[solved] XP won´t install / write to MBR

[Marin85]

Hi fellow-members,
I tried to install a clean copy of XP SP3 earlier today to replace my current Vista setup and came across following problem: My partition table looked like this

Code: Select all

Unpartitioned space    7 MB
C: Partition 2 <Music> [NTFS]  117763 MB  <3888 MB free>
Unpartitioned space    73009 MB

and after choosing the big unpartitioned portion of my HD to set up XP there the install program made me a little surprise:

Code: Select all

To install XP on the partition you selected, Setup must write some setup files to the following disk:
190780 MB DIsk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
However, this disk does not contain a Windows XP-compatible partition.
...

When I tried to make a partition out of the unpartitioned space, XP would create only a RAW partition and I wasn´t presented any options to format it in NTFS or FAT (as otherwise usual). I put my Vista disk to see if it can bring forth anything. With Vista DVD loaded I was given the option to format the unpartitioned space in NTFS and so I did, but Vista wouldn´t install either. Then I rebooted into the XP install program, but XP woudn´t install on the fresh formatted NTFS partition and gave the same message as above.
From what I could google out, a similar problem could happen if more than one HD are present in the system, but since I was installing XP from the ultrabay CD/DVD device, my ultrabay HDD wasn´t attached. For the record, the HD is set in BIOS to compatibility mode. The only explanation I can think of now is that for some weird reason Windows install program doesn´t like my Music partition. But for now there is no option for me to move it out.
I am now writing this under Kubuntu which installed just flawlessly and fairly fast on the largest continuous free space I´m even considering completely moving on to Linux Anyway...
Any suggestions or workarounds will be greatly appreciated!

Marin

[RealBlackStuff]

I think your problem originates in the lack of space on your <Music> partition.
XP needs to put boot.ini, ntldr and a few others on it, but cant 'shuffle' the contents around enough.
If you can move some files (ca. 8-10 GB) onto another hard disk, XP should be able to install it's basic needs.

Q: was there an active partition on it before you wanted to install XP?

[Marin85]

was there an active partition on it before you wanted to install XP?

Yes, there was, Vista was installed on it before being wiped out by the XP setup program. I´ll try tomorrow to free a few GBs on the music partition.

Thanks for your response!

Marin

[Marin85]

update: I moved out about 7 GBs, so the partition now has over 10 GB free space. Unfortunately, the problem still persists. XP doesn´t want to install giving the same message

[RealBlackStuff]

There's probably a 'wonky' Vista MBR on that HD.
Boot from a Windows 98 floppy, type in this command: FDISK /MBR and hit enter.
Then try XP again.

[Stargate199]

I think your hard disk is corrupted. If there is a problem formatting a disk, there is something wrong with the disk. I had a hard drive that was on its way out and I tried to install windows on it. I could get the install CD to partition, but it wouldn't format. I would go out and but a new hard disk and install it in your computer and install windows on it. You can go buy an external enclosure (about $30) to put your current hard drive in so you can access the data on it.

[Marin85]

After a few days struggling with OSes, partitions, disk utilities and moving and copying large amounts of data among very limited HD space I finally got it working

To sum up what didn´t help:

1. Freeing up some more space on the Music partition
2. GParted LiveCD resizing the Music partition (btw, it toke it more than two days of constant work to accomplish the task...); that thing made things even worse: after a few reboots XP stopped giving the previous error message and would even install until it had to reboot. Trying to boot gave me

Code: Select all

 Invalid partition table 

Just beautiful! This turned out to be the next "challenge"...
3. Installing Linux (yes, unlike windows, it could install without problems ) and overwriting it with windows (not really very creative idea of me...)
4. bootcfg/rebuild, fixboot nor fixmbr
5. chkdsk (including repairing file system errors and bad sectors if applicable)

What did the trick:

1. I could get an USB HD from a friend of mine to copy over the data I had access to.
2. Then I tried to install XP on my secondary HD keeping the partition I had backed up in (1) => XP wouldn´t install (see summary)
3. Wiping out the secondary HD and, of course, successful install of XP
4. Installing Acronis Disk Director Suite and putting my primary HD in the ultrabay slot: Acronis was in fact the only way to save the whole music partition. Windows didn´t want to copy the data despite the fact that the music partition had NTFS file system giving the message

Code: Select all

Windows cannot access folder or file source

but Acronis Disk Director built-in explorer feature did easily the trick.
5. After backing up my music and some other data I simply wiped out all the partitions. I then put my primary HD back into its place and could install XP without a scratch. The End

Summary: Installing Windows XP next to another partition on the HD is most definitely a bad idea (maybe I should have tried installing it in the music partition as sufficient space was available, but I was afraid that it would overwrite parts of my music collection even though XP install program prompts about keeping the existing data on NTFS partition where there is no need for it to format). In spite of the few lost days it was a nice experience for me to find out how powerful and fast Acronis Disk Director is. Where native Windows features and linux-based tools failed, Acronis flawlessly did everything I wanted it to in order to save my data and make it possible for me to reinstall my system.

Just my 2 cents

Marin

[Stargate199]

So I guess the master file table, or partition table, or both just got really messed up. Linux will general install under any conditions and I know GParted takes FOREVER to repartition, but I have NEVER lost data using it. GParted moves all of the data over bit by bit making sure everything is where it needs to be before messing with partitions. It's kind of weird that this happened with the partition table. Something had to of overwritten it and that is what caused all of your problems.

This just goes to show that whenever you go and mess with partitioning and repartition with disk with data on it, BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!!!! I made that mistake once and while I did have a backup available, it wasn't completely up to date so I lost some stuff (nothing too important, just some papers that I had recently turned in.).

[Marin85]

This just goes to show that whenever you go and mess with partitioning and repartition with disk with data on it, BACK UP YOUR DATA !!!!!!

This is actually how the whole story started - with the simple idea of backing up a simple folder like My Pictures. As we know, the way to hell is covered with good intentions... Also, you can imagine that 105+ GB of Music are not exactly what you would call easy to back up

Cheers

Marin

[Stargate199]

Yeah, backing up 100+ gigs of data is not an easy task. Thank goodness hard drives are so cheap these days. Luckily all my stuff is ~15GB so I try to keep a copy of it between 3 computers so I can access the data if needed and transfer it. All my critical data is also synced to my USB flash drive as well.

Also having access to three computers keeps me running if my main computer is having issues. My main computer is now a Mac mini. My laptop continues to get use at school, but not much use at home. My third computer is Dell Pentium III that is used as a DVR. It can be easily put into use if both of my other machines start acting up.