Re: INstall of XP fails with BSOD on partmgr.sys on disc 6

From: Licensed to Quill (fountainpen_at_amexol.net)
Date: 07/01/04 

Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 09:42:59 -0400

Many thanks Michael

I had already tried booting from the CD (and it wouldn't boot) as well as
booting from the setup file on the CD having booted to a dos prompt from a
Millenium boot disc (maybe that disastrous Me system was the problem?) and
I received the error message that this (setup) program can't be run from
DOS: That is why I was trying to install from the 6 floppies which I had
downloaded from bootdisc.com. So I suspected there was something in the MBR
which was preventing me from doing any of this so I ran fdisk /mbr and it
didnt seem to help: I had system commander installed on this hard drive and
uninstalled that so that wasn't the problem. The only diagnostic error
message which I can believe is the one on the BSOD which tells me that there
is something amiss with a file called partmgr.sys which might be causing all
of this so I am wondering if this is a known problem and there is a
workaround anywhere??

I do know that when I installed system commander it also installed partition
manager which only divides partitions and puts swap files in the other
partition (which is a process appropriate to XP as well) so I can't
understand why anything to do with partition manager would prevent (if
necessary) the install proces deciding that the only thing it can do is to
format the hard drive and install from there (I HAD in fact given up on the
idea of upgrading the 2000 OS and thought it would do this anyway)

SO (given that despite having grreat products, V-Com can't afford to support
any product which is any more than ten minutes old) is there anything out
there anywhere which might tell me what on earth this error message which I
presume is stopping XP from loading from DOS means? I know that MS has a
legendarily bad search function which almost always manages to miss the
document you are looking for so I was wondering if any MVP with ACTUAL
access to the knowledge base could find anything relevant to my situation?
Or could this be something in the BIOS or possibly a hard drive problem
beginning to rear its head? the error message did also go on about
disabling DMA access or write access or read ahead caching or something or
other but I never believed any of that when MS says it in such a message.
It just looks too much like send the user on a wild goose chase. I suppose
it might be appropriate if you are installing windows 3.0 on a 200 meg hard
drive with 8 Meg of RAM but otherwise it looks like the sort of stabbing in
the dark which might cause more problems than it could solve.

FP
"Michael Stevens" <mlstevens@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:BD092B59.1D52%mlstevens@earthlink.net...
> On 6/30/04 7:55 PM, in article OHjA6dxXEHA.2972@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl,
> "Licensed to Quill" <fountainpen@amexol.net> wrote:
>
> > I think I must be missing something here: If am trying to load XP
because I
> > can't boot to windows 2000 because it wont run, is there a trick to
> > downloading a 50 megabyte file on a computer from which one can barely
get
> > to a dos prompt? Can one get to an internet connection to do this from
a
> > floppy? Are you recommending booting knoppix for example and getting to
the
> > upgrade advisor that way and if so, (I am assuming this although I have
> > never heard of an MVP recommending someone trying to install XP to use
> > Linux. Are you really an MVP? Are you SURE that the upgrade advisor
will
> > work from either a floppy or from linux?) does the upgrade process work
if
> > you cant get into windows? I dont wish to criticise and certainly
> > acknowledge your kind offer of assistance, but aren't there at least two
> > slightly fatal flaws to your advice? Both specifically mentioned in my
> > original post?
> >
> > And I may be exaggerating but you dont seem to address in any way the
main
> > question which concerns this file which XP tell me is causing the BSOD?
> > You're not in Bangalore are you? Did your advice come out of a script?
> >
> > FP
> > "Carey Frisch [MVP]" <mrxp2004@nospamyahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:OVzzbwwXEHA.3044@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> >> Windows XP Upgrade Advisor
> >> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
> >>
> >> --
> >> Carey Frisch
> >> Microsoft MVP
> >> Windows XP - Shell/User
> >>
> >> Be Smart! Protect your PC!
> >> http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
> >>
>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> > -------------------
> >>
> >> "Licensed to Quill" <fountainpen@amexol.net> wrote in message :
> >> news:OWAtMlwXEHA.3564@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> >>
> >> |I have given up on trying to get my windows 2000 installation working
as
> > I
> >> | have changed computers and my new computer won't recognise the 2000
> > install
> >> | so I thought I could install XP from an install disc and boot discs.
(I
> >> | can't get into windows so obviously I cant run the setup program)
> >> |
> >> | Anyone got any idea why installation of XP from boot discs fails at
the
> > end
> >> | of disc 6 of the install discs with a BSOD and an error message
> > referring to
> >> | something called partmgr.sys? Will it install if I just delete this
> > file
> >> | from the hard drive?
> >> |
> >> | FP
> >>
> >
> >
> You don't need the 6 disks. Windows 98/Me startup disk with smartdrv.exe
> added is all you need to run setup from MS-DOS, but the XP CD is bootable
> which makes using the floppy disk unnecessary anyway.
> See the link below for a step by step on clean installing XP from floppy
or
> booting CD.
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
> BTW, when the floppy disks fail, it usually due to a bad floppy disk.
> Re-make the set of disks if you must use that method.
> --
> Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
> xpnews@bogusmichaelstevenstech.com
> http://michaelstevenstech.com
> For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
>
>

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