Formatting Hard Drive with Win2000Pro Installed

self | Nov 21st 2001 | self

[danmar]

I usually do not post this type of stuff, but I am in need of some expert advise in this field and in return I will tell you how to fix your water pump on your car, when it starts leaking, or anything cars for that matter.(just ask the expert, 24 years in the car business and counting).

My dilema is as follows:I was running Win98 until it became very unstable(had to reboot almost every two hours)and I decided to install Win2000Pro. So I did just that, but come to find out that the new OS was installed right on top of my existing OS.At the same time my old keyboard went south, so I replaced it with a new one(Logitech with all the doodahhs)and lo'and behold the 2000 went gaga.(The machine started to reboot itself with no stopping in sight).

So I figured I have to format my hard drive and start a new.Come to find out that the system was formatting only the remaining space not the whole hard drive. So out of 10G hard drive, it showed, I have only 1.8G hard drive, because I have installed three 2000's on top of each other.

To make a long story short, I need advice as to how to format my hard drive(i bought some hard drive managing software, but they can not cut the 2000). I know for a fact that on this forum are some pretty sharp tacks, regarding computer affairs and this is the reason I am posting this vanity(I am just about to pull whatever hair is left on my head in my frustration).If anyone gets offended by this posting, I do appologise for the bandwidh waste.

[atafak]

Perhaps it seems obnoxious to you, but the point is that a modern Linux CD will solve his problem very quickly and easily. All he has to do is run the partitioning and formatting section of the install, then halt the linux install and install the MS product. All this done in an easy to understand graphical format. If he is comfortable with a command line, then not even a CD is needed. There are versions of linux that fit on a single floppy disk (Tom's Root Boot is a good one) that can do the same thing.

[MarkL]

Do you still have a Win98 boot disk, and the Win98 utilities? If so, I'd suggest "wiping" the hard drive with a "debug script," that for all intents and purposes, restores the drive to "factory fresh" condition, i.e. it fills the master boot record, the boot sector, and the partition table with binary zeros. It's the best way to really prepare a drive for an OS installation that I've found over the years. It removes all traces of the former partitioning schemes, as well as taking care of any virus problems, including boot sector virus infections.

Send me a private email if you'd like me to email the files to you.

Mark

[endZT]

IIRC, it was something subtle with a specific version of PM. I think the problem was that it set a Linux filesystem (83) as Linux Swap (82) or it set one of those to something completely wrong. This was a while ago, around the Red Hat 5.2 days and it was specific to Linux. We did have several users note during 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1 (when I was doing installation support) that PM on occasion would trash the Partition table and render a system dead. Like I said, I've since used PM6 without any problems and I have no doubt it is an excellent product today.

[Myrddin]

I had a nasty problem with Win2K on a new Asus motherboard. The BIOS support for ACPI is not a good match for the way Win2K fiddles with the hardware. The fix is to hit F5 at the beginning of the installation (at the time one would ordinarily hit F6 to install a new disk driver). This converts the ACPI compliant machine into a "Standard PC". Win2K will stop mucking with the ACPI features and everything becomes much more stable. I went through 5 complete installations in ACPI mode before making this simple change. It has been rock solid since.

Another source of instability is the UDMA66 drivers. Win2K doesn't always do this right. The fix is to slow the hard disk down using PIO mode. Some installations of Windows NT 4.0 require this on fast drives to remain stable. The clue that this is necessary occurs when the OS starts to boot and stops because it can't locate the ntoskernel.exe. Switching from UDMA mode to PIO mode can usually rescue your bacon in this case. If your motherboard comes with chip drivers for Win2K, go to the manufacturer's website and get the current release. It may be critical to get Win2K to properly manipulate your motherboard chipsets. Check for BIOS updates too. There may be patches necessary to the BIOS to fix Win2K incompatibilities.

If you choose NTFS, select a cluster size of 1024 or larger. Don't go for the 512 byte cluster size. The MFT entries are 1024. Using 512 permits the MFT to fragment...this destroys your filesystem performance.

