Can't install second OS on newly installed hard disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jesse MacDonough
  • Start date Start date
J

Jesse MacDonough

I recently purchased a new 120 GB hard disk to replace a smaller one, on
which I had a Windows XP installation. My other disk drive is an 80 GB with
my primary Windows XP installation on it. (I used the second one for my
developer applications, and the primary one for general use, games, etc.)

Anyway, when I put in this new 120 GB drive I attempted to install Windows
XP on it, but after getting through the initial setup process (where it
copies all the files to the hard drive, then reboots to continue the
graphical part of the setup process) it halts with the message 'Windows can
not start because the following file is missing or corrupted:
Hal.dll
Re-install the file and start setup again.'

I've never seen such a message, and I know the disk drive itself is fine
since I've created partitions and copied files over to it already, and the
Windows installation has also. But it doesn't go past that point. Is it
because the MBR on the C: drive is configured for the other 60 GB disk drive
that I had in there, and so it doesn't boot to it correctly?

I've noticed that during the initial part of the setup, before it asks you
what partition to install Windows on, the message at the bottom of the
screen 'Examining disk configuration' seems to take a considerable time
before it finds the two drives/partitions and gives you the option screen.
If I ran fiskmbr would that repair this problem? I don't want to have to
reinstall Windows on my C: drive to get this to work right. If I attempt to
install Windows on another partition on the same disk drive, I have no
problem, just on the new disk. Has anyone had this problem before?

Thanks, BigMac
 
FYI, I did check the Microsoft Knowledgebase about this error message, but
none of the occurences it described fit my situation.

BigMac
 
The major problem is the fact you are trying to install XP onto the new
120GB hard drive while your current 80GB hard drive C is still activatibe
and running in the the PC. XP install routine is not intelligent enough to
determine that it needs to install a second full XP. If you want to move
the current XP to the new 120GB hard drive, you should be looking at a
utility which will copy tthe old C: drive to the newer drive. Most hard
drive manufacturer's have such a utility included with their retail boxed
hard drive kits. If you did not receive a CD with yours, then such a
utility mabe be downloadable from the manufacturer's web site.

If you can not find the utility, the look at Symantec's Norton Ghost or
Drive Copy software.

You may have to now do a repair installation of XP in order to fix your
system.
 
Jesse said:
I recently purchased a new 120 GB hard disk to replace a smaller one, on
which I had a Windows XP installation. My other disk drive is an 80 GB with
my primary Windows XP installation on it. (I used the second one for my
developer applications, and the primary one for general use, games, etc.)

Anyway, when I put in this new 120 GB drive I attempted to install Windows
XP on it, but after getting through the initial setup process (where it
copies all the files to the hard drive, then reboots to continue the
graphical part of the setup process) it halts with the message 'Windows can
not start because the following file is missing or corrupted:
Hal.dll
Re-install the file and start setup again.'

I've never seen such a message, and I know the disk drive itself is fine
since I've created partitions and copied files over to it already, and the
Windows installation has also. But it doesn't go past that point. Is it
because the MBR on the C: drive is configured for the other 60 GB disk drive
that I had in there, and so it doesn't boot to it correctly?

I've noticed that during the initial part of the setup, before it asks you
what partition to install Windows on, the message at the bottom of the
screen 'Examining disk configuration' seems to take a considerable time
before it finds the two drives/partitions and gives you the option screen.
If I ran fiskmbr would that repair this problem? I don't want to have to
reinstall Windows on my C: drive to get this to work right. If I attempt to
install Windows on another partition on the same disk drive, I have no
problem, just on the new disk. Has anyone had this problem before?

Thanks, BigMac
Click to expand...

I am not sure what you are trying to do. It seems that you have an 80 GB
hard drive "C" with WinXP installed. And you have a new 120 GB hard
drive in slave position that you are trying to install a second WinXP
on. I think that should work, giving you a dual boot setup. But the
second WinXP installation would not be legal without a second license,
and you may not be able to activate it.

You might try removing the 120 GB drive and booting the existing WinXP
installation. Make sure everything works and is configured properly.
Check Device Manager to be sure everything is OK. Then power down and
install the new 120 GB drive in slave position. Be sure the jumper is
set correctly, either as slave or cable select. The existing drive
should be in master position at the end of the IDE ribbon cable and the
new drive should be in slave position on the middle connection. Then
boot and check everything again. If everything looks OK, I would use
fdisk to delete all partitions on the new drive and recreate what ever
partitions you want. And don't make any new partitions active. Then try
your WinXP installation again.

Good luck, jimbo
 
Jimbo,

Thanks for the advice; actually, I've done this before, that is, have 2
Windows xp installations on the same computer but on two hard drives.
That's why I was so confused as to why it was giving me trouble this time. I
initially wanted to install a trial of Windows Server, and that didn't work,
so I tried with the Windows xp disk and got the same problem.

