Setup says drive c: is corrupt...

[Guest]

Attempting to upgrade from ME to XP Pro. After the 20 minutes or so of the
setup process in ME, system reboots and gets to a low-res setup screen. It
sits at this screen perhaps 5 seconds, then kicks out to an error message of

Setup has determined that drive C: is corrupted and cannot be repaired.

I then have to exit the setup, and cancel the installation. This has
happened several times.

Relevant info:
Dual-boot system with ME and a Linux distro. 3 fat32 partitions, 3 ext3
partitions, and a linux swap partition, all on a little Maxtor 40G HDD.
Drive is an ata133, but on a 100 controller. Using LILO bootloader.

I've done fdisk /mbr to make the mbr a straight windows boot. Same error.

Norton Systemworks 2003 is installed in ME. Disabled most every option I
could find. Same error.

CyberSitter installed in ME. Disabled. Same error.

Checked for drive overlay. Not installed.

Cleared mbr with HDD manufacturer utility. Same error.

BIOS boot sector virus warning is disabled.

Most everything else running in ME is involved with Norton or ZoneAlarm.

Drive is freshly repartitioned by Linux, with data copied back using
Norton's Ghost. There were issues with this, but not dealing with the C
drive. Only the last partition gave problems. And Windows itself isn't
giving any (abnormal) problems.


Any assistance would be appreciated. I'm having trouble finding information
on this subject.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Problems with Drive Overlay Programs in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315679

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Attempting to upgrade from ME to XP Pro. After the 20 minutes or so of the
| setup process in ME, system reboots and gets to a low-res setup screen. It
| sits at this screen perhaps 5 seconds, then kicks out to an error message of
|
| Setup has determined that drive C: is corrupted and cannot be repaired.
|
| I then have to exit the setup, and cancel the installation. This has
| happened several times.
|
| Relevant info:
| Dual-boot system with ME and a Linux distro. 3 fat32 partitions, 3 ext3
| partitions, and a linux swap partition, all on a little Maxtor 40G HDD.
| Drive is an ata133, but on a 100 controller. Using LILO bootloader.
|
| I've done fdisk /mbr to make the mbr a straight windows boot. Same error.
|
| Norton Systemworks 2003 is installed in ME. Disabled most every option I
| could find. Same error.
|
| CyberSitter installed in ME. Disabled. Same error.
|
| Checked for drive overlay. Not installed.
|
| Cleared mbr with HDD manufacturer utility. Same error.
|
| BIOS boot sector virus warning is disabled.
|
| Most everything else running in ME is involved with Norton or ZoneAlarm.
|
| Drive is freshly repartitioned by Linux, with data copied back using
| Norton's Ghost. There were issues with this, but not dealing with the C
| drive. Only the last partition gave problems. And Windows itself isn't
| giving any (abnormal) problems.
|
|
| Any assistance would be appreciated. I'm having trouble finding information
| on this subject.
|

 

[Guest]

Thanks, but from my message above:

"Checked for drive overlay. Not installed."

In the midst of attempting another solution. Will post back with results.

 

[Guest]

Problem solved.

It appears that the mbr was corrupt. I backed up all data by partitions
(excluding the mbr) with Ghost, and used the Maxtor drive utility to write
zeros to the early portion of the disk, and to rebuild my 3 fat32 partitions.

From there, I used a Knoppix live CD to stretch the extended partition to
cover the rest of the drive's space, and filled that space with the 3 ext3
partitions and 1 sqap partition.

I used Ghost to restore each partitions data. Followed this up with fdisk
/mbr to restore a windows loader. Then restored the LILO bootloader with the
appropriate utility. Everything started up fine as before.

Began XP installation and noted something new that hadn't happened with the
previous failures. It offered me the chance to save the ME system files.
Later, after first reboot, setup continued as it should.

Upgrade successful. Just have to get the wireless working and check on the
programs of questionable compatibility.


Thanks for your consideration.