Win XP SP2 fried my HDD on installation?

[Husar]

Well yeah, makes my last topic on BIOS problems etc pale in comparison.

I bought Stalker yesterday and despite the patch it crashed with almost every attempt to save the game(in Vista Business X64), so I wanted to execute my long-held plan of a secondary XP SP2 X32, which I thought would be installed in about an hour on partition 3 as usual. But of course, something somehow did not agree with me and here, hopefully not too long, story starts.

I had the third partition already formatted as NTFS by Vista and just tried to install it on the first attempt, after the first reboot, I just got "unable to load OS" so I made a second attempt and made a fast format of the partition with NTFS, same result. So I was a bit scared because I didn't even had an option to load Vista anymore, I put in the Vista DVD and went to repair options(weird thing, the Vista DVD would only load correctly on ever 2nd attempt, but then it worked fine), trying to repair the startup process of Vista didn't help so I had a look in the console(under Vista repair options) and opened the boot.ini on C:, well, there was only XP and the 3rd partition in there so I edited it to load the first partition with Vista, but I couldn't save it, it was protected.:wall:
Well, so I thought "if I can get XP SP2 working, I can sort that boot.ini out from within XP" and started a third attempt, this time with a full format of the third partition. And this time something was angry at me because after the first restart I was stuck in the BIOS load process with the following message:

3rd Master: SAMSUNG HD252KJ CM100-06
Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Disabled
Now the only other device was my DVD drive being secondary master, I have no idea what SMART is and I could not even get into BIOS settings until I disconnected the HDD and restarted.

Well, so I figured it was something wrong with the HDD and not the BIOS and connected my old 80GB HDD with a completely installed XP SP2 on it(I had that as an external drive but never formatted it, which was a good idea apparently), now that just loaded up just fine and is the reason I can post this here.:2thumbsup:

So I'm basically wondering whether it was stupid of me to attempt dual-booting a 64bit and a 32bit OS from the same HDD and what the *insert bad word* that installation did to my HDD? I have installed XP several times before and even had it dual boot with the (32bit) betas of Vista, but this time it seems to have fried my new HDD.:shrug:

BTW: it was a new XP SP2 CD I burned from MSDNAA, previously I always used my original XP SP0 CD which my dad once gave me.

[sapi]

Doesn't sound great.

You might have some luck with trying to edit the boot.ini from this xp installation, but then again it could be fubar in some strange way and you might have to reformat

Good luck :(

[caravel]

I had the third partition already formatted as NTFS by Vista and just tried to install it on the first attempt, after the first reboot, I just got "unable to load OS" so I made a second attempt and made a fast format of the partition with NTFS, same result. So I was a bit scared because I didn't even had an option to load Vista anymore, I put in the Vista DVD and went to repair options(weird thing, the Vista DVD would only load correctly on ever 2nd attempt, but then it worked fine), trying to repair the startup process of Vista didn't help so I had a look in the console(under Vista repair options) and opened the boot.ini on C:, well, there was only XP and the 3rd partition in there so I edited it to load the first partition with Vista, but I couldn't save it, it was protected.:wall:
Well, so I thought "if I can get XP SP2 working, I can sort that boot.ini out from within XP" and started a third attempt, this time with a full format of the third partition. And this time something was angry at me because after the first restart I was stuck in the BIOS load process with the following message:


3rd Master: SAMSUNG HD252KJ CM100-06
Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable but Disabled

Now the only other device was my DVD drive being secondary master, I have no idea what SMART is and I could not even get into BIOS settings until I disconnected the HDD and restarted.
SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) has been disabled from the BIOS you're not likely to need it so just leave it disabled. Ultra DMA mode 6 (ATA 133) is enabled and that's what counts. This isn't likely to be related to your problem at all.

