Re: WinXP install ruins two HDs - Help!

Thanks Ted,

I guess maybe I'm a little oversensitive at this point. I just can't figure
out how I did what I did, and I've explained things in detail to the IT guys
at work, and they tell me as well they have never heard anything like it.
Actually, I do use Acronis as my backup program. I restored both my Data
and Programs partitions with it onto my new HD after I installed XP on it,
but after finally accepting my fate on the other drives didn't think
anything would work. I haven't used Acronis for very long, but I guess I
would just create a boot disk (or maybe the Acronis CD itself is bootable)
and then try to restore the boot partition from there. I'll look at the
helpfile and give it a shot--at least maybe I can reuse the drives that way.
I know the data is lost, but I hate to lose two 400gb drives completely when
they were fine before the reinstall.

Thank-you again.....I'll try to be more patient about reinstalling to fix
things next time; although I can tell you a lot of the little irritating
things that were happening have been resolved by the reinstall. A couple
are: every time I stuck a blank DVD in my writer, the system would reboot
as soon as I closed the door. It even got to the point where it would even
reboot when I clicked a button to go from screen to screen in my DVD
creation software program--Movie Factory. Another one was in Outlook
Express which I use for newsgroup reading and posting only. If I wanted to
forward a posting to an Outlook email addressee, it simply wouldn't do it.
It would prompt me for which Outlook profile I wanted to use, but then when
I selected it, it would do nothing. Also in IE, when I would click on a
"Mailto" link, even though I had Outlook specified as my mail program, it
would open up Outlook Express. Just a bunch of things like this, too many
to name....so I just got to the point where I said what the heck, maybe if I
just redo everything I can get it installed properly. Working better now,
but at a cost of two HDs.

Anyway, once again, thank-you for your last post. I feel better, and have
some hope that all is not lost.
Bob



"Ted Zieglar" <teddy.z@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23Yb2YHWGHHA.5104@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sincere apologies if I gave the impression that I thought you were a
buffoon. That was not at all my intent. Much of whatever expertise I may
have comes from having made mistakes myself, including some clearly in the
buffoon category. I'm certain that my earlier exploits are legends in the
hallways of Dell technical support.

One way that you can avoid reinstalling Windows is to backup your system
partition. A more accurate term is to "image" your system partition. Disk
imaging software makes an exact copy of a partition or an entire disk. The
image of a system partition includes the master boot record, so if MBR
corruption is your only problem you can restore the MBR in a minute and be
back in business, provided the disk is not physically damaged (which I
have done, by the way.)

Disk imaging software is not simple to learn but I guarantee it will be
one of the best investments of your time that you can make in a computer.
Popular programs include Acronis True Image and Symantec Norton Ghost.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

BobV wrote:
Ted,

Points noted, however, I did not mean to imply that I'm constantly
reinstalling Windows every time I encounter the slightest problem. Just
that over the years, with the number of computers I have in the house,
that I have installed one version or another numerous times. Do I
reinstall it more than is necessary--well, probably, so again points
noted and taken for future reference. On this particular box that I
built about a year ago now, I have never actually reinstalled the system.
I only meant to imply that with the number of times "over the years" that
I "have" installed Windows I have never really encountered before what I
experienced this time. Never really completely ruined physical drives
before. I do also note that you say corrupting the master boot record is
rare, and that it's usually not recoverable. Guess that's all I need to
know--I've done the near impossible, and I'm screwed.

Ok, so not that it matters anymore, but I attempted to reinstall, not
wipe the entire HD and install everything again. I did not attempt to
partition the drive--it was already partitioned. It was just a matter of
rebooting with the WinXP disk and going through the steps to reformat the
C: drive and then install XP on it. Since something went very wrong
somewhere I was just attempting to ascertain what or how it might have
happened. Basically, you have as much information as I have to
share--one minute the hard drives were fine, and after going through the
Windows install procedure, they weren't.

