Drive C: is corrupted ??

[adelara]

Hi folks,

I have to have Win2k because I have a HP scanner that has no support for WinNT.
Sure, I could go with Windows 98 but I don't want to. I have 2 children that wants to play games and I would like to have an operating system that limits access to the system.
Here is the idea: have Win2k booting from a NTFS partition and have Win98 booting from a FAT, this way win98 won't see the NTFS partition and the kids won't mess up with my files.

Hope someone else has an idea. I'm trying hard to have win2k pro installaled in my new HD wd-300bb (30 Gig) but it fails miserably.
It doesn't matter if the partition to install is FAT, NTFS or whatever neither the size of the partition.
I have used EZdrive to create the partition and it fails.
I used the traditional FDISK/FORMAT but it also fails.
Partition Magic works fine but all of this is irrelevant since the install always fail with "setup has determined that the drive C: is corrupted". Of course it is corrupted. Setup screwed up the installation so I have to delete the partition and start again.

As a sanity check I first installed windows 98 and it went fine. Then I tried an upgrade to win2k... same results.
Another attempt with WinNT 4.0 went alright but the upgrade fails too.
Microsoft has an "atapi.sys" available just for NT and it didn't work with win2k at all.

I had the same installation alright in an old WD 4 Gig HD.

The new HD seems fine: it installs Win95, Win98, WinNT without problem.

The mobo has the latest BIOS upgrade.

I tested the HD in another hardware. It's fine. Besides, it installs win95, win98 and winnt 4 without problem.

Am I missing something here ? Doesn't seems so unless there are other recent atapi.sys that I'm unaware of or worse: this is not the file I need...
As desperate measures I tried to copy the whole CD to a newly partition (disk D and downloaded the Win2k service pack #2 in another computer.
From this other computer I extracted all files.sy_ and all files.dl_ and moved them to that CD image in the new partition in the new HD.... no success.
The problem is that the install process can't get past the drive verification.

Looking forward to new ideas

Thanks,

Alex.

 

[butchrecon]

You have installed Win98 first on the Primary Partition Correct? Then Install Win2K (Not Upgrade) on a second partition. I have never seen the problem before. I am intersted in a solution as well. James Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

 

[adelara]

Hi James,

Thanks for the note.
I intend to use XOSL to chose the partition to boot from. It's a free boot manager and works well. In its page

http://www.xosl.org/

there is a link to it as well as a faq on how to boot Win9x from a logical partition (yes, it works
Anyway... Yes, I have installed Win9x on the primary partition when I tried to upgrade.

But you suggested something I haven't tried : install Win2k on an second partition ( even an extended partition).
I'll try also a second primary hidden partition and see what happens. XOSL can hide partition for boot puposes and that would work with my scenario.

Just an update on my firs posting is that I also tried a fresh install (no upgrades) and get no better results.

It's so frustrating because the install stays a long time messing with the HD and suddenly that message comes and most of the attempts the partition gets trully corrupted (setup does it).

I'll post later.

Alex.

 

[butchrecon]

I think it is the boot manager. I would suggest not using it. You can kill all partitions on the hard drive and then recreate them (without a boot manager) then install Win98 on the primary partition. Then install Windows 2000 on a secons partition. Windows 2000 has its own boot manager built in. Its not the best boot manager but it works. James Collins
Computer Hardware Engineer
A+, MCP

email: butchrecon@skyenet.net

 

[adelara]

Sorry James,

I think I mislead you with excessive information.
Currently the systems doesn't have XOSL installed. I mentioned because it will have it installed in the future.
The first time I went in this problem I decided to remove the boot manager and start always with a clean partition.
I will go with XOSL after I get rid of this install issue or at least I learn how to solve this situation.

Thanks.
Alex.