Question about hdd sector content on 2 XP systems.

I have two XP desktops with identical operating systems, one boots - the other will not. I am trying to isolate the problem and suspect the first hdd sector is corrupt.

My question:
Should the contents of the 0 sector of each hdd be identical?

Is there a web site that has this kind of information? (Yeah, I know that's two questions.)

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Ed B

 

Hi Ed B, More info please. What actually happens when you try to Start the non-booting comp?
Do you get POST?
How far does it Boot?
What are the System Details of the comp? Thanks Neil.

 

Sector 0 could be quite different if either of those old computers is using an old 'drive manager'. (I.e., custom device driver which circumvented BIOS limitations, notably those related to maximum disk or partition size and logical block addressing).

 

New information and appreciation for replies.

Sorry to be so long in acknoledging the replies and expressing my appreciation for them!

I have been doing deeper research and trying to put together a response that includes something for each of you.

It's a lot harder to be brief than to make some rambling entry that doesn't cover the subject - so here goes my effort to add something new into the mix - even if it rambles.

Some information I have confirmed:
Dell dimension 2400, Intel Celeron 2.20 GHz, 128 KB integrated level 2 cache, Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS version 1.10 A02.

The system that will not boot had been a dual boot with a Linux distro.
The BIOS executes the boot process for Linux but the XP OS isn't recognized. My best guess at this point is that something went wrong and caused the MBR to be destroyed or corrupted.

If I boot with a start up disk and try to run Fdisk, the error message is to the effect that there is no hdd present. Since I can't run Fdisk, FixMBR doesn't work either.

Both XP hard drives are 40 GiB Western Digital WD400EB drives.
GParted reads the non-booting drive as 34.12 GiB Unallocated and Unknown file type. The booting drive is MSdos ntfs, 37.27 GiB.

The drive that boots will boot properly when I connect it in place of the non-booting drive - so the BIOS is apparently functioning properly in both systems. I can enter setup during the power up phase - and f12 will display the boot menu.

HxD hex editor reports 6,602,715 fewer sectors and 411 fewer cylinders in the non-booting drive. A preliminary check using HxD hex editor is what prompted my original question. I could see that the first sector in each of these drives contained quite different file information.

I think it is time to do a repair install - so I will back up what data I can and try to make some good out of a bad situation.

Thanks to each of you for your replies, and may 2014 be a good year for you.

All the best, Ed B

 

???

MSDOS does not support NTFS (or FAT32). Up to FAT16 only with a maximum partition size of 2GB.