Re: hard drive bad?? FAT32 on Xp
From: Bob Harris (rharris270[SPAM)
Date: 10/20/04
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Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 04:17:46 -0500
It does sound like a hard drive problem, lathough it could be some file
system (software) problem that CHKDSK can not fix.
As for FAT32, XP works fine on that. I have been using FAT32 as my boot
partition for years, since it allows me to use DOS and LINUX repair/recovery
tools. However, today, if I were to build a new PC, I would probably go
with NTFS, since there are DOS drivers for NTFS and some LINUX distributions
also support it. More importantly, there are backup programs that happily
write to/from NTFS (e.g., Acronis TrueImage).
I suggest that you get all personal files off of the PC, delete all
partitions, create new partitions, then re-install XP. You can use the XP
recovery console, run form the XP CDROM to do this partition work. Here are
some links to the recovery console:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm
Caution: If the XP CDROM is an update version, you will need to have a 98,
98SE, ME, or 2000 CD handy, since it will demand to check for proof of a
qualifying operating system for the update version. You do not need to
install the older operating system.
If after all this the problems continue, then get a new hard drive.
Caution: Avoid anything bigger than 120 Gig, unless you want to learn about
48-bit LBA, and have SP-1 available (or the XP CD contains SP-1).
"Barbara Z" <BarbaraZ@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:944A22CF-E6A2-4ACF-8D7A-A6AD744FCD77@microsoft.com...
> Friend's Gateway 3yr old computer acting up - freezing, restarting by
> itself,
> etc. I did a lot of system maintenance - they never did - and also NAV
> updated and AdAware installed, updated & scanned. After all that, we
> re-installed WinXp (a repair install? It seemed to go very fast, but had
> to
> do it 3 times 'cuz computer kept restarting on its own.
> On restarts, it runs error checking. Bunch of times, had errors that
> supposedly were fixed. "First allocation unit is invalid - truncated",
> some
> others - "cross-linked files" that were copied to correct places. Also,
> the
> report (when it showed up) said that there were 32KB in bad sectors.
> Today, also checked the Gateway Utility and ran hard drive test - first 3
> portions passed, then the surface scan failed. CPU test and memory test
> passed.
> Will try to get to manufacturer's disk utility to test hard drive, but I'm
> wondering if there is any other possibility here. It really seems to be
> pointing to the hard drive. On some restarts, a window would come up that
> Windows has recovered from a serious error. Also the Analysis report said
> that there was an "unrecoverable hardware error". I saw this a few times.
> Another question: This WinXp computer was sent with FAT 32 file system.
> Ithought Xp was always NTFS. I don't htink the file system is causing the
> problem, because it was sent from factory this way, and was OK for 3+ yrs,
> but it makes me wonder when I see first allocation unit errors.
> On other post, some replies asked to check for dust, etc. I had already
> blown out the computer with canned air, but I did check both the fans.
> They
> are running fine; never appeared to slow down.
> This lady says that the comp appears to restart when she's been on about
> an
> hour+. She feels it seems to be when she's on Internet (DSL) and goes to
> "weather.com". I don't know if that's a coincidence or just that she goes
> to
> other sites and then gets to weather site after an hour. Any ideas??
> There's
> no obvious thing to point to overheating - I'm leaning toward bad drive.
> Suggestions gratefully accepted - thanks.
>
>
> --
> Barb Zakrzewski
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