Hi, this is a very strange problem, and I hop I can find a proper
linux tool to save my disk.

In the past months, my disk was running dual-boot OSs, slackware and
windows XP and I had never met a problem, until one day I did somthing
in my Windows XP, I guess, that is a operation made by Symantec's
partition magic, I ususally use this program to resize my
partitions. But this time, I found many things on my XP became
strange so I decided to reinstall the XP and I picked up the XP
install disc and booted from it, deleted the XP boot partition (the
1st one on my disk) and expected to do a reinstallation. However,
when I rebooted, the installation disc stoped to came up again: it
quickly show me the blue screen "I am trying to detect your
hardware..." and go dark screen forever, and the hard disk LED keeps
always on. I tried server times of booting from the install disc,
every time the result was same. And, I even tried another XP install
disc, nothing changed. I still can not boot properly and start the
installation process.

I suspect that there is something wrong in my partition table, but
the Slack disc can boot, and slackware run perfect without any
problem. I then boot into slack, and use the fdisk/cfdisk deleted and
recreated the 1st partition, but it did not help. When I rebooted the
system and inserted the XP install disc, it still can not boot up.

Can you give me any suggest? Do you think this is a problem with myy
partition table? If so, what tool I can use to bring the partiton
table back to a state with which XP install disc feel happy?

Thanks in advance.

-
narke

On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:19:46 -0700, Steven Woody wrote:

> Hi, this is a very strange problem, and I hop I can find a proper
> linux tool to save my disk.
>
> In the past months, my disk was running dual-boot OSs, slackware and
> windows XP and I had never met a problem, until one day I did somthing
> in my Windows XP, I guess, that is a operation made by Symantec's
> partition magic, I ususally use this program to resize my
> partitions. But this time, I found many things on my XP became
> strange so I decided to reinstall the XP and I picked up the XP
> install disc and booted from it, deleted the XP boot partition (the
> 1st one on my disk) and expected to do a reinstallation. However,
> when I rebooted, the installation disc stoped to came up again: it
> quickly show me the blue screen "I am trying to detect your
> hardware..." and go dark screen forever, and the hard disk LED keeps
> always on. I tried server times of booting from the install disc,
> every time the result was same. And, I even tried another XP install
> disc, nothing changed. I still can not boot properly and start the
> installation process.
>
> I suspect that there is something wrong in my partition table, but
> the Slack disc can boot, and slackware run perfect without any
> problem. I then boot into slack, and use the fdisk/cfdisk deleted and
> recreated the 1st partition, but it did not help. When I rebooted the
> system and inserted the XP install disc, it still can not boot up.
>
> Can you give me any suggest? Do you think this is a problem with myy
> partition table? If so, what tool I can use to bring the partiton
> table back to a state with which XP install disc feel happy?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -
> narke
>
I don't know, but it could be that the same effect you have noticed when
booted in XP is manifesting itself under XP's setup. My WAG is that
XP's Setup is searching for a previously installed Windows copy on your
first partition. There is something unexpectedly wrong with the
disk structure, and is forcing its mount code into a loop, or something
similar. If you have a backup of your Windows partition, then this looks
like it would be a good time to test restoring it. If not, and you are
prepared to lose everything on your Windows partition, it may be time to
use a bigger hammer. That is, use Slackware. First, verify that your
partition table is correct and consistent. If it looks good, use "dd" to
zero the Windows partition.

Caution: This will destroy the contents of /dev/hda1

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1

Caution: There are other glitches that can manifest themselves in dual
boot cases. Most involve inconsistent disc geometry at boot between the
various OSs. Double check your BIOS HD settings. IME, setting "LBA" mode
manually is often better than the BIOS' "AUTO" setting. Linux will always
use LBA. Maybe, XP can be forced to use it from the start, too.

Caution: There may be other tools which could be used to repair
damaged NTFS. I have only used Windows chkdsk. If you want to investigate
fixing your filesystem, then look for a better tool than that. It would
also be a good idea to ensure that no hardware failures are to blame.
badblocks is your friend.

--
Douglas Mayne

Douglas Mayne <doug@localhost.localnet> wrote:
>>
> I don't know, but it could be that the same effect you have noticed when
> booted in XP is manifesting itself under XP's setup. My WAG is that
> XP's Setup is searching for a previously installed Windows copy on your
> first partition. There is something unexpectedly wrong with the
> disk structure, and is forcing its mount code into a loop, or something
> similar. If you have a backup of your Windows partition, then this looks

That would be my first question - is this a generic Microsoft Windows XP
installation disk, or a disk that came OEM with the prebuilt system? These
disks are often called recovery disks - they can be a nightmare to deal with.
Sometimes they will automagically repartition your entire system without
warning you (they essentially return the system to its "just bought from
the store" condition), or they get confused and hang when they encounter
an unexpected setup. Since Win95 came out, it seems most manufacturers
stopped providing real Windows installation disks (I imagine this has to do
with the cheaper OEM licensing scheme).

