Computer Hell

Quark · Post by **Quark** » Thu May 02, 2002 11:36 pm

Not a request for help, just one big freaking rant, as written during my spanish class (yes, I wasn't paying attention).

Why Microsoft Sucks -- OR -- My new big 'Whoops'

You know all those people recommending dual boots when upgrading to WinXP? Don't listen to them. Then haven't tried uninstalling the original OS.

I've had XP for 5 months now. Since I've gotten CD burning for XP working, I haven't used Win98 once. So I decided it's time to get rid of it.

Here's my old setup:

C:\ 25 gig partition, Win98, FAT32
E:\ 10 gig partition, WinXP, NTFS
F:\ 25 gig partition, Storage, FAT32

Running out of program space on E:\, I decided to wipe C:\, make it an NTFS system, and use it for more program installs. The future goal would be to have C:\ and E:\ combined, with all three running NTFS.

I had cleared C:\ (besides the root directory and WINDOWS directory) over a week ago. On Sunday I decided it was time to finish the job. I load up Local Disk Manager in WinXP and check my 3 partitions. C:\ was set as the 'Active' drive (i.e, the one it boots from), E:\ as 'System'. While C:\ was active I could not wipe it. I tell the program to change E:\ to the active drive, and it allows me to wipe the C:\ drive. So I go for the format. At the end I see 'Drive order has changed, could not edit Boot.ini. Make sure to manually edit partition numbers.' Huh?!?.

I had edited boot.ini before, but never seen where it was stored. After a little research, I find out the C:\ drive stored the boot.ini, among other 100% necessary files for booting. Apparently setting a drive 'active' in Microsoft's LDM does absolutely nothing. Of course I realize if I try to reboot I'll ultimately fail. On top of this, the reformat of C:\ failed. Tried it again, fail. Try it as FAT32 (instead of NTFS), fail. Never been so ticked at Microsoft in my life.

Ultimately i tried some random stuff (don't even remember what) to reset the boot configuration, praying it will work. Reboot and:

NTLDR missing
Hit CTrl+Alt+Delete for reboot

Great, just great. So I load up a partition utility I initially used to set up the dual boot (BootIt NG, a FORMERLY recommended product). Try reseting the boot configuration in there. No dice. Wouldn't even let me edit my partitions, worthless program.

Next step? WinXP System Recovery, courtesy of the WinXP install CD. The commands Fixmbr and Fixboot look appealing, so I try them. Nope, still doesn't like me. So I try WinXP Install to see what it thinks of my hard drive. The program recognized my Storage partition as 'unpartitioned space'. Now I'm really worried; that's 15 gigs worth of data that took me over 2 years to collect. It also failed to realize that I had Windows XP installed on the other partition. Back to System Recovery. I see a command bootcfg and check it out w/ '/?'. I see /rebuild and go for it. It responds:

'Found 1 installation of Windows on drive C:\'

Now, it was on E:\, but at this point I'm willing to take what I've got. So I confirm it. Run fixmbr and fixboot again. Still won't boot. Back to WinXP Install. "Found 1 installation, would you like to repair?" YES! Of course, NOW! Run through the install program completely.

The computer boots! First thing: My Computer.

WinXP (E:\) is now D:\
Storage (F:\) is now C:\
Win98 (C:\) is unallocated space.

No programs work whatsoever. My files are still there, but now no programs realize where they are. Onto Part 2: "Screw ASUS"

I'm updating everything on my system now, trying to get it back into working order. Running through sites like [url]http://www.majorgeek.com,[/url] I find out that my motherboard has a new BIOS. So I go check it out and have my A7M266 flashed to version 1006 (over 1004A). I had also performed about 10 other actions before that required a reboot. So I reboot.

