Reformatting HDD Help

[Cpt_Winters]

Hey Shiloch,

I just sent you a PM. Lemme know what's going on from here. Thanks buddy.

[Cpt_Winters]

Any news on those CD's or any more advice to fix this problem, Shiloch?

[Shiloch Veneficus]

Hey man,

I had to respond to a stupid staffing emergency at another store in the chain I work for, and pulled an open-to-close shift on Monday. I had to head to my store early this morning and I'm getting ready to have my phone blown up with all the wireless communication failtures when this band of storms enters my area.

I should be able to get to the post office tomorrow morning. Sorry about the delay, looks like this week belongs to the gods of watch-me-squirm.

[Cpt_Winters]

Haha, no worries man. Thanks a lot for all of your effort. Buy any chance when do you expect the CD's to arrive by?

[Shiloch Veneficus]

I slipped into the post office today. I say "slipped" because I've been in one massive hurry since Monday morning, and the chick who works days in there likes to chit-chat. It's been so bad with me that I can feel the customer's eyes burning holes in the back of my head in line behind me at times.

Anyway, since this week has been one huge screw-up from the get-go, I shipped it express today. It's guaranteed to arrive by noon tomorrow. (If it doesn't get there by noon, let me know, cause I get my money back.)

I've got a shipwreck of paperwork to work on tonight, so you should be getting a PM from me later on tonight with some information you might need. Futher instructions I'll continue with on this topic, so anyone that might need to know this stuff will still be able to keep reading.

-Shane

[Cpt_Winters]

I just got the CDs today a little after one, and I must say that was quite fast. That's so much for the speedy delivery. I've been waiting weeks it seems for this computer problem to be solved and the CDs are finally here, so it looks like all is going to well with me now. Thanks again and lemme know if you have any instructions for using these two CDs.

[Cpt_Winters]

Okay, I just inserted the Ultimate Boot CD (windows loaded up, not sure what I need to do with the bootable CD thought, any help w/ that would be great), and I also inserted the Windows XP SP2 CD that you sent and after the blue setup screen appeared and loaded all the files, I got this error:

stop c0000221 Unknown Hard Error
\SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll

So what's next?

I realize that I do not have a partition any longer on my HDD. So how can I create one with the program(s) on the bootable CD?

[Shiloch Veneficus]

Okay, first question:

I assume you are able to use the preinstallation CD to load up windows and use the web browser? If so, I'm happy, because that means you don't have to use your friend's PC anymore to read my instructions.

The stop error you're getting, at what point exactly in the setup process are you getting that?

[Shiloch Veneficus]

I don't see any evidence to suggest that this will fix your stop error, but here are the instructions for formatting your hard drive with the preinstallation CD I sent you:

- Boot
- Start > System > Computer Management
- On the left pane, click Disk Management (it is a sub snap-in under Storage).

At this point, you'll have to make notice of what's in the bottom pane of the window. There should be a graphical representation of your hard drive (which it should describe in the left block as being 150+ gigs) and a graphical display of your CD-ROM directly underneath of it.

- Right-click on the right side of the graphical block for your hard drive. Find the option that says "Delete Partition..." and click it.
- Click Yes.

The graphical block should change to "Unallocated." If you had a drive letter listing in the top pane of the window, it will disappear.

- Right-click the graphical block again. Select "New Partition..."
- Click Next.
- Select "Primary Partition"
- Click Next

Here you will get to set how large you want this partition. Since you didn't have a lot of data you wanted to back up or needed alternate storage area for, I would say just set this number to the maximum available.

- Click Next.
- Assign the new drive letter (preferably C: )
- Click Next.
- Select "Format this partition with the following settings" and use NTFS with Default Allocation unit size. Name it something funny like, "hard drive" or "place I put things." Be sure to make sure "Perform a quick format" is NOT checked.
- Click Next.

This next screen will allow you to validate all of the options you selected. Review them to make sure nothing is amiss, then..

- Click Next.

At this point, you may get a message that tells you "Windows could not complete the operation" blah blah blah "because the partition is not enabled." If it does display this message...

- Close Computer management
- Start > Restart

You'll notice the INSTANT BIOS screen. Love memory operating systems.

After the reboot, you'll want to...

- Start > System > Computer Management again.
- Click on Disk Management again.
- Right click on the graphical block which should now be labelled "C:" and go to "Format..."
- Again, put in your really cool volume name like "big complex magnet" Select NTFS for your filesystem, then again choose Default allocation unit size, make sure quick format is not selected then...
- Click OK.
- Click OK again.

For a 150+ gig drive, it could take upwards of an hour to an hour and a half to complete.

[Cpt_Winters]

Okay, I just completed all the steps from above. Everything worked liked you said it would and now it's in the process of formatting. Looks like I now have some time to kill (only 2% completed thus far ). So I take it after this formatting is done, I just restart and load up the XP SP2 CD and hope it installs like it should?

[Shiloch Veneficus]

Well, I don't quite understand the stop error, that is confusing me a little bit. I find it baffling that both of my custom made troubleshooting boot CDs seem to work flawlessly for you, but an actual bootable Windows XP disc meant to install the OS is giving you problems.

I'm hoping the stop error is coming from the setup program not recognizing what's been done to the master boot record of the hard drive (which may have been corrupted with the first UBCD). This is fixable, but we'll worry about that after we see what happens with your Windows install after the format.

btw, are you posting with your boot CD web browser?

[Cpt_Winters]

Yeah, I can't figure out why my XP CD(s) don't seem to function correctly, yet your CDs seem to do the trick. I guess that's just Microsoft.
I'm actually using a friends computer (been doing that for the past couple of days). I have tried Firefox on the bootable CD, but my school's network requires a program called Clean Access Agent. It's just an attempt to try to keep viruses off the network, and that software needs to be updated and what not; it's quite a hassle. Basically I can't use the internet on the bootable CD so long as the network I am on uses Clean Access. But it's no trouble using a friends PC for a bit. I'm almost half way done with the formatting of my 150 gig HDD, so as soon as that's done I'll let you know how the install of XP goes, (if it does at all ), but I'm confident this will finally do the trick.

[Cpt_Winters]

Alright, I just formatted the drive, restarted, and inserted your XP SP2 CD. It loads up for a little bit, and then when it says setup is loading windows, i get this error again: "STOP: c0000221 unknown Hard Error \SystemRoot\System32\ntdll.dll"

This doesn't seem to be a good sign

[Shiloch Veneficus]

Your system wouldn't happen to have a ZIP drive installed, would it?

[Cpt_Winters]

Nope, no zip drive. Any problems with that? A few forums I've read into say this STOP error could be caused by RAM (I have two 512, one came with the computer, the other I purchased). I took the one I bought out and put the default one into the default slot. I've also read that you HAVE to WIPE the HDD clean because the ntddll.dll file is corrupt or something. If that is the case, how would I use the ultimate bootable CD to wipe the HDD clean? Or if you have any other suggestions let me know, thanks.