- Kurt

On Jul 13, 12:40 am, Douglas Mayne <d...@localhost.localnet> wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:19:46 -0700, Steven Woody wrote:
> > Hi, this is a very strange problem, and I hop I can find a proper
> > linux tool to save my disk.
>
> > In the past months, my disk was running dual-boot OSs, slackware and
> > windows XP and I had never met a problem, until one day I did somthing
> > in my Windows XP, I guess, that is a operation made by Symantec's
> > partition magic, I ususally use this program to resize my
> > partitions. But this time, I found many things on my XP became
> > strange so I decided to reinstall the XP and I picked up the XP
> > install disc and booted from it, deleted the XP boot partition (the
> > 1st one on my disk) and expected to do a reinstallation. However,
> > when I rebooted, the installation disc stoped to came up again: it
> > quickly show me the blue screen "I am trying to detect your
> > hardware..." and go dark screen forever, and the hard disk LED keeps
> > always on. I tried server times of booting from the install disc,
> > every time the result was same. And, I even tried another XP install
> > disc, nothing changed. I still can not boot properly and start the
> > installation process.
>
> > I suspect that there is something wrong in my partition table, but
> > the Slack disc can boot, and slackware run perfect without any
> > problem. I then boot into slack, and use the fdisk/cfdisk deleted and
> > recreated the 1st partition, but it did not help. When I rebooted the
> > system and inserted the XP install disc, it still can not boot up.
>
> > Can you give me any suggest? Do you think this is a problem with myy
> > partition table? If so, what tool I can use to bring the partiton
> > table back to a state with which XP install disc feel happy?
>
> > Thanks in advance.
>
> > -
> > narke
>
> I don't know, but it could be that the same effect you have noticed when
> booted in XP is manifesting itself under XP's setup. My WAG is that
> XP's Setup is searching for a previously installed Windows copy on your
> first partition. There is something unexpectedly wrong with the
> disk structure, and is forcing its mount code into a loop, or something
> similar. If you have a backup of your Windows partition, then this looks
> like it would be a good time to test restoring it. If not, and you are
> prepared to lose everything on your Windows partition, it may be time to
> use a bigger hammer. That is, use Slackware. First, verify that your
> partition table is correct and consistent. If it looks good, use "dd" to
> zero the Windows partition.
>
> Caution: This will destroy the contents of /dev/hda1
>
> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1
>
> Caution: There are other glitches that can manifest themselves in dual
> boot cases. Most involve inconsistent disc geometry at boot between the
> various OSs. Double check your BIOS HD settings. IME, setting "LBA" mode
> manually is often better than the BIOS' "AUTO" setting. Linux will always
> use LBA. Maybe, XP can be forced to use it from the start, too.
>
> Caution: There may be other tools which could be used to repair
> damaged NTFS. I have only used Windows chkdsk. If you want to investigate
> fixing your filesystem, then look for a better tool than that. It would
> also be a good idea to ensure that no hardware failures are to blame.
> badblocks is your friend.
>
> --
> Douglas Mayne

It sounds a good idea! I will try, and I don't mind to loss the
whole /dev/hda1. Thanks, i will get back to you.

On Jul 13, 1:53 am, ~kurt <actinouran...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Douglas Mayne <d...@localhost.localnet> wrote:
>
> > I don't know, but it could be that the same effect you have noticed when
> > booted in XP is manifesting itself under XP's setup. My WAG is that
> > XP's Setup is searching for a previously installed Windows copy on your
> > first partition. There is something unexpectedly wrong with the
> > disk structure, and is forcing its mount code into a loop, or something
> > similar. If you have a backup of your Windows partition, then this looks
>
> That would be my first question - is this a generic Microsoft Windows XP
> installation disk, or a disk that came OEM with the prebuilt system? These
> disks are often called recovery disks - they can be a nightmare to deal with.
> Sometimes they will automagically repartition your entire system without
> warning you (they essentially return the system to its "just bought from
> the store" condition), or they get confused and hang when they encounter
> an unexpected setup. Since Win95 came out, it seems most manufacturers
> stopped providing real Windows installation disks (I imagine this has to do
> with the cheaper OEM licensing scheme).
>
> - Kurt

I don't sure what installation discs I am using, I tried two, both had
been always worked. Thanks for the reminding anyway.