Well, so I figured it was something wrong with the HDD and not the BIOS and connected my old 80GB HDD with a completely installed XP SP2 on it(I had that as an external drive but never formatted it, which was a good idea apparently), now that just loaded up just fine and is the reason I can post this here.:2thumbsup:

So I'm basically wondering whether it was stupid of me to attempt dual-booting a 64bit and a 32bit OS from the same HDD and what the *insert bad word* that installation did to my HDD? I have installed XP several times before and even had it dual boot with the (32bit) betas of Vista, but this time it seems to have fried my new HDD.:shrug:

BTW: it was a new XP SP2 CD I burned from MSDNAA, previously I always used my original XP SP0 CD which my dad once gave me.
The whole thing sounds like a messed up bootloader and maybe corruption. Installing XP, still overwrites the master boot record, and it looks like in this case that the XP SP2 installation has ignored Vista and written a new MBR and boot.ini. I think your best bet would be to fdisk the whole drive and reinstall first XP and then Vista.

If it goes wrong again then you will know there's a hardware issue. I notice you have the optical drive as secondary master? I would place it on it's own cable or paired with another optical drive. Does this board have a raid controller or are you running the HDD from one? (I'm assuming this is a parallel ATA drive (EIDE)).

[Husar]

Erm, no, that's part of the problem, the optical drive does have it's own cable and my new HDD is an S-ATA drive...
And fdisk etc are pretty useless if it already hangs up in the BIOS screen whenever I connect the HDD, I can't even get into the BIOS options, I press F2 and it says "entering BIOS" but does nothing, it just hangs there.:shrug:
Can't be the boot.ini or mbr because at this point, neither is being accessed. If I disconnect the drive, I get a message saying there is no bootable CD inserted(CD drive was primary boot device), but once I connect it, I don't even get to the point of booting anything.:wall:
And I don't want to connect it together with my other HDD because I fear they might then both be corrupt, I don't trust it anymore.:inquisitive:

[caravel]

Erm, no, that's part of the problem, the optical drive does have it's own cable and my new HDD is an S-ATA drive...
And fdisk etc are pretty useless if it already hangs up in the BIOS screen whenever I connect the HDD, I can't even get into the BIOS options, I press F2 and it says "entering BIOS" but does nothing, it just hangs there.:shrug:
Can't be the boot.ini or mbr because at this point, neither is being accessed. If I disconnect the drive, I get a message saying there is no bootable CD inserted(CD drive was primary boot device), but once I connect it, I don't even get to the point of booting anything.:wall:
And I don't want to connect it together with my other HDD because I fear they might then both be corrupt, I don't trust it anymore.:inquisitive:
OK my mistake. Try removing as much hardware as possible, and concentrate on getting into the BIOS. A very long delay when trying to get into the BIOS setup usually indicates a piece of failing hardware.

[Husar]

Oh, hehe, I'm writing this on the same machine with my old HDD and I get into the BIOS just fine, even with no HDD. But when I connect the SATA HDD, it hangs. I think I'm going to take it back to the shop, going to visit my parents over the weekend anyway(shop is in their area). That kind of thing just shouldn't happen when attempting to install Windows.:no:
Thanks for your help and thoughts anyway.:2thumbsup:

[Husar]

Well, today we went to that shop and the guy tested the HDD, then told mke it would work, I told him I had an AsRock mainboard so he tested it on an AsRock mainboard and got the same problem I had. Several minutes later I got a new one.:2thumbsup:
Now I wonder what will happen if I attempt to install Vista x64 and XP x32 on that new drive.:inquisitive:
There shouldn't really be any problem, right?
I don't feel like repeating that.:sweatdrop:

[Bijo]

Just check it out, you gotta, otherwise you won't know. Let's go, soldier, and get it down with! :) The water in my knee tells me this time it'll be alright :laugh4:

[caravel]

Well, today we went to that shop and the guy tested the HDD, then told mke it would work, I told him I had an AsRock mainboard so he tested it on an AsRock mainboard and got the same problem I had. Several minutes later I got a new one.:2thumbsup:
Now I wonder what will happen if I attempt to install Vista x64 and XP x32 on that new drive.:inquisitive:
There shouldn't really be any problem, right?
I don't feel like repeating that.:sweatdrop:
Try it, always install the oldest OS first, just to be double sure. Good luck.

:bow: