Double crash

[peahouse05]

Thanks Mucks
Always up for reading about this stuff
Cheers
peahouse05

 

[michael555]

here may help


see


http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID5/194.html

 

[peahouse05]

Thanks michael555
Another very useful link which explains how the CHECKSUM works, also recommends leaving the BIOS reset jumper in place for 10 minutes rather than the five seconds stated in my MB manual.
Cheers
peahouse05

 

[peahouse05]

Hi All
Just trawling around with this problem now before sending the MB back to eBuyer for the second time. Tried a Damn Small Linux CD with an old HDD fitted.
Booted from CD, connected to Internet, all ok. Then installed to HDD, partitions ok and then prompted to set date and time. Did this and screen went black and desktop appeared. Rebooted and date /time was correct in BIOS, the bootloader is Grub.
Tried original HDD with XP and all old problems with CHECKSUM BAD and DATE/TIME were there. Must be to do with the different ways Grub and the Windows bootloaders work. Did have XP and SUSE 10 on two HDDs booted from Grub at some time. Unfortunately it was more than ten minutes ago and I think XP has to be installed first which I cannot do with this fault.
Cheers
peahouse05

 

[peahouse05]

Hi All
Got it working at last. Damn Small Linux corrected the date/time problem (a complete and lucky accident). Still had problems with reinstalling XP to the original HDD but then tried a old spare which worked perfectly. Have formatted the original HDD and will try installing XP just to see if the problem was the boot sector of this disk. Have read that formatting does not 'wipe the disk clean' so will see.
Cheers
peahouse05

 

[muckshifter]

No, nothing will 'wipe the disk clean' but all you want to do is clear the drive of any possible errors.

First, I would recommend you get any "diagnostic tools" from the manufacturer of the HD ... it will do what you want.

If you need to "clean" a HD for disposal or to sell on then you have a "tool" already at your fingertips ... Linux.

Linux has the "shred" command ... Use a bootable Linux CD such as Knoppix, or any for that matter, and have the drive as the sole drive in the PC ... this will save any confusion on your side of what the drive name is.

You will need to use the "command" line and simply type ... shred -n 2 -z -v /dev/hda1 ... this will over-write with random data twice, as opposed to the default of 25 times and will tell you its progress. It will take some time.


enjoy!

 

[peahouse05]

Thanks Mucks
Will try that with DSL installed to the hard drive. It's handy because it installs in a couple of minutes. I want to install XP on this problem HD so I wonder if it would help get rid of a corrupted boot sector as I think this was a possible cause of the DATE/TIME BIOS RAM problem?
Cheers
peahouse05