Unusual XP installation issue

[Britboy]

I want to install XP on a 6GB drive that I cannot boot from (messed up 2000 installation). I had to use IBM 'ZAP" to write 0's over the first section of the drive as I had 'NTLDR missing' errors and it was the only way I could find to get rid of it.

This means that I cannot boot from this drive, it wont even boot from a floppy when this drive is installed as the primary - I wanted to boot to an Me boot disk and fdisk /mbr so I could then boot the drive. I have also tried using maxblast to copy my good winMe installation over to the 6GB, just so I could start using it, it failed after copying 1GB over.

Situation right now: Have the 6GB set as a slave, can see it and use it as a storage drive. But I need to figure out a way to be able to boot from it to install XP. Cant install XP on it from Me as it wants to upgrade Me only. Do you know of any way I can get the drive to boot? I'm nervous about running fdisk /mbr from a dos window in Me as I dont know the correct command to write the mbr to my 6GB (D and NOT my Me drive (C.

Thanks!

 

[JimMc]

Why won't it boot from a floppy if you set your BIOS boot sequence to A, C, CDROM? What happens? You should be able to boot from a floppy, then fdisk, format and away you go....

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

Or why not just boot to the XP cd? When you run setup you can then delete/create your hard drive partition and format it there.

 

[Britboy]

I set it to a, c, cdrom, save the selection, insert the floppy and reboot, it recognizes my cd drives and then stops, doesnt even attempt to read a:

It used to boot from a:. I originally was trying to overcome the ntldr is missing error, I would boot to a: do fdisk, format from my Me disk then try and install XP. XP would get as far as copying over all the files and rebooting, it then gave me ntldr is missing error again. The only way I could get rid of ntldr (doing fdisk /mbr didnt work) was to use that zap program from IBM. After I used that I have not been able to boot from a:, c: or my CDrom with that drive set as the primary. I just tried using fdisk from Me with it set as a slave and fdisk did not list it as a drive, even though I can access it from windows and copy files to it!

 

[patsun123]

your XP cd should be bootable. boot from that. do not boot from a disk. then install it, and format your drive with NTFS when it asks... dont install on top of somethine else.

"NTLDR is missing" doesnt mean your drive is necessarily bad, it just means that your bios didnt detect an OS on your hd... usually that is taken care when you type "sys c:" from a boot disk. Clean installing XP should get rid of that.

If that doesnt work, then you have a hardware problem.

Also, XP is like win2k and win NT. it doesnt like being second. it is a very good idea to install XP first and then ME after.

 

[JMorton10]

>Also, XP is like win2k and win NT. it doesnt like being second. it is a very good idea to install XP first and then ME after.
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Don't you have that backwards??

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

Ok, lets start from the beginning. (this is what I would do)

1) Make sure your floppy boot disk works. Go to ME and make another one if need be.
2) Take out all other Hard Drives in your system except the one you want to install XP on.
3) Set that HD the primary master.
4) Boot to the floppy, run debug and wipe out the MBR (let me know if you don't know how to do this) You hard drive should now be in it's original factory state.
5) Reboot, this time boot to the XP cd.
6) In setup, create a new primary partition and format with NTFS.
7) Continue with setup as normal.

If that doesn't work there is probably a hardware failure somewhere.

 

[Britboy]

Update: I called Fujitsu support this morning and they told me to RMA the drive, get a replacement in a few days, hopefully problem solved. Thanks to everyone that tried to help.