500gb hitachi deskstar crashes when sp2 is installed

[DarkPrince666]

this problem is bothering me alot.well to start off my computer is a dell dimension 4500.has 384 mb of ram. 2.4ghz and the computer is about 4 years old. Wanting to upgrade I bought a new 500gb Hitachi deskstar.

I was planning to use two hard drives at the same time one being a 40gb hard drive that had my windows installation in it. When i tried to install the 500gb hard drive it would only read about 127 gb of this. I then read about this problem and updated my computer to windows xp sp2 and then the rest of the unallocated space was put into a 337gb partition and when i restarted my computer thats when the problem started.

I being the dummy that i am thought that maybe it was the 40gb hard drive causing the problems so i formatted it and i had ALOT of trouble installing windows onto the 500gb hard drive.

I finally have windows on it but the problem is that first when im installing windows xp it only reads the hard drive as 127gb so after i install windows the partition windows is on is only around 127gb.(only after updating to sp2 will windows read the rest of the hard drive) So after updating to sp2 i made another partition of the rest of the space. Restarted and then i get the screen that says something like windows has shut down to prevent serious damage or something like that and it gives me choices to go into safe mode. safe mode with networking. last good configuration etc. None of them work except the safe mode. And sometimes that wont work. When i go to click the start windows normally my computer just restarts and i get the same thing again.

Every time i format the hard drive and install windows. Update to sp2 and then restart the same thing happens it takes me to the safe mode etc screen. I have installed and deleted windows about 30 times and tried many different things but the outcome is all the same.

I have tried getting the latest bios for my motherboard on the dell website. i have flashed the bios with the one provided for my computer on the dell website. I have played with it for about a week and the same problem. Please someone help me. Im afraid to restart my computer because then i have to re-install windows all over again and then set up everything. Also i hooked up the hard drive to my brothers computer and it worked fine so i dont think its the hard drive.

 

[DarkPrince666]

Forgot to mention that my BIOS reads that my hard drive is 500gb

 

[Freestone]

I know you've probably had enough of installing XP, but perhaps installing from an XP install disk with SP2 slip-streamed may help as you would then have access to the full 500GB from the start.

Here are just a couple of sites that explain the procedure of creating the CD:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

I am not sure this will fix your problem, but it's an avenue of exploration.

 

[DarkPrince666]

thanks alot! i've never heard of slip streaming before. Also my brother has a windows xp that has sp2 already on it but it says it cannot install windows on my hard drive because it is too damage or in a format windows cannot read.its ntfs though.

 

[Freestone]

It sounds like you tried your brother's XP with SP2 CD after you already installed XP from your CD, applied SP2 and received errors. By this time the partition had been damaged, so your brother's XP won't install.

There are two things I would try. The first would be to download diagnostics from the drive manufacturers website and run them, If they pass, then I would fill the drive with zeroes and try reinstalling XP either with a slipstreamed XP with SP2 or your brother's CD. A zero-filling utility should be included with the diagnostics.

 

[PRPhx]

And if the above doesn't work and you still have a lot of problems, I would 1) Update your pc's BIOS (IF you haven't done so already) and 2) I would suspect that your new drive is bad and I would return it, either for a new one, or for a refund.

And before I forget, did you use the new cable that came with the drive?? Try swapping out cables also.

 

[DarkPrince666]

the drive didnt come with a cable i just hooked it up to my ide. Do you think it could be the motherboard or ram?

 

[DarkPrince666]

i was trying to combine the 2 setups of windows when i get this error. "This service pack cannot be integrated into a destination that also has integrated software updates. Consult the service pack documentation for more details about supported integration scenarios. i followed the guide exactly. Any help?

 

[Freestone]

I assume you mean by the "2 setups of Windows" that you are you trying to create a slipstreamed XP CD. What kind of XP CD are you using as a source? Which link are you using as a guide? What step are you encountering the error?

 

[DarkPrince666]

im using windows xp home edition. And im using this link as a guide

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

i encounter the error after i extracted the contents of the sp2 update into the sp2 folder and then i go into cmd and type update -s:c:\xp Thats when i get the error.

 

[Freestone]

Is your XP Home CD a factory pressed CD? The error seems to indicate that you have XP with some patches already applied.

 

[DarkPrince666]

yes its factory pressed cd. It came with my dell computer. I gotta thank you freestone for being so helpful i help i can come to the solution with this problem because of the help of you and the people on this thread. So thank you!

 

[DarkPrince666]

does windows xp media center come with sp2 in it because i have that on a cd as well.

 

[Freestone]

Well I appreciate your thanks, but I haven't really gotten you anywhere so far.

I don't know if XP Media Center comes with SP2 preloaded. You could always boot the CD and start the install. If it sees all 500GB of the drive, it has at least SP1.

 

[DarkPrince666]

do you think it could be my ram or motherboard? Or does this sound more like a hard drive corruption problem or something like that.

 

[micker377]

It may be that you don't have enough memory to run SP/2. Running XP with any less than 512 is an exercise in frustration. How big is your power supply? You should have at least 350, preferably 450 - 500 watt.

 

[DarkPrince666]

i've had sp2 before the new hard drive and it ran fine. I dont know how many watts my power supply is though i'll get back to you on that.

 

[firewolfrl]

Ok first thing is the bad news
the 500 hundred gig hard drive just may be incompatible with the Dell

The best you are going to do is get a secondary controller card that will recognize the drive correctly

reload xp on the machine using the 40 gig for now...then go back to the store where you got the 500 gig and see if they will swap it as a bad drive....this may be the issue but I have seen this before as an incompatible drive

If the store will do it try downsizing the drive. or put the drive in an USB enclosure (their cheap)and use the drive as a data drive. you can use most of the stuff in windows to relocate to the 500 gig drive ...My Documents folder is a good example...and you can load all the programs that give you a choice of where to install you can install on that drive


But, I don't think you really want that scenario...you may be limited to 128 gig drive even though the BIOS says it will see the full drive it will start to corrupt over that size


you may get lucky with a replacement drive.


and yes your system really does have too little of Ram


I don't think there is really anything you can do till you get another drive and/or controller card (I would do both)


if you do go that route try to replace the drive with a SATA /SATA controller even better if you can get SATA2 that is if the store will let you

the only other idea that I have is you have some how had a static event on the drive and/or ram

there is not much moire that will help

 

[Freestone]

If you run the manufacturer's diagnostics as I suggested earlier, you may be able to verify firewofrl's suggestion of the drive being incompatible or just plain faulty. If you need help locating these diagnostics, please post the maker of your hard drive.

You asked if it could be bad memory. It could be, though I think you would have had failures when using your 40GB drive. Running memtest86 (the longer the better) may reveal something:

http://www.memtest86.com/

Please try running the hard drive diagnostics.