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How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP?

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  How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? "Dan Wallace" <dan.wallace@mys-rv.net> - 2012-11-11 09:59 +1000
    Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you> - 2012-11-11 00:23 +0000
    Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2012-11-10 18:37 -0800
      Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? "Dan Wallace" <dan.wallace@mys-rv.net> - 2012-11-12 07:20 +1000
        Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? "SG1" <lostit@the.races.com> - 2012-11-12 08:06 +1000
    Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2012-11-11 05:17 -0800
    Re: How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP? retsuhcs@xinap.moc (Mike S.) - 2012-11-14 01:20 +0000

#1653 — How to determine if HD is OK for Win XP?

Hi guys
I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro sp2 
on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine when 
used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to store 
video files +PVR.
However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a 
later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't install 
XP.
On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or normal 
NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs out 
with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK for 
installing XP?
I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I 
don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem.  If 
you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
Thanks, Dan
 

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#1654

I recommend you try the relevant diagnostics tool from the 
manufacturer of your drives. eg. SeaTools for Seagate HDDs. All 
the major ones appear to be on the "Ultimate Boot CD".

You can find out the maker of the HDDs using other software on 
that CD. "DISKINFO" will probably tell you the information you 
need, but I know that the more universal tool, AIDA (also on the 
CD) should definitely give you the manufacturer after you wade 
through all the other info.

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

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#1655

On 11/10/2012 3:59 PM, Dan Wallace wrote:
> Hi guys
> I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro sp2
> on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine when
> used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to store
> video files +PVR.
> However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a
> later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't install
> XP.
> On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or normal
> NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs out
> with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
> Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK for
> installing XP?
> I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I
> don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem.  If
> you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
> Thanks, Dan
>
>
>
I don't know exactly what's on which version of ultimate boot cd you have.
You're looking for something that creates/modifies partitions.
Check to see if you have any hidden partitions.

You can boot the xp CD in repair mode and try chkdsk.
Run chkdsk c: to see what that tells you.
Then try chkdsk /F c: to see what that tells you.
Then run chkdsk /R c:.  That attempts check every sector and recover
the disk.  It takes a while.  That should tell you if you have any
bad sectors on the drive.  Of course, you'll have to format the partition
first.  Use the format command from XP recovery mode, not the one in
the install sequence.  Or try something from the ulitmate boot cd.
or download the live gparted CD.
You can use dd to wipe the boot sector.  Then the partitioning
programs see it as an uninitialized drive and let you initialize
the drive.  Default type is usually what you want.

The history of your drive matters.  Some vendors have custom something
on their drives to prevent you cloning or updating without paying
for their specific expensive drives.

Check jumper settings.

My nemesis is the TIVO pvr.  They're free to $1 at garage sales and have
40-320GB hard drives.  Some will run linux just fine, but I can't install
XP. Others install XP, but have weird symptoms.  chkdsk /F hangs.
Disk imaging programs hang when run from the hd, but work fine if
you boot their rescue cd and backup from there.  But normal use
of windows seems to work fine.

There's something intentionally different about these drives and I
haven't been able to determine what or how to fix it.

You probably want a more focused newsgroup like one with "storage in the 
name".

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#1657

"mike" <ham789@netzero.net> wrote in message 
news:k7n32m$60k$1@dont-email.me...
> On 11/10/2012 3:59 PM, Dan Wallace wrote:
>> Hi guys
>> I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro sp2
>> on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine 
>> when
>> used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to 
>> store
>> video files +PVR.
>> However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a
>> later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't 
>> install
>> XP.
>> On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or 
>> normal
>> NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs 
>> out
>> with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
>> Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK 
>> for
>> installing XP?
>> I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I
>> don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem. 
>> If
>> you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
>> Thanks, Dan
>>
>>
> I don't know exactly what's on which version of ultimate boot cd you have.
> You're looking for something that creates/modifies partitions.
> Check to see if you have any hidden partitions.
>
> You can boot the xp CD in repair mode and try chkdsk.
> Run chkdsk c: to see what that tells you.
> Then try chkdsk /F c: to see what that tells you.
> Then run chkdsk /R c:.  That attempts check every sector and recover
> the disk.  It takes a while.  That should tell you if you have any
> bad sectors on the drive.  Of course, you'll have to format the partition
> first.  Use the format command from XP recovery mode, not the one in
> the install sequence.  Or try something from the ulitmate boot cd.
> or download the live gparted CD.
> You can use dd to wipe the boot sector.  Then the partitioning
> programs see it as an uninitialized drive and let you initialize
> the drive.  Default type is usually what you want.
>
> The history of your drive matters.  Some vendors have custom something
> on their drives to prevent you cloning or updating without paying
> for their specific expensive drives.
>
> Check jumper settings.
>
> My nemesis is the TIVO pvr.  They're free to $1 at garage sales and have
> 40-320GB hard drives.  Some will run linux just fine, but I can't install
> XP. Others install XP, but have weird symptoms.  chkdsk /F hangs.
> Disk imaging programs hang when run from the hd, but work fine if
> you boot their rescue cd and backup from there.  But normal use
> of windows seems to work fine.
>
> There's something intentionally different about these drives and I
> haven't been able to determine what or how to fix it.
>
> You probably want a more focused newsgroup like one with "storage in the 
> name".

