Probs with new install

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:53 pm

Well im working on a ladies pc, compaq 5000 that had xp home edition on it. Anyways, it was virus laden so the only route to take was a fresh install and all would be well. Or so i thought. The problem is, Ive tried 2 different xp disks and both give me a NTLDR is missing error on bootup. So i tried a 2k disk, first part on the install goes fine, then when it goes to the first reboot, nothing but a black screen. Ive been messing with this thing since like 10am and Im just about to pull my hair out. What else can i try here. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 9:58 pm

sounds like something goofy in the bios.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:08 pm

well if you've ever worked on a compaq then you'll know that there's not much you can change in there. Its set to boot from cd then hdd. Im just absoutely dumbfounded at this point

smb · Post by **smb** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:02 pm

fdisk then reinstall. i think the compaq recovery partition is causing problems.

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:07 pm

Yah, I was gonna say the same thing smb did.. I have a few of those 5000s in my possesion and they're all PITA lol

wpublic · Post by **wpublic** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:42 pm

are they retail xp disks? if not, then are you sure the discs you are using are bootable?

if this doesn't seem to be the problem, the easiest fix would be what was mentioned above; delete all the partitions and start from scratch.

alternatively, if you can get to the files on the drive, check the root of the partition for a hidden file called boot.cfg and make sure it is pointing to the partition where the xp setup files were copied.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:20 am

Well thats the thing XP wont install at all. As soon as the pc boots up it gives me the NTLDR is missing messsage. I even tried taking the hdd out of the compaq, putting it in my pc and used partition magic to partition and format it. Still no luck. Oh btw i dont have a floppy in my pc so i cant make a disk to fdisk with.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:35 am

heres a screenie of the way it got set up in PM
dont know if that'll help or not

Disk 1 btw

smb · Post by **smb** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:39 am

maybe you have a loose cable or bad boot sector. thats why i suggested fdisking it. don't use partition magic to set up a bootable partition. you can delete the partition with the diskmanager tool under computer management. then try reinstalling.

from your snapshot your disk is shown as just a primary partition and not an active partition.

GuardianAsher · Post by **GuardianAsher** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:01 am

It's an extended partition. You need to format it as a primary main partition, not extended.

wpublic · Post by **wpublic** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:40 am

which disk are you trying to install to?

the way you have it set up, xp would only be able to install to disk 2 C: partition. if that is a slave drive, you probably will have issues.

disconnect one of the disks and format a c: primary active partition on the one running.

Busby · Post by **Busby** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 4:46 am

Yea disk 1 definately needs to be made a Primary partition, if disk 1 is the Compaq's drive. Extended partitions are not cool for being a main disk.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:18 am

As mentioned above, Disk 1 has an EXTENDED partition on it with a LOGICAL drive. You can't make that a bootable partition. Drive needs to be wiped and re-partitioned. I don't think you can fix that with partition magic.

As for why you're having problems and what caused this in the first place is that maybe there's a disk manager on the drive - that's what it sounds like to me. We don't use disk managers much anymore EXCEPT that some utilities use them for a completely different reason.

Did she have Norton GoBack installed by any chance? GoBack puts a disk manager on the drive and once installed the drive CANNOT be properly partitioned (even after zeroing) unless you either uninstall GoBack from it or partition the drive on a system with GoBack installed.

I run into that crap all the time. Pain in the arse. The drive is virtually useless until you remove it.

You can boot from the GoBack CD and get a menu that allows you to uninstall it:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/go ... =hho&tpre=

The thing is that Partition Magic (at least the DOS version 8 that I use) usually tells you if the drive has a disk manager on it, but it's possible that MBR is corrupt.

Conversely you may have a corrupt MBR or (very rare) an MBR virus. You can try using any number of free MBR erase utilities (but this usually will not remove GoBack - I know of no way to remove GoBack without a GoBack disk).

You might want to try wiping the drive and performing a clean install of XP on another computer with that drive just to eliminate the possibility that it's the drive. If it installs okay on a nother system then you may have hardware issues with the Compaq (bad controller, bad RAM, bad mobo). I've seen bad RAM often cause XP to fail to install properly. Have you run MEMTEST86+ for several hours on the Compaq to make sure it's okay?

BTW: Is this a Compaq that came with Recovery CD's? You'd be much better off using those that doing a manual install of XP. Some of those OEM systems have devices that cause XP grief during install, and you're sometimes forced to pull all the cards (except video) and disable all onboard devices to get past the XP install and then enable them later.

Hope this helps...

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:42 pm

I had the same problem with a compaq lappy. Had to delete the 8mb partition. Sounds more like FP is right though.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:33 pm

Whew!! After about 16 pain in the ass hours its finally done!! I understood what you said about the extended partitions so i got that fixed, tried some other stuff and it still didnt work so I tried the recovery disks that she gave me. It installed ME fine from there and then I just plopped the Xp disk in and went to work. Kinda a round about way to do things but its working and tomorrow i can get this ginormous POS outta my house!!! One thing is for sure, either A: i will refuse to work on compaq's from here on out or B: i will charge double.

Compaqs have been a little pushy before but Ive never had one to fight me tough and nail like this one. Now to update it, get some AV on there that works and fire my gaming rig back to go kill some ****. Im seeing red at this point

Thanks for all the help guys