HELP Reinstalling NT.

[Kjonnnn]

I have a workstation that i need to reinstall NT on. NT died on this machine last week. My problem is that there is important data on this machine and therefore, I dont wanna reformat the drive.

NT will not do a Repair (even with an ERD), Upgrade or even do a New Install. It gives me error messages that certain files are corrupt and cant be copied (from the CD ... I tried 4 different CDs). I can only boot onto the machine with a floppy. When I boot with a floppy I can see that all the files are there, but just cant get NT to come up. The applications are not important I can always reinstalled. Many of the files are bigger than a floppy can hold. The machine has the C: (FAT) and D: (NTFS) partition. So of course I cant see the files on the D: Most of the important files are on the D: partition, but there are some important ones on the C: partition.

How can I get NT to install on this computer WITHOUT reformating and loosing data?

 

[PAndersen]

What about the newest version of Norton Disc Doctor ?
Can it repair the boot-sector, or transfer a copy of
it from another NT-computer (sector 0) ?

 

[johncurtis]

If it's just the data you want, stick the drive in another PC as a slave and copy the files over. Then you can happily reformat the old drive and reinstall.
John

 

[SATech]

johncurtis is right...if all you need to do is recover the data, slaving it to another machine is your best solution. This not only treats your slaved drive as a simple file repository, but you can also use the Master drive as a method to backup your data (without worrying about what will fit on a diskette).

Option #2 - If your OS is on C: (and none of your desired data resides in user profiles (C:\winnt\profiles\...), then it will not hurt to install over the existing installation or install a second copy of WinNT - say to 'WINNTa' directory. These methods are more labor intensive and, unless you're connected to a network, will do you no good when you are looking for storage space to store your files. ________
S. Joseph Vergara
SVergara@Texas.net

 

[Kjonnnn]

Thanks guys.

Well I slaved the drive and was able to recover the data. But now I can't reinstall NT on this machine even though I've removed and deleted the partitions 2 or 3 times, reformated 2 or 3 times. I still get errors saying files are corrupted during the installation of a new NT. I used several sets of floppies and several sets of CDs, to no available.

Could "some" files still linger on the drive causing the files not to be able to install?

Or is something physically wrong with the drive?

 

[Guest_imported]

Try using DELPART to delete the partition. You can find it on the web. Made to delete NT partations.

 

[Kjonnnn]

OK... I put in a different drive now. And I'm still getting the same errors. (SETUP WAS UNABLE TO COPY THE FILE *****.***.)

I'm starting to think that the CD could be not reading correctly or corrupting files as it copies them. Is that possible?

 

[SATech]

Just a hunch, but it sounds like an impending hard disk failure. When you slaved it to the 'good' computer, during the boot-up process do you recall seeing 'chkdsk' kick in after the NT Loader began or anything else out of the ordinary during bootup? ________
S. Joseph Vergara
SVergara@Texas.net

 

[jaeddy]

Actually, since you put in a new drive I would first change the drive cable(s), swap out the CD-ROM with a "known good" one, etc. If that doesn't work you could be looking at a drive controller problem, and so on.

 

[Kjonnnn]

Ok... the sage continues....

I've put in a new hard drives...
I swapped in another CDROM......
I've used three different sets of setup CDs and floppies

Im still getting the same error message.

Driver Controller problem? For the CD? or the Harddrive?

 

[SATech]

I seriously doubt the problem is with your controller. Take a close look at the BIOS settings. I've had W98 installation fail to the point that I thought I had a faulty CD, only to find out days later that I had a setting off in the BIOS that I had 'tweaked' days before. If you're unsure of what you're seeing in there, depending on your BIOS version, select the 'Restore default/optimal settings'. This fixed my problem - it's worth taking a look before you dive into the unknown. ________
S. Joseph Vergara
SVergara@Texas.net

 

[pbxman]

what is on the new drive you put it? Is it blank?
try an fdisk /mbr on it, delete all the partitions in fdisk (if you're using Fat16), format it, try copying the files again.

Also, if you can, try copying the contents of the NT cdrom to a known good drive, and place the drive in your computer as a slave, and try running the setup from the hard drive instead of the CD-Rom.

 

[pritska]

I agree with the BIOS suggestion. I have experienced in the past where the bios has a virus protection option, the windows setup doesn't work.

 

[Kjonnnn]

OK... now Im getting the same errors on a totally different machine.

I borrowed a different set of setup disk to install.
I've even used the JUST the CD to install, but on certain files it says they were not copied correctly...

I got it running though by copying two of the files it said were bad from my machine on to the one Im working on. It now boots up NT and connnects to the network ... but it won't let me add any Service Pack. I was able to install a few applications on to it, but when i try to open them, I get Dr. Watson.

Now it happens these machines had Sircam but both machine have been FDISKd and reformated several times since Sircam was removed. Can a virus PHYSICALLY harm a computer.

 

[Kjonnnn]

Ok, I figured it out. THanks Guys for all your help.

I had another NT machine that was crapping out on me and finally wouldnt boot up. So I said I'd just redo the drive from scratch. As im trying to install NT, I'm getting the same messages as I was getting with the other machine that wouldnt let me reinstall NT. So now I'm thinking it must be ME, I got the exact same problem on TWO different machines. At first I thought maybe in some weird way SIRCAM had physically messed up the drives and could even survive me FDISKing both machines several times.

But then I thought, what do the two machines have in common beside me doing the install? A HA!!!! Both recently had new 64 RAM (Kingston) chips added to bring them up to 128meg. I took the new 64 RAM out and every thing ran GREAT!

Now I never got any errors messages about memory or anything close. I just kept getting messages about files not be copied correctly and/or Bad Image Checksum.

How does BAD Ram play in the installation Process?

 

[adamskii]

I had a similar helpdesk call a few months ago. Never did get to the bottom of it. Your solution certainly seems to to be plausable. Anybody know the reason why?

 

[pbxman]

I'd have to say this is a very strange problem. A reason why that may have happened that way for you is the fact that if the RAM was not the proper RAM for the machine, it treats the setup as a "RAMdrive". If the RAMdrive could not properly access the addresses setup stored in the memory, it would return the closest error relating to a disk problem as possible. In your case - it could not correctly pull the data addressed in RAM that it needed during setup, so therefore returned an error that something was physically wrong with your disk..when in fact..it was the RAM acting as a hard-disk to speed-up the installation process since RAM is much faster than a hard drive.

It's just a guess - but i'm almost 100% sure that's the reason unless someone else has evidence otherwise. It makes perfect sense to me why it might do that...but in any case -it should NOT do that in this day & age..
Pbxman
Systems Administrator

Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful.

 

[j2thab]

Convert that drive to a slave and transfer your data, and then reformat.

j2thab

 

[75082800241]

hello :
If YOu want to copy the files which are in the ntfs drive there is a program that allows you to do it.This program run on Msdos , its name is ntfsdos and lets YOu read a ntfs partition from Msdos.I can sent it .
Mail me :
romelrod@yahoo.com

 

[75082800241]

hello :
If YOu want to copy the files which are in the ntfs drive there is a program that allows you to do it.This program run on Msdos , its name is ntfsdos and lets YOu read a ntfs partition from Msdos.I can send it .
Mail me :
romelrod@yahoo.com