Thanks anyway.....at least, as your signature says, I did have a backup
of my most critical data. While I'm obviously certainly not at your
level of expertise, I'm also not exactly the completely unknowledgable
buffoon you make me out to be.

Thanks again,
Bob



"Ted Zieglar" <teddy.z@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23PJx3eNGHHA.1064@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating: Many people
think 'my computer seems pretty messed up...guess I'll just reinstall
Windows.' That way of thinking is wrong.

To begin with, reinstalling Windows won't make a bit of difference if
you have a hardware problem, a problem with software other than Windows,
malware or a problem with the logical structure of your hard disk.
Reinstalling Windows is only useful in situations where critical Windows
files are missing or damaged. If this is not, in fact, the problem
reinstalling Windows is of no value. And, depending on what the real
problem is, reinstalling Windows can make things much worse.

You haven't told us anything that might help to identify the underlying
problem(s) you were facing, other than "some things weren't going right
on my system".

Also: Reinstalling and installing from scratch are two different things.
Installing from scratch means erasing your hard disk and starting over.
You have not done this.

You have told us that you are receiving a message to the effect that
your Master Boot Record is corrupted. There is usually no recovery from
this, although someone with the right tools and the training to use them
might...might...be able to repair the damage. In most cases you have to
erase your hard disk.

It's rare for a master boot record to become corrupted. When that does
happen it's usually due to malware or an inexperienced user who is
trying to use partitioning tools.

The fact that you have reinstalled Windows "plenty of times before"
should, quite frankly, be a red flag to you. Windows XP is inherently
stable and in the hands of a knowledgeable user it should not need
reinstalling at all. This is a sign that you might want to take a hard
look at how you are using your computer.

So in your case I would say 1) Ask a professional technician with
experience in fixing boot records to help you out, and 2) Be prepared to
erase your hard disk and reinstall everything.

---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

BobV wrote:
I think I probably know the outcome of the bottom line of what I'm
asking, but what the heck...I'll try anyway. Had something "really"
strange happen, at least to my personal understanding. It all started
about a week ago....some things weren't going right on my system, so I
figured "well, I have quite a lot of junk on the system at this
point--I'll just reinstall the system from scratch". Done it plenty of
times before--shouldn't be a problem. First, I had three 400gb hard
drives on my system, all SATA--the boot drive had the OS, my data
files, program installation files, etc., etc., each on a separate
partition. Second and third just had a lot of video files on it. Ok,
so.....I stick my WinXP disk in the DVD drive and reboot; it boots to
the CD and starts inspecting the system and loading install
files....gets to the screen where I'm supposed to select a partition to
install it on. Ok, they don't look right; but it does show C, D, and
E.....so I pick C and move forward. It seems to do okay, and after
everything installs it reboots and "normally" loads WinXP and you begin
setting it up. Instead, it starts the process all over again. This
time, when I select C, it goes to a next screen and tells me there is
no compatible WinXP partition and gives me the option of deleting the
partition and re-creating it, so I did that. From there it pretty much
just did that time after time. Rebooted again, and tried a different
partition, which I realize now must actually have been another physical
drive....because what I basically have now is two HDs that are totally
useless. Fortunately, I had backups of my critical data; but lost a
"bunch" of video that I would rather not have....most not anything I
can't get again (recorded movies off the TV, etc.), except for a few
are really quite unfortunate. The thing I guess I can't understand is
exactly what happened from what should have been a simple system
reinstallation. Anyone heard of something like this before? I mean
these two drives are absolutely worthless at this point.....I cannot
even reformat them, wipe out the data, and start over with empty
drives. Even in Partition Magic, when I attempt to format them, I get
the error message "BAD MBR". Is there any way to get around this boot
record error and at least "use" the drives again? Any info would help.
Some big lessons learned this time--for starters, unplug everything
else before starting next time. I've bought another main drive in the
meantime and have started reinstalling my system, and things are going
fine, and as I would have expected them to go the first time; but I
sure would like to know what happened before.

Thanks,
Bob


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