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Thread ID: 34512	2003-06-15 21:17:00	HP computer from hell... this cant be happening	Chris (3346)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
152777	2003-06-15 21:17:00	I'm fixing (watching the decay of) a HP computer. Some of the things its been doing have me firmly confused.. Firstly its owner found that some things didn't go, so he gave it a clean up, i suspect he "cleaned up" much of the operating system, and even less went. I took it home for a reformat. All was going as i expected at first,i got as far as updating 'doze but then i found myself having to reinstall stuff i had just installed because after the reboot they didn't work anymore. Then the screen came up with a message to the effect that i should back all data now as the HDD is on its way out. I had allready taken a copy of the data, so i bought a new 40gig HDD and placed the old 4.3gig HDD in the "soon to be wall art" dept. I divided the new HDD into 3 partitions, C system, D stuff and E Installs. I then copied the '98 install disk onto a folder called E:\98se and begun a HD install from there. Everything went as it should till i installed the Acrobat, rebooted, and got big fat error messages about how the FAT was corrupted, in both C AND E Seroiusly confused at this point, i ran scandisk and tried to let it fix itself only to find that the "fixed" version was too rearranged to run and had file names that seemed to be rather long and include many pipe symbols. OK so i start again, a fresh copy of '98 gets copied to a freshly reformated E partition, i format C, and do another HD install of '98SE The install appear succesful, so i install the modem drivers so i can start updating stuff, and the machine freezes. I reboot. It wont boot up windows. I boot of the start up disk, and get informed that there are big problems with the FAT again. I run scandisk, start fixing things, and see that the list of probelms in both C and E is again too much. I shut down the machine and give up. I can't find my sledgehammer after offering it to beetle, nor can i find any of my other large lumps of swingable metal, so the machine is still sitting intact on the bench. Does anyone have any idea WTF is going on here?????? .Chris	Chris (3346)
152778	2003-06-15 23:11:00	Ouch - but not nearly as bad as mine which sporadically won't boot at all - not even from floppy. Anyway - the only thing you appear to have omitted is properly fdisk'ing - maybe delete all the partitions once again using fdisk, then re-create them, then boot with the Windows boot-disk, and let it do the formatting for you.	Greg S (201)
152779	2003-06-16 02:09:00	Here, put this program on a bootable floppy and make it run: better than fdisk program (www.killdisk.com) That will clear out your hdd in about 1/2 hr. Now make 3 or more nice partitions with partition magic or ugh fdisk. (There may be some problems with win98 recognizing the big partitions ???). Install a nice copy of windows 98 on your primary partition. I wouldn't be copying any old 'system' files from the previous hard drive. And then finally put all your old stuff back on the computer. Don't just copy the old programs back over and expect them to run, you will need to reinstall them all so windows doesn't have a fit with them not being in the registry ;)	PoWa (203)
152780	2003-06-16 02:13:00	Also, why are you doing a hard drive install of windows 98?? Use the cd?	PoWa (203)
152781	2003-06-16 02:42:00	I like hard drive installs, it saves on all that "Please put in the CD called...." rubbish, and the person whose computer it is wouldn't cope with that. Well sounds like i'll have another go tonight, and this time i'll try POWAs advice. Failing that, i have found my sledgehammer and..... ;-) .Chris	Chris (3346)
152782	2003-06-16 02:44:00	This problem is often caused by faulty RAM. Otherwise it may be the IDE controller or ribbon cable.	BIFF (1)
152783	2003-06-16 03:00:00	Oh yeah I get your point :) Extremely annoying in win98. happens everytime u change something in the network settings. Just install the whole OS from cd first, and later copy the entire Win98 directory on the cd, to the hard drive (maybe rename it as well). Then when you install a new something, your friend can point the annoying pop-up installer to the win98 directory on your hard drive. It may be that win98 has some cd copy protection, and when you copied it to the hard drive, you may have missed some hidden protection files or something??	PoWa (203)
152784	2003-06-16 03:16:00	No. Copy the files to the hard disk, then install from that copy. If you install from the CD, whenever something is added and needs the .CAB files, it wants the CD. It remembers. You can change the Registry entry, but it's quickest to do it right. The problems are nothing to do with file protections. It doesn't matter that the files from the CD might carry the read only attribute ... the installation files aren't written to. :D Try a raw fdisk and format. It's "unlikely" to be a memory problem ... you've been able to install the W98. Faulty memory is most often discovered when doing the install --- that's when it is really tested. I'm wondering whether there might be flakey bits on the disk ... in the FAT area. You could try making a 2 or 5MB partition at the start of the disk, and then using only the rest of the disk.	Graham L (2)
152785	2003-06-16 03:18:00	This is how i always have installed '98, and there has never been a problem.. till now on this &^%$^%$ machine... *think sledgehammer, nice blue skys, ocean waves....* O well, we shall see if tonight brings success, or further frustration. .Chris	Chris (3346)
152786	2003-06-16 03:24:00	> I'm wondering whether there might be flakey bits on > the disk ... in the FAT area. You could try making > a 2 or 5MB partition at the start of the disk, and > then using only the rest of the disk. Graham I thought that might be the case, except it made a mess out of E:\installs too. I partitioned the disk to 3 partitions 10gig for system (C), 20gig for stuff (D), and the rest (E)for the installs Isn't the FAT at the beginning of each partition? Still confused.. .Chris	Chris (3346)
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