WinXP Setup

[GeP3 0]

Hello everybody!

 

My system:

 

-Asus P2B (Intel 440BX, updated BIOS),

-Celeron 333MHz (working at 416MHz, no problems),

-192MB RAM (128 MB + 64 MB),

-Fujitsu 6.4GB HDD,

-Display adapter Diamond Viper 550 AGP, 16 MB (using the last driver version and updated BIOS),

-Ricoh CD-R/RW MP7083A.

 

I've tried to upgrade from Win98 SE to Windows XP Pro several times. Every time after rebooting my PC for the first time during the installation, the Setup stops giving the following message

 

"Setup has determined that drive C: is corrupted and cannot be repaired. Setup cannot continue. To quit press F3."

 

The same happens if I try to install WinXP on the clean hard drive (the only difference is that now I have to fdisk and format my drive, since DOS doesn't see it). But no soft that I've used to check my HDD is able to find any error (Scandisk, Norton Disk Doctor, Fujitsu's utility to check their HDDs). (???)

 

Temporarily replaced my Asus P2B with a Chaintech 6BTM (Intel 440BX)... No difference.

 

Exactly the same happens if I try to install Win2k.

 

Maybe somebody has got any similar problem or knows how to overcome it? Thanks for your time.

[tsonta101 0]

hi and welcome aboard!

 

now, a few ideas...

1) check that your hdd does not actually have bad clusters (since setup has reported it, it might be true)

2) try to set up WinXP (or W2K) with your system NOT overclocked. I have read that some people had difficulty doing so when overclocking 8) ...

3) off the top of my head, can you throw in another hdd and try to install on that? it might be its electronics are dying and not the bad clusters.

 

try these and tell us if everything worked,

 

all the best, tsonta101

[OsirisRa 0]

Oddly enough I had the same problem with a bx board (some generic mobo). I had a seagate drive though. What fixed it for me was seeing the IDE to all 'AUTO' in the bios instead of the 'USER' setting that the bios put in after it detected the drive or after I ran the IDE autodetect.

I thought it was kinda strange, and it may have been coincidence, but hell, it worked.

 

You might also try wiping your master boot record via fdisk.

 

Fdisk /mbr

 

then create a new fat32 partition and try installing xp, you can convert to NTFS later if you want(or during the setup).

 

Good Luck,

-O-

[GeP3 0]

Hi tsonta!

 

And thanks for your quick response.

I've alresdy checked it for bad clusters. Nothing. Maybe you know a better utility for that purpose...

 

In fact I've also tried to install without overclocking my system. Nothing :-(.

 

I wouldn't like to change my HDD. At least not until I haven't found that it is the main cause of the problem. It might be the video adapter. I think so...

 

See you.

[GeP3 0]

Hi OsirisRa!

 

Thanks for your quick response.

 

I'll try that, I think I didn't try that yet (there were so many attempts!)

 

About fdisk: Does it not wipe the master boot record by default (without the option /mbr)? If it does, then I've done that before.

 

See you.