COmpany wiped laptop, boot record AA55 not found

[Abarbarian]

I have a cable like that and it is a good piece of kit.

However if you can set the lap top to boot from CD then it is really worth while trying the Parted magic Live CD i mentioned. It is a small download and easy to use and burn and may solve your problem with out cost and waiting for postal delivery.

 

[Anon_F]

Well actually Feckit, Macs can format a HD for Windows, however, most PC, including Cindy Bednarik's laptop do not have a "firewire" port ... will have to use USB

Oh well you learn something new each day.

 

[cinders]

Got parted magic on screen, NOW WHAT!

OK, parted magic loaded up, ejected disc and now screen says
my documents
mount devices
partitin editor
ROXTerm
Smart Control
Start Netwrok

What do I do!!!!!

 

[cinders]

Amazing! I still don't know how to work it, but I did click Start network and it hooked to my wireless network without any hitches!! I assume it's just running off the Ram right now, not the HD? Cool, Please let me know exactly what to click to restore my master boot record and partition. I'm optimistic!

 

[cinders]

I selected partition editor and it says /dev/hda (55.89GiB)
I supposedly have a 60G hard drive. Where it the other 4G? Or are they part of the problem. Someone said I need to reformat and make one big partition and fix the MBR. I don't want to mess up!

Remember, my problem stemmed from boot record AA55 not found.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Delete the 4Gb partition.

Then create new partition with the 4Gb and 55.9 Gb partitions merged.

Then try and install Win XP in the normal manner.

I'm not sure of the process to make one big partition, I haven't used that software before.

 

[floppybootstomp]

PS: the 55.9Gb is probably the entire 60Gb hard drive, where is this 4Gb partition?

You won't be repairing the mbr, when you install XP afresh, it will create a new one that is part of the operating system.

 

[cinders]

It doesn't list the 4G partition, That's why I wondered why it only shows 55.89, where is the other 4? Do I worry about it? There is an option to create a partition table.

 

[muckshifter]

I selected partition editor and it says /dev/hda (55.89GiB)
I supposedly have a 60G hard drive. Where it the other 4G? Or are they part of the problem. Someone said I need to reformat and make one big partition and fix the MBR. I don't want to mess up!

Remember, my problem stemmed from boot record AA55 not found.

All HDs lie about what size thay actually are based on the 1024/1000 MBit rule ... don't worry about it.

Delete any & all partitions and reformat the drive.

 

[cinders]

It says the size 55.89 is unallocated and the file system is also unallocated. There is no option to delete anything given.

I chose the create a new partition option, but that says the maximum size is 57232 MiB (MB?). Is that my amount of RAM (I have 512) That doesn't seem like my hard drive.
Not sure if this program is working for what I need....

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey, calm down, it appears to be doing what you want it to.

the 57232Mb figure is your hard drive.

Look for the option to format the whole thing (maximum size) in NTFS.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I've just burnt a copy of Parted Magic 3.6, just going to boot from it to take a looksee what this thing's all about..

 

[cinders]

Where is Abarbarian??? He's the one who suggested this program (I think), maybe he knows what it should be doing. Maybe I loaded it wrong, I just let it load on it's default setting because I didn't know which one to choose.

 

[muckshifter]

Dunno myself either, me & others just use our XP/Vista CD/DVD which does what we need ... only other Boot disk I've used was/is the ultimateboot bisk ...

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

You cannot "format" RAM in the way you think ... as I said, ignore what the program is saying, just format the drive ... you really cant do any damage.

I just seen floppy's reply ... "Look for the option to format the whole thing (maximum size) in NTFS."

if it don't have NTFS ... just format it ... all you is after at this stage is to be able to use the HD and get rid of the error message.

 

[cinders]

Ok, so I'm a little dumb, I just multiplied my hard drive size by 1024 and you are right, it is my hard drive size! I clicked to make a new partition w/ntfs and almost missed the drop down where I choose to apply the operation, before that it was just pending. So, now I have a partition. Could this really be all I needed to make windows load? Will let you know. Thank you!

 

[floppybootstomp]

Yes, that should enable you to load Win XP, give it a go and let us know how you get on.

I just loaded Parted Magic btw, a nifty little program indeed

I was going to suggest:

Open Partition Editor.
Highlight your hard disk
from Device choose Create Partition table and create
From Partition choose format to NTFS

But it seems you've found it already

It couldn't connect to my wireless network, though it did see it.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Coupla pix, not terribly good quality:

 

[cinders]

I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! I think....My machine is currently INSTALLING WINDOWS!. I did make a new disc, using some info I found while looking up parted magic I realized maybe I didn't burn my XP w/service pack 3 properly. Maybe that's why it was hanging up....but I wasn't using that disc, I was using an official, though older copy of XP. I gotta think it had something to do with the file system too. I stopped getting that AA55 error. It's now far enough to want the product key, yea!!!!!!!

 

[muckshifter]

Another satisfied customer ...











that'll be fifty bucks each

 

[cinders]

I'm still a loser . I accidentally downloaded the version that is the Volume License and I have the key for the normal. Now I am downloading the right version. The key was no good, but it doesn't give me a way out if I don't have the key. I will make the correct disc that I have the key for and stick it in and see what happens.

On a side note, the second laptop, which is supposed to be the same as the one I almost have working, is only showing about 37G for the partition. It is supposed to be 60 according to the serial number. They should be the same. Either it got replaced (but who downgrades?) or something that Parted Magic doesn't see is sucking up 20GB. Luckily it is for surfing and word processing mainly. We can always upgrade that if we need to. Now that I'm a whiz I can try one off of eBay!