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Killed my hard drive? [Cannot install XP after removing Linux]

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by jimbob43, 2005/09/12.

  1. 2005/09/12
    jimbob43

    jimbob43 Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hello,

    I think I killed my hard drive. I removed Windows XP to install Linux. Now I cannot get Windows installed. I wiped the hard drive clean and tried to install and it will not detect the Windows CD and start installing.

    I have no floppy on the machine, so I downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD and ran that. I tried all variations of partitions and I cannot get Windows to install.

    Any ideas?
     
    jimbob43,
    #1
  2. 2005/09/13
    charlesvar

    charlesvar Inactive Alumni

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    Hello jimbo,

    I wiped the hard drive clean and tried to install and it will not detect the Windows CD and start installing.
    Is the cd set as a boot device in the BIOS? If it is, and if you haven't set it that way, make it the primary - see if that works.

    Regards - Charles
     
    charlesvar,
    #2


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  4. 2005/09/13
    oshwyn5

    oshwyn5 Inactive

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    oshwyn5,
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  5. 2005/09/13
    jimbob43

    jimbob43 Inactive Thread Starter

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    jimbob43,
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  6. 2005/09/13
    jimbob43

    jimbob43 Inactive Thread Starter

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    It is set to boot from the CD first and I am pretty sure that I tried a primary partition as well. This is a blank drive now with no Floppy Drive to use any kind of real bootdisk.
     
    jimbob43,
    #5
  7. 2005/09/13
    oshwyn5

    oshwyn5 Inactive

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    If you have access to another machine with a cd burner

    http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

    Free, and it has many partitioning tools which will be able to wipe the linux partitions and its boot manager partition.
     
    oshwyn5,
    #6
  8. 2005/09/13
    jimbob43

    jimbob43 Inactive Thread Starter

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    I did that already. I have all Linux partitions removed. I tried creating a primary partition in every possible way with that CD. Even used the Hard Drive Utilities on there.

    It won't boot from the CD and then when it tries from the hard drive, all I get is a blank screen with the cursor flashing in the top left corner.
     
    jimbob43,
    #7
  9. 2005/09/13
    oshwyn5

    oshwyn5 Inactive

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  10. 2005/09/13
    Hugh Jarss

    Hugh Jarss Inactive

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    do you have the HDD utilities for your particular make of HDD available on that ultimate boot CD?

    If so, try zero-filling the drive (write zeroes to drive, some makes call it)

    (my understanding from the posts above is that you can boot from the ultimate CD but not from the Windows CD - apologies in advance if that's wrong)


    best wishes, HJ.
     
    Last edited: 2005/09/13
    Hugh Jarss,
    #9
  11. 2005/09/13
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Boot using one of thos eboot cds that has dos utilities. Run fdisk /mbr. You probably installed lilo in the mbr instead of the boot partition.

    Here's an easy way to fix:
    1. go here and download the Netinst iso:
    http://people.debian.org/~dwhedon/boot-floppies/
    2. create a cd using the iso.
    3. boot with that cd and run cfdisk (partition hard drive menu item)
    4. delete all partitions.
    5. quit
    6. reboot
    7. cfdisk again
    8. create a new partition using all disk space
    a. part type 0B (fat32)
    b. write partition table.
    9. quit
    10. reboot again.
    11. after reboot, pull out cd and use power button to turn off comp
    12. you'll now need to boot using a cd that boots into dos.
    13. once booted into dos, run the command fdisk /mbr
     
    TonyT,
    #10

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