Thanks Mike. I will try this and report back.  The tip about the format 
command from xp recorvery mode is a good tip - I'll try it.
If anyone else has anyone other tips and how to make these strange HDs 'xp 
compatible' that'd be great too.
 

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#1658

"Dan Wallace" <dan.wallace@mys-rv.net> wrote in message 
news:fEUns.843$Ow3.553@viwinnwfe02.internal.bigpond.com...
> "mike" <ham789@netzero.net> wrote in message 
> news:k7n32m$60k$1@dont-email.me...
>> On 11/10/2012 3:59 PM, Dan Wallace wrote:
>>> Hi guys
>>> I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro 
>>> sp2
>>> on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine 
>>> when
>>> used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to 
>>> store
>>> video files +PVR.
>>> However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a
>>> later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't 
>>> install
>>> XP.
>>> On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or 
>>> normal
>>> NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs 
>>> out
>>> with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
>>> Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK 
>>> for
>>> installing XP?
>>> I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I
>>> don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem. 
>>> If
>>> you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
>>> Thanks, Dan
>>>
>>>
>> I don't know exactly what's on which version of ultimate boot cd you 
>> have.
>> You're looking for something that creates/modifies partitions.
>> Check to see if you have any hidden partitions.
>>
>> You can boot the xp CD in repair mode and try chkdsk.
>> Run chkdsk c: to see what that tells you.
>> Then try chkdsk /F c: to see what that tells you.
>> Then run chkdsk /R c:.  That attempts check every sector and recover
>> the disk.  It takes a while.  That should tell you if you have any
>> bad sectors on the drive.  Of course, you'll have to format the partition
>> first.  Use the format command from XP recovery mode, not the one in
>> the install sequence.  Or try something from the ulitmate boot cd.
>> or download the live gparted CD.
>> You can use dd to wipe the boot sector.  Then the partitioning
>> programs see it as an uninitialized drive and let you initialize
>> the drive.  Default type is usually what you want.
>>
>> The history of your drive matters.  Some vendors have custom something
>> on their drives to prevent you cloning or updating without paying
>> for their specific expensive drives.
>>
>> Check jumper settings.
>>
>> My nemesis is the TIVO pvr.  They're free to $1 at garage sales and have
>> 40-320GB hard drives.  Some will run linux just fine, but I can't install
>> XP. Others install XP, but have weird symptoms.  chkdsk /F hangs.
>> Disk imaging programs hang when run from the hd, but work fine if
>> you boot their rescue cd and backup from there.  But normal use
>> of windows seems to work fine.
>>
>> There's something intentionally different about these drives and I
>> haven't been able to determine what or how to fix it.
>>
>> You probably want a more focused newsgroup like one with "storage in the 
>> name".
>
> Thanks Mike. I will try this and report back.  The tip about the format 
> command from xp recorvery mode is a good tip - I'll try it.
> If anyone else has anyone other tips and how to make these strange HDs 'xp 
> compatible' that'd be great too.

I have a floppy drive in all my older machines and use a W98 startup disk to 
fdisk 'em. As in remove partitions and set the disk to blank. Works well 
except modern MBs don't have floppy ports anymore.

>
>
> 

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#1656

On Saturday, November 10, 2012 6:00:13 PM UTC-6, Dan Wallace wrote:
> Hi guys
> 
> I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro sp2 
> 
> on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine when 
> 
> used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to store 
> 
> video files +PVR.
> 
> However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a 
> 
> later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't install 
> 
> XP.
> 
> On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or normal 
> 
> NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs out 
> 
> with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
> 
> Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK for 
> 
> installing XP?
> 
> I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I 
> 
> don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem.  If 
> 
> you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
> 
> Thanks, Dan

Back when we had FDD's didn't we run Fdisk 1st? Then the Windows format...

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#1662

In article <gTBns.832$Ow3.829@viwinnwfe02.internal.bigpond.com>,
Dan Wallace <dan.wallace@mys-rv.net> wrote:
>Hi guys
>I have a couple old Toshiba A3Xs which I can't install Windows XP pro sp2 
>on.  The two hard drives concerned are 40 Gb and 80 Gb.  Both run fine when 
>used as an external USB drive (in an enclosure) and have been used to store 
>video files +PVR.
>However both drives are second hand and might have been installed with a 
>later operating system (vista, etc.) and this might be why I can't install 
>XP.
>On the XP installer I delete the partition(s) and try NTFS (quick) or normal 
>NTFS and the formatter gets to 20% after a little while and then bombs out 
>with installer saying 'can't install to this drive'.
>Can you please tell me how I can truly find out if these drives are OK for 
>installing XP?
>I have ultimate boot cd but there are so many applications on it that I 
>don't know what the appropriate program will be for the above problem.  If 
>you could suggest something for that I would appreciate it.
>Thanks, Dan

To add to the commonsense suggestions already posted - try a Linux CD
designed for disk management like PartEdMagic. Boot it and use gparted to
examine the disk structure. In particular, select the partition you intend
to install XP to and ask gparted to check and repair, then "apply" the
"changes".

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