I find it useful to make a small FAT filesystem on the C: drive (about 200 megabytes). Install the bulk of the NT code on a 3 GB D: partition using NTFS in 1024 byte cluster. Place a 128 MB pagefile.sys on the C: partition using the min/max sizes set to 128 MB. This prevents fragmenting of your primary swap partition. The small C: partition ensures that the NTLDR and other critical startup files don't get relocated to a block that the BIOS boot code can not access. Ditto for keeping the D: partition under 3 GB. Partition the rest of the drive as you see fit. Try to keep the partitions in a size range that you can backup with the tools you have available. BTW, the placement of the pagefile.sys on the C: drive is accomplished AFTER all the rest of the installation is complete.

[Justa]

Here's the simple-skinny:

Turn on the computer and go into your computer's Setup (not the OS's). It's usually the F2 or Delete key. If you don't know which one just hit the Pause button to pause the screen to read, then the Spacebar to allow the system to resume. That way you can read thru all the bootup stuff.

When you get into your computer's Setup look for 'boot options'. Go in there and change the boot sequence to 1) Floppy, 2) CD-ROM, 3) Hard Drive, etc. That puts the CD before the harddrive.

Next put the 2000 CD in the CD drive and exit Setup.

Your machine will reboot and boot off the 2000 CD before the HD. Use 2000's Setup and on the 'Choose Installation location' screen select Delete partitions and to reformat the drive so you can do a clean install. When it prompts for Qualifying product (if you have the 2000 Upgrade) pop your '98 Disc in the CD ROM.

Now if you had your hard drive manufacturer's utility floppy you could boot off that, choose Diagnostics and 'Write 0s to the Drive' to get rid of that nasy worm/trojan you probably have on it that choked-off '98. If you do that be sure to hard power-off (flip off the power strip) at the end of the operation to dump RAM in order to exterminate the little bug. It won't 'hurt' anything because the drive is totally wiped. It also resets bad sectors so it's my preferred method for wiping a HD.

BTW 2000 has protected memory and file systems so you don't have to worry much about malware getting on the drives as long as your boot media is clean. If you boot with an infected floppy or CD in a drive the bug will get loaded into the OS and you'll have to wipe the drive again.

[petbop]

If I were you, I'd buy a Mac.

[RaceBannon]

HP came right out and told me my model was not supported in WIN2000!!

[Quix]

MOTHERBOARD ISSUES

--Don't we all have motherboard issues? Tee hee, a Psych joke.

Seriously, perhaps your insights would be helpful with a motherboard issue . . .

My system: ASUS motherboard--about a year old. . . PlexWriter CD burner; another CD DRIVE--A DVD DRIVE; an AMI RAID BOARD WITH 2 MIRRORED 80 GIGABYTE DRIVES AS "C" DRIVE; a 25 GIGABYTE DRIVE; A 40 GIGABYTE DRIVE AND A 6 OR 12 GIG HD; 1 GIGABYTE HARDWARE RAM; ADSL NET CONNECTION; . . .WIN 2000 P

It is functional now . . . but there was some problem with the driver for the RAID card. . . it used to hang up on booting up. . . it now consistently boots though I sometimes have to hit the reset button to get it to not hang.

My question . . . if I upgraded the motherboard . . . what would be best. . . is the new 2 AMD CPU motherboard worth it? And when will WIN XP be debugged enough to risk it?

I do tons of work on the net for students and with students. I do a fair amount with my high quality Epson scanner and printer with photos for students.

I'm an impoverished missionary but some people are kind about giving me computer hardware etc. If something will save time, I'm for it. Time is short. Life is short. I'm all for doing more in less time. Thanks in advance for whatever advice anyone cares to offer.

[marajade]

" ... it could just as easily be a motherboard issue."

Or a RAM issue if it keeps rebooting by itself.

[CheneyChick]

If I were you, I'd buy a Mac.

Big time ditto. Spend your time using a computer, not fighting it or figuring out how to make it work.

Cheers, CC :)

Buy Yourself a Christmas Present!

[danmar]

Thanx a million for your help. Took care of the hard drive and now my win2k is up and running.

Happy Thanksgiving to y'all!!!