I/O errors

This is probably half Vista/ half hardware, but I'm putting it here because it does involve trying to use newly installed hard drives.

Computer came with one sata drive. I bought another SATA drive, installed and BIOS and Vista see the new drive okay. I used Vista to make partitions. I disconnected the Vista drive, put the new drive on the first drive's connections and attempted to install XP. Many times. Usually it would get to the last screen before the bright blue 39 minutes left ones, but the progress bar would not move, and nothing happened. Once I got a "this drive has been formatted with an incompatible file system please reformat (with XP). That failed, too. So I reconnected the Vista drive to the first position and looked at the second drive with disk mgr. I reformatted the first partition (where XP had failed to install) Vista still sees it fine, all partitions are okay except the last two. They are "unallocated space ". Any attempt to do anything to them results in I/O error. I tried to copy files to the partitions that seemed to be okay. I/O drive error 0x8007045d and Google takes me to pages of "taking permissions with Vista" the suggestions I found there about taking ownership etc. result in more I/O errors when I try to copy folders.

Meanwhile, I hooked up an IDE drive and installed XP on it. Again, Vista and BIOS see it just fine. Vista will not let me look at any of the files in the OS partition (I/O drive errors) and will let me copy some folders to the other partitions, but not others. These folders I am trying to copy are from the original Vista Sata drive. XP sees the Vista partitions and can copy/move.

Before this computer, I dual booted XP Pro and Vista and never had any problem accessing files from either drive using either OS. The original installation on the old computer was XP, and I installed Vista on a different drive. I could move or copy, access and see all files from either OS.

problem one- Huge amount of unallocated space on SATA drive #2
problem two- How to be able to see files and folders between systems
problem three- Why can't I install XP on that second SATA drive? I really don't want or need this third drive (the IDE) in the computer- I'd rather use the drive on my external.

Suggestions welcomed. Forehead sore from banging it on the keyboard.
Johanna

 

Johanna, I suggest you use the HDD manufacturer's utilities to partition and format the new drive.

http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
or if you let us know the make (and model) of the drive, we could help you find it.

Matt

 

Hi Mattman!

Noahdfear stopped by after he got through with work and he had the same thought- use the disk. Right there on the box for the new drive it says "Vista ready!" but the cd doesn't support Vista. We tried to download from the WD site, but no Vista support, it's plug and play theoretically. Then we noticed that for some reason the computer disabled every optical drive I had. Dave got the dvd/cd drive working again by uninstalling it and letting Windows find it. we didn't do anything to the other drives yet because I won't and don't use them (camera card readers etc).

He wants me to install XP on the second drive on a partition Vista created. He made all the partitions on the second drive "raw ". Dave said to boot with the XP cd and choose the partition but to leave the Vista drive hooked up. I have to do my back ups first before I risk that. I don't have this data anywhere else, and that alone makes me nervous (hence the two drives to begin with!) He said, "Why don't you just upload what you're worried about?" Duh. He's right. I am part of the cloud, might as well use it! But I think I', going to pull the IDE drive out, slap it in my external and let it run all day if it needs to, before I close my eyes, cross my fingers and try it his way.

The theory is that Vista will take over the boot manager, and I'll get a choice as to which OS I want at boot. I just want to be able to copy and move files between Vista and XP, like I could before. We probably would have stayed up all night experimenting but our ISP has been flaky for the last two days and I lost my connection again, so we called it quits and ate peanut butter cookies. I got my new BBS mug out of the dishwasher and washed it for him so he could drink his coffee in style. He gave me explicit instructions, and if it doesn't work, I will bake more cookies and whine until he comes back. I'll keep you all posted, and in the meantime, while I'm backing up, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
Johanna

 

It didn't work. The XP Pro install will go to where it should launch into the "39 minutes remaining to install" and stops dead with a message "this disk is either damaged, too corrupt or been formatted with an incompatible file system. Press F3 to quit" and there really is no choice, just won't work. When I bought the drive I hooked it up and checked to see whether Vista and BIOS knew it was there. XP might have installed then, but I made a partition using Vista. That's why the first XP install attempt failed. Letting Vista format the disk was a mistake, too. Live and learn.

I'm going to use the WD CD that came with the drive to format it for XP, like Mattman said, and try again. I want to be able to use XP to edit Adobe Acrobat documents and use some website software I stupidly did some sites in that is not Vista compatible. I will never buy from that software company again even if they do make a Vista version, because their software is designed to break a site completely if you try to edit anything with any other standard html software including notepad. Grrr...but that is a rant for another day. I want to get XP on so I can finish a site that is overdue by months, not weeks, and I want it done yesterday. Other than those two inconveniences, I wouldn't need XP. I'm having fun with Vista, and I'll stay with it.
Johanna
wish me luck with the cd. and not borking my functional Vista install.

 

Good luck. The guy with the site is very patient. Better to find this software site building deal out now rather than later I would think.

 

I am really frustrated. I cannot install XP even on an SP1 slipstreamed disk to that second drive. "This drive is too damaged or has been formated with an incompatible file system" blah blah blah. Now Vista doesn't want to format it either. "quick formats" fail, long formats take forever. I ran it for 18hours on a 50 gig partition and it never finished.

Whe I try to install XP,and boot with the XP CD, it either starts declaring it can't copy files on drivers.cab, or it nears the end and gives me the rror message about the format, which it shoulsd have already completed. I tried deleting and recreating partitions in Vista and XP, but when I boot with the cd, it sees two drives over 137000, and not any created partitions. If I create the partitions with XP, it will remember them the next time I boot with the cd after the error message "press F3 to quit" finally arrives.

I have work that needs done, so I am doing it on my laptop and the kids' computer but I want XP on that second drive, and by hook or crook, I'm going to have it there. WD provided a disk with utilities. None will format that disk. A closer inspection of the box reveals the drive is Vista ready, but the WD cd is not intended for anything past XP. I Googled for some f disk type things, but I don't have a floppy drive, and none of them say they will work with Vista. I suppose I could put the floppy out of the old computer, but I have no idea where it would fit, if it would work (it's been a loooooong time since I needed a floppy for anything!)

I'm gonna bake more cookies and ask Dave to take a look again. He has some utilities on a cd that will override anything Windows, reprogram NASA satellites and force children to make their beds in the morning. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I'm at a brick wall.

Some things I thought of trying:
1.pull that sata drive out and install XP on it via an external hard drive enclosure. Or, I have a SATA pci card I could stick in the kids' computer. (XP MCE)
2. Either install XP on the same physical disk as Vista (haven't tried that yet!) or install Vista on the second drive, then try to install XP on the first and smaller drive. Switch positions on the motherboard.
3. Take the drive back and get another one. Make sure the new one never gets introduced to Vista until XP is on there.
4. Get a new computer with plain old IDE drives that follow orders and cooperate.
5. Bury a black cat on a full moon, light a fire and walk thirteen times backwards for good luck.

After all of this, and not being able to do a simple thing like install XP on a second drive (computer geek 101!) I want Dave. I want him to come and fix it, just like he would the dryer. I can use the other computers in the meantime, even if they are awkward. The kids bought me a 4 gig flash drive for my birthday, so I don't have to mess around uploading and downloading. Cute 6 is not compatible with Vista, and CuteFTP8 has bugs in Vista. I need a new ftp client- guess I better start another thread. I have to update my ISP thread (it never rains, it pours here) but so far so good. Knock on wood. Sprinkle the salt over your shoulder. Cross your fingers.
Johanna