Corrupted XP Install? Help!

R

RLich8

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
348
Just built my brother a new computer. It's running a MSI 915P chipset, with the 2.8ghz processor. Sony Combo drive, western digital 120gig hdd. GeForce 6600GT PCI-EX video card, PNY 2x512 ram. Mind you this is all brand new stuff, like 3 days old. I was installing windows on it, and I left to go to work, I was just going to finish it when i got home. For some reason, SOMETHING possesed him to swap discs or something, I don't know even what he did because he says he doesn't know and he won't tell me.

It's giving me tons of errors, NTLDR is missing, NTFS.sys is missing, and a bunch of fatal exception errors when I try installing XP or Win2k.

How can I fix this? I've already tried formatting the HDD, doing repair installs, nothing wants to budge. Please help, we've spent $1500 on all this stuff including monitor, keyboard, etc.

Thank you.
 
Maybe he tried to overclock and messed hard disk information in the process.

It may be a good idea to run memtest and see if memory is OK

0ldmX
 
is the hdd SATA or "regular" PATA? did you install SATA drivers at boot time?

It sounds like a driver (or lack thereof) or memory problem.

as another poster said, run memtest and if its cool, reinstall. Just dont let dippy-dog touch the pc until its up and running ;)
 
I don't think it would have been overclocking, but you never know.

I'll have to go try and do a memtest... But, I've tried reinstalling and it gives me those weird blue fatal exception errors.

edit: The hard drive is not SATA it's just a regular one.
 
Try Searching those errors on MS website.I had similar with the Ntldr error missing, Mine was I added a raptor "sata" and made that the system, I forgot to change the Other HD to slave. Every time I would fire it Up I would get that error unless I had the XP Cd in. After I changed the old HD from MAster to slave. Its been fine.
 
i have the CD/DVD drive as master and the HDD as slave....would that be my problem at all?
 
Could be, They are to differant devices, Set the HD as Master and leave the Cd as Master as well. Set boot order to CD, Wipe HD reformat and re load XP see if that works! Bet thats it!
 
Tazzman said:
Could be, They are to differant devices, Set the HD as Master and leave the Cd as Master as well. Set boot order to CD, Wipe HD reformat and re load XP see if that works! Bet thats it!
Click to expand...
ummm.... if you have two ide devices on the same cable and both are set to master, that's a problem. the bios will have a problem making drive assignments with two drives requesting only the "master".

only follow the above quoted advice if you are using two different ide cables (hard drive goto mobo primary ide connection, cd drive goes to mobo secondary ide connection). if you are only using one ide cable, which i don't recommend b/c it would decrease the hard drive's performance, then set the hard drive to master and the cd drive to slave. still, for no more than $5 you can ensure that both drives run at top speed by using two ide cables.
 
PTNL said:
ummm.... if you have two ide devices on the same cable and both are set to master, that's a problem. the bios will have a problem making drive assignments with two drives requesting only the "master".

only follow the above quoted advice if you are using two different ide cables (hard drive goto mobo primary ide connection, cd drive goes to mobo secondary ide connection). if you are only using one ide cable, which i don't recommend b/c it would decrease the hard drive's performance, then set the hard drive to master and the cd drive to slave. still, for no more than $5 you can ensure that both drives run at top speed by using two ide cables.
Click to expand...

Left that Out, I was ASSuming They were separate. :rolleyes: :p
 
RLich8 said:
i have the CD/DVD drive as master and the HDD as slave....would that be my problem at all?
Click to expand...
Dont do this! A year ago at my school we have to reinstall the os well the idiots that built the computers(hp) had the configuration really weird cant remember exactly but i think the problem was the cables were switched around funny and we were getting weird install errors every time untill the cables were switched, it must have taken a few days to figure out since you would think hp would be smart enough not to have the hard drives as slave.
 
Thanks for the help guys, got the system up and running today.

Turns out the hard disk AND one of the sticks of ram was bad. Got new ones, did a fresh clean install of XP. Installed all my drivers and everything, and my bro is using it tonight. Great new PC.

Thanks again,
Roy
 
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