I'm trying to install Win2K from the installation Cd on an
Athlon 1600 XP System I've put together with a Maxtor
DiamondMax Plus 9 60GB HDD. The HDD is jumpered as Primary
Master and formatted via MaxBlast3 for Win2K. The CD-ROM
drive shows up as Secondary Slave when the machine is
powered on.

As soon as Win2K starts to load from the CD, I get the
Disk I/O error 00008020 with the message, "Failed to
arcread the boot partition to check for a signature."

I'm not sure whether I've got a cabling/hardware
configuration problem or what, but this is the last time
I'll try to build my own system. At least not without
documentation.

P.S. I've checked the KB and I've seen a similar problem
with an 00008001 error with a ZIP drive, but I don't have
one.

JinLan

There was one case with this exact error message on Google groups:

http://groups.google.com/groups?num=...20&btnG=Search

This turned out to be a bent pin on the hard disk. That would indicate that
it might be a cabling/hardware problem.

Best regards

Bjorn
--
Bjorn Landemoo - (E-Mail Removed) - http://landemoo.com/
Microsoft MVP - Windows Server Networking

"JinLan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'm trying to install Win2K from the installation Cd on an
>Athlon 1600 XP System I've put together with a Maxtor
>DiamondMax Plus 9 60GB HDD. The HDD is jumpered as Primary
>Master and formatted via MaxBlast3 for Win2K. The CD-ROM
>drive shows up as Secondary Slave when the machine is
>powered on.
>
>As soon as Win2K starts to load from the CD, I get the
>Disk I/O error 00008020 with the message, "Failed to
>arcread the boot partition to check for a signature."
>
>I'm not sure whether I've got a cabling/hardware
>configuration problem or what, but this is the last time
>I'll try to build my own system. At least not without
>documentation.
>
>P.S. I've checked the KB and I've seen a similar problem
>with an 00008001 error with a ZIP drive, but I don't have
>one.

JinLan

I can't speak of that particular error, but before doing anything else I
would suggest you fire up fdisk and delete the existing partitions before
attempting a clean install of windows 2k. There is not any need to use the
MaxBlast software, unless you have an old system that doesn't support the
60G drive. But with an Athlon 1600 XP, your motherboard most likely supports
it. You never know what those freaky special drivers will do to you, at
the best it's got to slow it down some..

Also, double check your hard drive cabling, unplug it all and inspect the
connectors carefully and make sure there are no bent pins. I have seen
systems with a crushed pin from where the drive cable was forced in act fine
until you try to install something.

"JinLan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:295201c42828$073fef90$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm trying to install Win2K from the installation Cd on an
> Athlon 1600 XP System I've put together with a Maxtor
> DiamondMax Plus 9 60GB HDD. The HDD is jumpered as Primary
> Master and formatted via MaxBlast3 for Win2K. The CD-ROM
> drive shows up as Secondary Slave when the machine is
> powered on.
>
> As soon as Win2K starts to load from the CD, I get the
> Disk I/O error 00008020 with the message, "Failed to
> arcread the boot partition to check for a signature."
>
> I'm not sure whether I've got a cabling/hardware
> configuration problem or what, but this is the last time
> I'll try to build my own system. At least not without
> documentation.
>
> P.S. I've checked the KB and I've seen a similar problem
> with an 00008001 error with a ZIP drive, but I don't have
> one.
>