windows xp pro problem: setupdd.sys error

G

Guest

aaaaarrrgh.
here's the story: went to turn on the computer yesterday....
the bios load screen came up. the windows (xp pro) load sceen came up. then
something goes wrong and the system starts all over again!!!
i tried the f8 safeboot with no luck; ditto for last known good config.; i
tried unplug'n the computer and leaving it for a good half hour, then
replug'n and booting it... problem persisted!!! that's when i threw my hands
up in the air. so i grabbed my windows xp pro bootable disk and booted from
cdrom (f9). when the windows disk started to load, i held down f6 (i have a
maxtor SATA hdd and have made a copy of the files necessary onto a floppy). i
selected "s" when prompted, then shoved the floppy in the A drive and press
enter. then i selected the SATA RAID controller windows xp file program from
the floppy disk and hit enter. next screen asks if i want to: set up (press
enter); repair (press "r"); or quit (press f3).
the first time i tried repair. this is where things start to get weird....
"Examinig 117240 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid..." appeared at the
bottom and seemed to stay there forever (15min). then screen went blank and
boot up started by it self. which just got me back to my original problem of
the boot up loop that never ends.
second time i tried set up (instead of repair). and again the "Examinig
117240 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid..." appeared at the bottom and
seemed to stay there forever (15min). after the 15 minutes, the licensing
agreement screen comes up and i (reluctantly) agree. the following choices
appear: set up windows (press enter); create partition in unpartition space
(press "c"); and delete partition (press "d"). down at the bottom there is a
list of partitions, which i have only one. top of the list sez:"117240 MB
Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid [MBR]" and below that sez:"-: Partition1
[Unknown] 117240 MB (117239 MB free)" which is highlighted. some more
weird things happen here too.....
when i press "c", nothing happens. i figure it's becuz there isnt enuff
room, so it just ignores me. when i select delete partition (and double
confirm that i really want to delete all that juicy info) "Examining 117240
MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid [MBR]..." appeared at the bottom and
then it tells me that the partition i selected cannot be deleted!!! WHAT????
how can this be????
after hitting enter, the previous screen comes up. one thing is different
though; where it said "-: Partition1 [Unknown] 117240 MB (117239 MB
free)" it now sez: "(Setup cannot access this disk.)" duh....did i miss
something here???
OK, lets go through it all again, this time i'll just try to "set up" on the
highlighted partition (after rebooting and waiting yet another 15min!!!). so
after i hit enter (set up), "Updating 117240 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on
viasraid [MBR]" appears at the bottom for 'bout 15-30 seconds. then "An error
occurred while Setup was updating partition information on: 117240 MB Disk 0
at Id 0 on bus 0 on viasraid [MBR]. Setup cannot continue. to quit Setup,
press f3.".
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's wrong with my computer???? why cant i just erase and start from
scratch??? can anyone help me???? and why do i feel it necessary to triple up
on the "?"s and "!"s??? haha. humor keeps my hair firmly on my scalp and not
in my hands.....
thanx everyone who had the patience to read this.
and an extra special thanx to those that then responded.
L
 

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