FC3 partition destroyed. XP can't install.
 

Hey,
Well earlier today I was installing FC3 and it was 25% done when it gave a cdread error. Checked the disc and it had a huge scratch on it. Didn't have anymore writable cd's so I thought I'd reboot and delete the partition that it wrote to.

The CD failed to load at boot and the error I got was: Error loading operating system. Put in XP disk so I could delete the partition FC3 created and the CD boots up fine: Setup is inspecting current hardware configuration...

After that, there is a black screen for hours and nothing happens. Any ideas on how to get it to work again?

--Abid Kazmi

Try to boot your fedora install cd into rescue mode by typing rescue at the prompt on boot. If this works you can

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1;

This will nuke your mbr. After that boot your xp cd to repair mode and
run 'fixboot'

Thanks but no thanks.

1.) FC3 disc does not boot up.
2.) The XP disc gives a black screen at: Setup is inspecting current hardware configuration...
3.) Nothing else to do except reboot.

--Abid Kazmi

Were you able to boot the Fedora cd into rescue mode and run dd at all?

If you have an old win9x bootdisk you might be able to accomplish the same
thing with

"fdisk /mbr" from a dos prompt.

No sir, can't boot the Fedora cd into rescue. Can't get to shell either. The problem with the floppy is I don't have one on that system. =( Trying to stick with CD here.

And fdisk /mbr I am aware of that. I am not a newb to any OS.

Thanks,

--Abid Kazmi

Apparently you have a system you ARE able to boot if your able to post on this message board, perhaps you could use it to create boot media? You aren't going to be able to do anything until you can boot SOMETHING on the system. The bios is not going to do much for you here.

I have eight systems and I'm using one of these to post on this forum. I am about to run the MaxBlast software that came with the hdd. The BIOS DOES help yet for some reason, it is not booting up the FC3 that it previously did.

-=-EDIT-=-

Just placed the disc in and the HDD is read correctly. Currently writing 0's to it and is 3% done. Will reply.


--Abid Kazmi

OK, operation completed. Put the disc in and the same result. Also erased the first 63 sectors of the drive and nothing. I am not sure why this is happening. Never in my experience with XP, has it never booted up. You probably know the default XP blue and gray scheme. Nothing is happening. The cdrom is not spinning after initialization but the hdd is.

--Abid Kazmi

If you nuked the hard drive I would suggest that you need to start looking for a hardware problem. You might want to try running a memtest and/or quicktech on the system. Diags like those don't mean the hardware is good if they pass, but if they fail it will save you time beating your head against the wall.

Another thing you could do to eliminate the harddrive and data corruption from the equation is to put a different harddrive in and see if you can do an XP install on it. You said you have 8 systems so I'm guessing your probably have an assortment of spare parts around with varied degrees of integrity to test with.

So did you run the format on just the linux partition or did your erase the entire drive? Because if you just got rid of the linux one than the xp one is not damaged but there is nothing there to instruct your computer to boot back up. If this is the case please post back and i will go indepth into how to fixing this problem. (Yeah i did that a few times, atleased I know how to fix it. Oh yeah and if you don't want to make more cd's except the one you'll have to use to boot xp up again. I can also tell you how to format for a linux partition and mount the iso's into that partition enough to install everything.

EDIT: Yuck, I just read back and saw you saying you have a maxtor drive. KEEP AWAY FROM THEM! I have bought many maxtor harddrives over the past few years, 10 to be exact. Only one of those harddrives are with me today because all the others have gone. I'm betting on your harddrive because even if your bios reads it doesn't mean it is reading it correctly which in return could make your system to appear severly screwed.

OK, sorry for replying so late. Was at work. Anyways, after doing the MaxBlast software, and as said, it came back to the black screen. But two minutes later, the XP screen came up and gave correct information. Installed WindowsXp on it no problem. So FC3 did mess up some tracks on the hdd causing the BIOS to not let it boot-up.

And antidelldude, I trust both brands for the last eight years, MXTR and WD. Only one MXTR 30GB hdd has EVER failed on me (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&pagenumber=1).

Finally, the HDD was brand new so there was no information on it. Anyways, if I did and which I do, I have my backup server hooked up in my basement. =D Copies files aside from system files every ten minutes.

Thanks guys for responding.

I'd be thinking hardware. That delay sounds like a probe issue.
Maybe either something is not responding, or responding badly. Me, I'd be checking connectors/seating.

80condct cable installed properly ide0. jumper set as cs. Everything is properly connected. Was setup fine. Didn't have problem before when installing fc3 in the first place.

--Abid Kazmi

Just bought a pack of cdrws. Burned the first disc and am retrying install. Will post back.

--Abid Kazmi

OK, I found out both problems:

Software: Incomplete installation, left over files, unable to access anything.

Physical: Reason why CD wasn't booting up was because the conductor cable was loose (and still is, will open a new pack). Currently, the installation stops at: /sbin/loader -->_ blinks
Then gives error:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/winniedapooh/rr.jpg
I believe this has to do with the conductor cable but will be replacing it tommorow, hopefully.

-=-EDIT-=-

Finally, everything installed correctly. Cable was bad. Good old FC3 is back in my box =D.

--Abid Kazmi