Cannot install Windows 2000 on new 60Gig Hard Drive?? 1

[kissimiss]

Hi

I have a real stumper that I'm hoping someone can help me with....My drive crashed, so I bought a new 60G Western Digital drive. I tried installing Windows 2000 Pro as I have before, it formats, but when it gets to the part of copying files, it says cannot copy "whatever" and says that it is not a valid file system for Windows 2000. (This is after formatting in NTFS from the cd.)

So I then formatted with Partition Magic to NTFS. Same problem. I formatted in fat32 to convert later, same problem. Now here's the stumper.....I took a 20G drive I had, same thing. I used 3 different Windows cd, same problem. I then took another computer and tried it there, SAME PROBLEM. I took the 20g to work and installed from there, it worked, but when i put it in my comp, memory dumps.

So I really don't know what is wrong or what to do next...I can install Win98, which is what I am using now......

Any Ideas? Any help would be very appreciated!!

Thanks!!

 

[wolluf]

You've got a hardware problem (not the hard drive). Need to find out what. I'd start with memory (if more than one stick, just try with one, try each on its own).

 

[kissimiss]

I will try this and let you know

Thank you for your help

 

[whythis]

You do not provide enough info. What is your system info? Also, have you checked the Microsoft HCL (hardware compatibility list) to see if your hardware is compatible with 2K? A LOT isn't! Even the mainboard chips can be a problem (for instance, VIA chipsets tend to cause trouble). Since you can install 98, if it is a hardware problem it is either a compatibility issue or you don't have enough RAM (I would not attempt it with less than 256, although Microsoft says you can. 128 would be the absolute mimimum I'd use). Your hard drive is not the problem. Your RAM should be okay, considering it works fine with 98. You have a compatibility or insufficient resources problem, I would guess. Hope you solve it. I have installed 2K Pro and Server quite a few times. On one of my machines, 2K sometimes goes right on easily, and sometimes it crashes out during the hardware installation part. I just keep rerunning it until it takes. Another possibility, and I have had this experience myself, is that some malicious person dumped a Trojan into 9X which is affecting 2K. I kept having a problem with this until I got rid of 9X completely, and haven't had the problem since. Never expect a lot from the antivirus programs. They only catch last year's stuff well. Anyway, good luck!
whythisagainwhythisagainwhythisagainwhythisagainwhythisagain

 

[wolluf]

whythis

Have often seen 98 install on machine that 2k wouldn't, where there is RAM problem. It doesn't show up with 98 until you start using it (then get spurious registry errors that you can never fix). Also 2k runs absolutely fine with 128MB RAM and there's no problem installing it on machines with less (have it running as a 'server' on a P233 with 64MB - no problems).

 

[kissimiss]

Sorry,

I have a PIII 550 and 1 gig of ram. I had a 40gig drive on it with windows 2000 previously but the drive crashed Which is why I bought the 60gig. I was thinking virus as well?.....have not yet tried removing memory.

Thanks for your help

 

[wolluf]

Try the RAM, and if no good, post back and we can explore some other avenues.

PS. Did last drive physically crash - so no longer usable?

 

[kissimiss]

I was getting a SMART error for a while, i did a backup....not recent enough though, but anyways taught me a lesson

Did a scan on it, no surface errors, but when trying to use it am getting corruption errors...

 

[kissimiss]

Ok, tried the memory removal. Same thing I installed 2000 again from a work machine, drive works fine. When installed in my computer, it's corrupted files etc. So tried server, same thing.....

I have never seen anything like this! Any other ideas?

Thanks

 

[damox]

If it is a virus, as has been suggested, and you have partitioned and formatted your drive, then you probably should try, fdisk /mbr, using a Win98 startup disk. It also could be a bad CD-ROM drive.

 

[mscallisto]

The last SMART error I encountered resulted in replacing the hard drive, afterwhich the problem was resolved.

much luck

 

[kissimiss]

Ok, issue resolved MEMORY!!
But also a Bios update

Thank you very much for your help