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windows can't install b/c hard drives corrupted??

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bboyfobulous

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Location
San Francisco, CA
i just built my bro a comp and replaced everything except the HD's. It was supposed to be a fresh install so i just swapped out the parts and attempted to re-install windows on the existing HD's.

windows gets all the way to the press F6 screen to install third party blah blah. after it loads all those files it goes to the blue screen of death and says HD's corrupted or something to that effect.

both are PATA HD's :
Quantum fireball 30GB (pretty old)
WD Caviar (120GB) (brand new, just bought)

New Components:
Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Mushkin 2x512 GB RAM
EVGA 7900 GT KO
Plextor DVD Burner
generic floppy drive
Ultra Power supply 500w

i've tried all combinations of the HD's (master, slave, one HD at a time, etc..)and cant get anything to work. help please!!
 
from all hard drive producers you can download disk tools to check and repair damage to the HD have a look at the URL below for more information

http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Also I would try swapping that plextor out Ive had that make of drive do weird things to me when installing (worked ok when the OS was installed but kept rebooting during it, tried everything and swapping the plextor solved this issue, no idea why though)
 
that link seems to only have programs that run under the windows os. i cant even install windows yet. i still have to try swapping out the plextor. hope that fixes it. but if not, any other ideas ?
 
if you go to the drive manufactures site they have bootable disks that run with dos on them.. The Western Digital tools for example has both the DOS and the Windows versions, the dos tools work on systems without OS support

The downloadable Data Lifeguard Tools now comes in both DOS and Windows versions and was written specifically for the installation of Western Digital EIDE hard drives. If your computer system already has a hard drive installed with an operating system of Windows 98SE or greater, you should use the Windows version of Data Lifeguard for best results. The DOS version is required if installing a hard drive in a new system without existing operating system support.

http://support.wdc.com/download/ <--- Western Digital Tools
Quantum Tools <---- file makes a bootable floppy (do not run in a dos window, read the instructions)
 
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taking out the plextor drive got rid of the blue screen of death. thanks for that.

but now when loading all the other files it gives a 'usbhub.sys is corrupted, windows setup cannot continue' now wth is going on ?? it doesnt even get to the hard drive part where you partition. any ideas ?
 
download this and you will never need to download another diagnostic program at the last minute again
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

but now when loading all the other files it gives a 'usbhub.sys is corrupted, windows setup cannot continue' now wth is going on ?? it doesnt even get to the hard drive part where you partition. any ideas ?

whenever i would get weird errors like that, 9 times out of 10 it would be either a bad cd/dvd drive or bad cd media ( win xp disc scratched ). just another thing to try, GL!
 
Is this the original Windows XP CD, or a copy that you made? I had a very similar problem when I made my first slipstreamed Windows XP disk, and it was because the CD had burned with some errors at 48X. I burned another disk, this time at 8X, and everything installed fine. There are so many files on the XP disk, so it is not recommended to burn at max speed. So I'd consider the possibility that your Windows CD is faulty/damaged.
 
bboyfobulous said:
i've tested the RAM in a different computer already.. that doesnt seem to be the problem

That may be the case in a different computer, but it will not always function the same in every computer. I would test it just to make sure.

I have had ram that has worked fine in one computer, and not work in another. Some boards dont like certain ram.
 
KillrBuckeye said:
Is this the original Windows XP CD, or a copy that you made? I had a very similar problem when I made my first slipstreamed Windows XP disk, and it was because the CD had burned with some errors at 48X. I burned another disk, this time at 8X, and everything installed fine. There are so many files on the XP disk, so it is not recommended to burn at max speed. So I'd consider the possibility that your Windows CD is faulty/damaged.


i'm now thinking it is the XP cd ... my brother got it from his friend. either that or the cd-r drive(which is quite old); and the plextor drive causes nothing but problems at the moment. i think i may try to borrow a cd or dvd drive from one of my friends to see if that's the problem..but first is a new XP cd ..
 
bboyfobulous said:
i'm now thinking it is the XP cd ... my brother got it from his friend. either that or the cd-r drive(which is quite old); and the plextor drive causes nothing but problems at the moment. i think i may try to borrow a cd or dvd drive from one of my friends to see if that's the problem..but first is a new XP cd ..

i'd say every 6 months i make a new copy, just because of the abuse i give to them. i also noticed that 'burners' are really the only drives that will read a WinXP burnt CD. the non-burner drives have a real problem reading them.
 
problems found!!! the quantum fireball was crapped out, the replacement CD-R drive was broken, and the XP cd was bad !!! ...now using all new components in their place and all is well!!

thanks for the help guys!!!
 
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