big blue screen. STOP: it commands w/ an error 0x7E. Try again. 0xBE, 0x23, 0x24, everytime another blue error. I realize that some stuff I had done was partition work so I load up a friend's copy of Partition Magic 7 (emergency disk), and decide it's time to wipe WinXP. So I wipe that, combine it w/ the original Win98 in a new NTFS, and make storage an Extended partition (to force WinXP as C:\ and Storage as D:\). WinXp install program gives me the same blue screen. Finally I realize the error is from my BIOS flash. I grab my laptop, spend 3 hours online looking for:
1)AFLASH, required to flash my motherboard
2)1004A BIOS (there's 1005,1006,1007 but I'm going w/ what works)
3)A boot disk

Finally I flash my motherboard back to 1004A. Interesting note, it took 4 clicks of the mouse to screw up my motherboard (Start Menu, ASUS flash program, 'Connect', and 'Ok'. It took 5 commands and 3 confirmations to fix it: The file is older than the BIOS installed, are you SURE you want to install it??. YES!

Bingo, WinXP install works. Now I'm sitting here, the original goal is accomplished. The original C:\ and E:\ are combined, I only have one OS, and Storage (as D:\) will soon be NTFS too (but NEVER combined with C:\). I'm in the LONG process of re-installing EVERYTHING, but you know what? For over 10 hours this week I was afraid of losing 15gigs of information. After I found out it was safe, it's damn hard to be upset about re-installing programs.

But I'm still pissed at Microsoft for their STUPID utility that couldn't even warn me 'This partition won't be set active until a reboot' and at ASUS for having a faulty BIOS image.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:51 am

Have you emailed MS explaining your problem? They might learn from it you know

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Fri May 03, 2002 8:52 am

I have almost the same configuration for my system,

Disk 1:
C: (35Gigs) WinXP FAT32
D: (5gigs) Win98se FAT32
Disk 2
E: (20Gigs) Storage FAT32

My main trouble when i go for dual is the file system types, it seems in fat32 is unable to identify the NTFS and shows is as
unpartitioned space, at least for me, so i always install win98se on d: and then install from win98se to a new partition(c

always keeping all the the partitions on FAT32 format. I found that this is the easiest way to dual with minimum problems.
I have been in similar conditions like you in the past so i know how you feel.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Fri May 03, 2002 6:26 pm

@Quark, sounds like you had some fun! I've had lots of time to play with the disk management in Win2k and XP, and it's not the easiest thing to use. This is another wonderful exampl eof Microsoft not documenting some of the more critical points of disk management and hardware/software interaction. NT based systems (NT4, 2and XP) always hardcode themselves to the volume letter they get installed to. Change that and all hell breaks loose. As for the BIOS image, I doubt there was anything wrong with the version you got from Asus. I know them to be a very good brand of motherboard. This one you can blame on Microsoft however. The BIOS update from 1004 to 1006 makes some changes to the IDE controllers. This will cause XP to fail when trying to access what it thinks is the primary bootable device, as the disk identifier number will have changed. Using the fdisk/mbr command from a boot disk will reset the disk identifier to 0 and solve the problem.

But I totally agree - never use multiboot setups unless they're on seperate disks.

Quark · Post by **Quark** » Fri May 03, 2002 8:47 pm

Actually, that's the only problem I've ever had from an ASUS perspective (with 3 motherboards and a video card on my belt).

However, I don't see how the WinXP install program would be messing up w/ what you said about it changing the IDE config. After my complete wipe, the install program would have been interacting with a 'fresh' drive and it still failed to install.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Sat May 04, 2002 1:33 am

@Quark. I know what you mean. The first time I hit this problem I thought a complete disk format would sort everything out. It didn't.

WinXP looks at the boot records on the HDD's for information about previous installs, so unless you format or remove all drives and partitions, the setup program can still find previous installations of itself. To put it bluntly, XP is the biggest ***** of an operating system there is to get rid of. Go Microsoft.

I've never gotten to the bottom of how this works, so there's probably a few other things it does to your hardware to mark its presence. On the plus side, once XP is going properly it does seem to be very good.

BTW, are you using Home or Professional edition?

Quark · Post by **Quark** » Sat May 04, 2002 9:35 am