Disk failure

[greypound]

I have a probable disk failure, receiving the standard 'Disk Boot
Failure - Insert system disc and press Enter' message on start up. I
can hear the disc clicking away.

I have tried the recovery console, using Fix MBR and CHKDSK to no
avail.
The first CHKDSK found 'one or more errors in the volume' - a later
attempt said the disc appears normal !

On the screen where the disk failure message occurs, neither hard disk
is recognised.(I have two).
eg Primary Master Disc : None
Slave Disc : None

If I purchased an external hard drive, could I install XP on that to
allow me access to the system ?

I have 2000Pro on the second hard disc (D) but it is currently
inaccessible since it needs the boot sector of the failed C drive on
start up. Would an external hard drive allow me access D ?

TIA

 

[philo]

I have a probable disk failure, receiving the standard 'Disk Boot
Failure - Insert system disc and press Enter' message on start up. I
can hear the disc clicking away.

I have tried the recovery console, using Fix MBR and CHKDSK to no
avail.
The first CHKDSK found 'one or more errors in the volume' - a later
attempt said the disc appears normal !

On the screen where the disk failure message occurs, neither hard disk
is recognised.(I have two).
eg Primary Master Disc : None
Slave Disc : None

If I purchased an external hard drive, could I install XP on that to
allow me access to the system ?

I have 2000Pro on the second hard disc (D) but it is currently
inaccessible since it needs the boot sector of the failed C drive on
start up. Would an external hard drive allow me access D ?

TIA

You may want to try a repair install
or reinstall to an internal drive.

XP or Win2k do not support booting from an external drive without a bit of
extra effort

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a probable disk failure, receiving the standard 'Disk Boot
Failure - Insert system disc and press Enter' message on start up. I
can hear the disc clicking away.

I have tried the recovery console, using Fix MBR and CHKDSK to no
avail.

Don't do that. You're using up what little time the drive has. Shut it
off and take out the drive.

The first CHKDSK found 'one or more errors in the volume' - a later
attempt said the disc appears normal !

On the screen where the disk failure message occurs, neither hard disk
is recognised.(I have two).
eg Primary Master Disc : None
Slave Disc : None

If I purchased an external hard drive, could I install XP on that to
allow me access to the system ?

I have 2000Pro on the second hard disc (D) but it is currently
inaccessible since it needs the boot sector of the failed C drive on
start up. Would an external hard drive allow me access D ?

TIA

Shut down and remove the drive. Get another larger drive and install XP to
it. When you have it running properly, re-attach the failing drive and
copy the contents to the new drive, focusing on the most needed data. If
necessary, you can use data recovery software.

Don't waste either your time or the little time the drive has left. New
drives are not expensive and are easy to install; where I am 500 gig drives
are a little over $100.

HTH
-pk

 

[greypound]

Thanks for that.

I have installed a new drive and appear to have access to my old
drive.

I now have to transfer all my data and programs across which will take
forever, but at least I have a working desktop once more

 

[greypound]

a follow uip to my last message.

I want to format the new 250Gb disk in FAT32 because I need access to
my other FAT 32 data - but I cannot make a partition larger than 30Gb
in Disk Management.
Above that size it has to be formatted in NTFS (a better system I
know).

Is there any way of having a FAT32 partition greater than 30Gb ?

Thanks

 

[John John (MVP)]

Please keep some of the text that you are refering to in your replies,
otherwise there is no context to your posts and we don't know what you
are refering to.

What do you mean by: "...I need access to my other FAT 32 data"? Will
you be using a Windows 9x machine to access the new 250GB disk?

John

 

[Bill in Co.]

a follow uip to my last message.

I want to format the new 250Gb disk in FAT32 because I need access to
my other FAT 32 data - but I cannot make a partition larger than 30Gb
in Disk Management.
Above that size it has to be formatted in NTFS (a better system I
know).

Is there any way of having a FAT32 partition greater than 30Gb ?

Thanks

Yes, with a third party tool like Partition Magic.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks for that.

I have installed a new drive and appear to have access to my old
drive.

I now have to transfer all my data

That's fine, if you want to, but you don't necessarily need to. If you
are going to keep the old drive in the computer, you can continue to
access the data from it.

and programs across

But that's not possible. All installed programs (except for an
occasional very small one) have files and pointers to them within
Windows, in the registry and elsewhere. So if you aren't running the
Windows copy they were installed under, the pointers and files aren't
available and the programs won't run. Apps have to be reinstalled from
the original media.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

a follow uip to my last message.

I want to format the new 250Gb disk in FAT32 because I need access to
my other FAT 32 data - but I cannot make a partition larger than 30Gb
in Disk Management.

32GB.


Above that size it has to be formatted in NTFS (a better system I
know).

I don't understand the statement "I want to format the new 250Gb disk
in FAT32 because I need access to my other FAT 32 data." Are you aware
that you can have multiple drives--even multiple partitions on the
same physical drive--using different file systems, without a problem?

Windows XP can use any and all combinations of NTFS, FAT12, FAT16, and
FAT32, regardless of which file system it itself is installed on.

Is there any way of having a FAT32 partition greater than 30Gb ?

Yes. Windows XP won't create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB, but
it will happily use one if created externally. Just boot from a recent
DOS diskette with FDISK and Format commands on it, and do it from
that.

 

[greypound]

I don't understand the statement "I want to format the new 250Gb disk
in FAT32 because I need access to my other FAT 32 data." Are you aware
that you can have multiple drives--even multiple partitions on the
same physical drive--using different file systems, without a problem?

Windows XP can use any and all combinations of NTFS, FAT12, FAT16, and
FAT32, regardless of which file system it itself is installed on.

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

A little more research would have shown me that FAT32 and NTFS can
coexist quite happily on the same system - sorry ! I have now
resolved that 'problem'.

My current problem is moving the data from the failing disc to the new
one in such a way that programs and settings still work. I am trying
to resolve that in the windowsxp.hardware group.

Thankyou for your help

JeffT

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A little more research would have shown me that FAT32 and NTFS can
coexist quite happily on the same system - sorry ! I have now
resolved that 'problem'.

Good.


My current problem is moving the data from the failing disc to the new
one in such a way that programs and settings still work. I am trying
to resolve that in the windowsxp.hardware group.

As I pointed out in another message to you, you can easily move data,
but you can *not* move programs, at least not without using a
third-party program, and my experience with such tools has been that
they are very far from perfect.

The proper way to do this is to reinstall the programs from their
original media. I strongly recommend that you avoid these third-party
tools which do not work as advertised.