The hard disk itself is fine; I've put 4 partitions on it, and have data on
it, but when installing another OS, it doesn't fly. I even tried
disconnecting my 80 GB and keeping just the 120 connected, but even then I
got errors after selecting the partition I wanted to install Windows on.

One thing I didn't think about when installing having just one disk drive
hooked up (the 120 GB), was that I think the first partition on the master
drive has to have the initial OS, and I was trying to put it on partition
number 3. When I tried to do that, I got the 'Error loading Operating
System' message after it rebooted from the first phase of installation.

I'm wondering if having the Hal.dll from Windows XP service pack 2 is
causing some problem, even with the Windows Server install. Or the fact
that I installed Windows XP on the 80 GB when my other 60 GB drive was
hooked up and had the other OS on it. But I can't figure it out for sure.

BigMac
 
Jesse said:
Jimbo,

Thanks for the advice; actually, I've done this before, that is, have 2
Windows xp installations on the same computer but on two hard drives.
That's why I was so confused as to why it was giving me trouble this time. I
initially wanted to install a trial of Windows Server, and that didn't work,
so I tried with the Windows xp disk and got the same problem.

The hard disk itself is fine; I've put 4 partitions on it, and have data on
it, but when installing another OS, it doesn't fly. I even tried
disconnecting my 80 GB and keeping just the 120 connected, but even then I
got errors after selecting the partition I wanted to install Windows on.

One thing I didn't think about when installing having just one disk drive
hooked up (the 120 GB), was that I think the first partition on the master
drive has to have the initial OS, and I was trying to put it on partition
number 3. When I tried to do that, I got the 'Error loading Operating
System' message after it rebooted from the first phase of installation.

I'm wondering if having the Hal.dll from Windows XP service pack 2 is
causing some problem, even with the Windows Server install. Or the fact
that I installed Windows XP on the 80 GB when my other 60 GB drive was
hooked up and had the other OS on it. But I can't figure it out for sure.

BigMac


attempt to
Click to expand...

Well, the boot sector could be messed up if you had a dual boot setup
before you started with the new drive. I would remove all hard drives
except the WinXP installation on your old 80 GB hard drive. Place that
hard drive in master position and make sure the jumpers are set
corectly. Does the first partition on that drive show up as "C" and does
it boot into WinXP OK? Or do you get a boot menu with an option for your
main WinXP and a second OS? If you are getting a boot menu with an
option for a second OS, you may want to refresh the MBR. Either fdisk
/mbr or from the WinXP installation CD repair option, fixmbr and also
fixboot for good measure.

Short answer: Just get a one OS installation of WinXP setup before you
try anything with the second new ard drive.

Good luck, jimbo
 
Jimbo,

I think when I tried to install XP with just the one hard drive (the new
one), I made the mistake of trying to install it on the third partition
rather than the first. However, I think I found the problem; I had
installed in Windows XP a new IDE driver from Nvidia that replaced the
standard IDE controller driver. After uninstalling that and reverting back
to the Windows driver, I was able to dual boot and have my other OS (Windows
Server 2003) on the other disk drive. Problem solved! I think that's what
did it...

Thanks for the input, though!

Jesse
 
bal said:
Jesse said:
I recently purchased a new 120 GB hard disk to replace a smaller one,
on
which I had a Windows XP installation. My other disk drive is an 80 GB
with
my primary Windows XP installation on it. (I used the second one for
my
developer applications, and the primary one for general use, games,
etc.)

Anyway, when I put in this new 120 GB drive I attempted to install
Windows
XP on it, but after getting through the initial setup process (where
it
copies all the files to the hard drive, then reboots to continue the
graphical part of the setup process) it halts with the message 'Windows
can
not start because the following file is missing or corrupted:
Hal.dll
Re-install the file and start setup again.'

I've never seen such a message, and I know the disk drive itself is
fine
since I've created partitions and copied files over to it already, and
the
Windows installation has also. But it doesn't go past that point. Is
it
because the MBR on the C: drive is configured for the other 60 GB disk
drive
that I had in there, and so it doesn't boot to it correctly?

I've noticed that during the initial part of the setup, before it asks
you
what partition to install Windows on, the message at the bottom of the
screen 'Examining disk configuration' seems to take a considerable
time
before it finds the two drives/partitions and gives you the option
screen.
If I ran fiskmbr would that repair this problem? I don't want to have
to
reinstall Windows on my C: drive to get this to work right. If I
attempt to
install Windows on another partition on the same disk drive, I have no
problem, just on the new disk. Has anyone had this problem before?

Thanks, BigMac
Click to expand...

Y O U C A N N O T I N S T A L L W I N X P A S D U L E [dual?]
B O O T
Click to expand...

Yes, you can install a dual WinXP system.
 
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