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I thought I had all my Hardware problems sorted ........ it seems not. After a restart today everything was going fine untill just after putting in the password to load XP. The screen went to the loading personal settings dialog and then froze.

I have tried starting in safe mode with the same result ..... I have attempted to use the recovery conslole to fix the boot record and master boot record ..... all to no avail, the comp remains frozen on the loading settings screen with no disc activity.

I'm thinking reformat as a last resort however I'm hoping one of the hardware geeks here will be able to throw some other ideas into the mix.

cheers
eno

You have backups of your payware?


Sounds like there's something im your cd/floppy drive, if not it's your HDD.


Mees

Fixed it for now ........... but would still like some input for future reference if anyone has any ideas please.

Defragment with O&O defrag. I had a similar problem about a year back and thats what solved it. But cleaning your registry and defraging on a regular basis is probibly the best to make sure it dosn't happen again.

Cheers
Cameron

STOP!!!!!

BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN DEFRAGGING AFTER A SERIOUS PROBLEM.

It can seriously mess up your system ... so please consult an expert (you know who I mean) before proceeding.

A defrag messed up my rig pretty bad ... I'm still in the process of recovery.

He speaks the truth, best find out what your problem is before the heavy duty defrag job

Hello.People think that defrag is the medecine for all you problems.Well it isnt . My advice is, and believe me i have learned by making mistakes(BIG MISTAKES).There are two things that i advise you BACKUP and always make a copy of you registry after you install all your main progs also create a restore point before  you install progs that are not usual on your machine and finally and this is not to every one. Was good that you could have a pc jut for the internet.
Many thanks hope it helped.

Oh joy and bliss ........... I've tried everything after another system crash this morning. I've attempted to repair from the recovery console numerous attempts at replacing corrupted files from the orginal XP disc etc etc etc ...... I've even attempted a reformat all to no avail. It seems that my hard drive is fried it's now sitting with no OS on and refusing to format.

I guess it's time to buy a nice shiny 250gb HD which will fit not only FS9 but FSX on ....... I was wondering how I was going to fit the latter on my old HD.

STOP!!!!!

BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN DEFRAGGING AFTER A SERIOUS PROBLEM.

It can seriously mess up your system ... so please consult an expert (you know who I mean) before proceeding.

A defrag messed up my rig pretty bad ... I'm still in the process of recovery.

It was not the defrag that trashed your hard drive although it was the defrag that brought the problem to the surface.

Your issue was because you started with a 150GB hard disk and an older version (very old) of WindowsXP SP1 which did not contain the updated files for ATAPI, 48-bit LBA support and cache dump.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013

The hard drive was not partitioned to below 137GB before the install which means anything written to the drive outside the 137GB barrier forced data corruption.

In other words, your system would not support hard drives larger than 137GB even with SP2 installed because the drive was not partitioned below 137GB prior to installing your older version of XPSP1. The file allocation table was corrupt from the start. The corruption problems started before you even updated to SP2, which in turn did not update correctly because the allocation table was trashed from the beginning.

When the system went through the NAME defrag, O&O moved files around and at some point moved system files to the area outside the 137GB limit. Good defrag programs move files to empty areas of the disk while they are shuffling everything around and putting them all back in order. Also,

Your system rebooted after the defrag and sat at the sign in screen for several hours. It probably entered a power down state at which time you were doubly bit by the cache bug.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331958


Assuming my assessment is correct and the hard drive itself is not defective, the solution is to either format the drive to a single 135GB partition, leaving the rest of the space unallocated until after SP2 and all the patches are fully installed, and then use partition software to recover the unallocated space

OR

Obtain a copy of WindowsXP with SP2 already integrated into it.


Solution #2 is the best way to go.


and note that the DRIVERS for the disk controller MUST be 48-bit LBA compliant. Most are however there are some older motherboards and drivers floating around out there.

If your windows install does not see any more than 137GB of disk when you have a 150+ hard drive installed, you do not have LBA support.


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As for defragging fixing boot errors... that

Well after a conversation with Nick and several more attempts to get my hard drive working ....... it has been decided that it is deceased... dead ...... no more..... shuffled off this mortal coil. I've ordered a nice new Seagate barracuda 320GB hard drive and will be following Nicks advice as to how to set it up.

Wow man that's a lot of space... gift me a few gb  ;D

Well after a conversation with Nick and several more attempts to get my hard drive working ....... it has been decided that it is deceased... dead ...... no more..... shuffled off this mortal coil. I've ordered a nice new Seagate barracuda 320GB hard drive and will be following Nicks advice as to how to set it up.

You only need to do a temp partition of less than 137GB if the Windows install disk you are using is very old. If it has SP2 already integrated into the install disk there is no need to run a temp partition however when it completes you may notice a chunk of disk space missing (anywhere from 200meg to 10gig) depending on the motherboard and controller. That space can be recovered using Partition magic after everything is installed and updated.

As long as you see more than 137GB when you boot into Windows after the install, you have 48-bit LBA support.

There are rare versions of WindowsXP sp1 that also do not have 48-bit LBA support. Harold had one of those rare and older copies of Winders and that is why he had a corruption failure with his initial install.

He now has an install disk that includes SP2 which will resolve the problem.

I can post an entire thread on WindowsXP install and setup. The process to do that is just as important as installing drivers correctly.... If you dont, you could have a corrupted base coming right out of the gate. It may not crash but performance could be affected by as much as 25-50% depending on the corruption.

....... it has been decided that it is deceased... dead ...... no more..... shuffled off this mortal coil.....

Muahahaaa!!!

That's just aweful eno, but the Shakespearean reference to mortality just impressed me no end

One slipstreamed XP+SP2 and updates install disc made, now I just need the HD to try it on  ::)

All sorted now with a nice shiny Seagate Barracuda 320gb HD . I've just got to get everything installed again now  ::)