-dos version" message. i'll run memtest right now, and i'll keep you posted on what's up.

OnDBorder: my computer isn't oc-ed right now but my core is 1.78V and the DDR is 2.59V.

Maxim said:

i've tried to fdisk though, but it gives me a "wrong ms-dos version" message.

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be getting that message if you're running fdisk that's on your boot disk. If it is the one on your bootdisk, make a new bootdisk. Go to www.bootdisk.com They have evrything you will need to make a boot disk for just about any system/situation you'll come across.

DWolf

i had those problems too, for the Ircq Equal or less, i just bought more memory, and for the Unmountable boot device i installed my 2nd hardrive as a secondary master when it should have been setup as a primary slave to my 1st hardrive which is primary master.