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Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP)

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AL_n wrote:
> mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j8up0b$nie$1@dont-email.me:
> 
>> I got no experience with running a sata drive in ide mode.
>> .
>> But, let's check some things.
>>
>> If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you
>> probably have to set it either way before you do anything else and
>> LEAVE IT THAT WAY FOREVER.
>>
>> When you used GPARTED to partition/format the drive, did you remember
>> to set the "bootable flag"?
> 
> No - I didn't see any mention of a "bootable flag".

Somewhere in the menus for GPARTED there's something like "edit flags"
Brings up a bunch of checkboxes, one of which is "bootable".
Try right clicking the line that describes the partition.
> 
>> What's the error message when you try to boot xp from the HD?
> 
> There is no error message. If I enable SATA Native Mode in the BIOS, XP 
> just won't load. You briefly see an XP color logo screen, then it goes 
> black and reboots up to a point where it invites me to choose between 
> staring Windows in Safe Mode vs Normal etc. If I choose either, it just 
> restarts and boots back to that same screen. If you hit "start Windows 
> Normally, it takes you as farr as the first XP colored logo screen, then 
> the system restarts.

Sounds like a driver problem to me.  I'd bet it revolves around
SATA native mode disabled.
If you press F8 during the boot to get the boot options screen,
there's an option to log the boot process.  That should spew out
what it's doing while it boots.  The last thing printed is either the last
successful thing or the thing it was trying when it failed.  you'll have
to look up which if it matters.  Problem is that it will likely flash up
for an instant before it reboots.  Should end up with a bootlog file
that you may be able to read if you can boot a linux Cd and mount the 
C-drive.

I'd go ask the question in the HP laptop forum.  Gotta be one somewhere.
> 
>> Did you try booting the install cd into repair mode and running
>> fixmbr
>> and
>> fixboot
> 
> No, I didn't. Should I do that?

can't hurt
Your system seems to be booting from the hard drive, but crashing
when it gets to the part where drivers are loaded.
Can't hurt to run a memory test. There's a live Cd version of memtest86.

>  
>> Your description suggests that the xp installation completed 
>> successfully.  During that process, the system had to reboot at least
>> once. 
> 
> Yes. But I had to set the BIOS to "SATA Native Mode disabled"
>>
>> Refresh my memory...did this laptop boot/run with this disk before you
>> started messing with it?  Which OS?  Which service pack? Or did you 
>> acquire it this way?
> 
> I acquired it (and the hard drive) in used condition. The hard drive had 
> been formatted. The only OS I have ever loaded onto it is XP pro. 
> 
>> Where did you get the XP  ones and zeros for the nlite disk? 
> 
> The ones and zeros? Sorry I don't understand...

Somewhere, you got the original files for the XP install disk that you
nlited.  Was this a real XP disk or something downloaded or copied
off an existing system?

There's a thing called the hardware abstraction layer that gets loaded
at the original install and is based on hardware detected.  If that's wrong,
I don't think there's any easy way to fix it.  You have to reload the OS.
Configuring the hard drive emulation AFTER the HAL is loaded may
give you problems.
> 
> 
>  Which service pack? 
> 
> SP3
That oughta work dandy with sata???  Someone else chime in here.
> 
>  Was the hardware designed to run XP or was it
>> downgraded from Vista or Win7?
> 
> I have no idea. I think this HP 6710b laptop was first available around 
> 2007, judging by the dates of reviews and user comments on the web.

Should be specs and drivers on the HP site???
> 
> 
>> There are
>> a lot of potential issues with this process.  M$, in efforts to
>> discourage piracy, has made it very difficult to do anything other
>> than a standard install from a standard XP CD to standard hardware. 
>> While it's possible to extract the ones and zeros from a laptop
>> reinstall directory/partition and modify it with tools like nlite to
>> create a custom install CD, that process is fraught with little
>> details that can scuttle the project. 
>>
>> Sounds like the scope of your problem is too big.  Try to divide it
>> into smaller chunks.
>>
>> Did you try a different hard drive?
> 
> No, not yet. I do have a Western Digital 'Scorpio' WD25008EVS (250 gb) 
> laptop drive, circa 2008, that would fit. it's full of data and has no 
> OS. I could save the data to my Desktop, at a pinch. 
> 
>> When you had the drive USB'd to your Vista system, did you look at the
>> SMART data or try to run a disk diagnostic on it?
>> Some usb drive controllers can look at SMART, some can't. Just gotta
>> try it.  But even that's not conclusive.  I've had drives pass SMART,
>> but still fail to run.
> 
> No - but I did run a Hitachi drive fitness test from a bootable disc. It 
> did lots of differenttests, and returned no errors at all.

That's a good sign.
> 
>> Did you try installing linux to the HD on the laptop?
> 
> No - I don't have any Linux discs.

Depending on which version of GPARTED live CD you have, you may be able 
to exit
out of that program and have some limited linux capability running.
Don't know exactly.
Puppy download is less than 100MB.
> 
>> Different distributions have different problems with different
>> hardware. I like PUPPY linux cause it's small and quick and very easy
>> to install. 
>>   Ubuntu is popular, but recent versions have had lots of issues.
>> Making linux work would verify that your hardware can be made to work.
>> Then you can go back to looking at the XP install CD to find the
>> problem. 
>>
>> If  you have a genuine unmodified XP SP2 or SP3 CD, I'd try that.
>> IRRC, there are SATA issues with SP1 and earlier.
> 
> Thanks for your suggestions. If any of my answers above provide any new 
> clues, please let me know!
> 
I'm outa ideas.
> Al

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Thread

Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 11:45 +0000
  Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 05:03 -0700
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 12:38 +0000
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Tazz <dmswaine@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 11:51 -0300
  Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-11-02 07:18 -0500
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 12:36 +0000
  Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 11:45 -0700
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) none <dgoodnow@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 13:28 -0700
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 15:18 +0000
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 12:09 -0700
        Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 22:27 +0000
          Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 22:39 +0000
          Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 18:09 -0700
          Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) dg1261 <dgREMOVE-THIS1261@cs.com> - 2011-11-04 22:04 +0000
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-04 15:28 -0700
              Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) dg1261 <dgREMOVE-THIS1261@cs.com> - 2011-11-05 08:06 +0000
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-04 16:09 -0700
              Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "~misfit~" <sore_n_happy@nospamyahoo.com.au> - 2011-11-06 11:36 +1300
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-05 11:39 +0000
        Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-12 09:36 +0000
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 16:28 -0700

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