My desktop contains two Western Digital SATA physical drives. I am speaking here only of the first, Drive C:, containing only the OS.

For reasons which don't matter here, I wanted to replace my XP Pro SP2 OS with Windows 2000 Sp4, using the slipstreamed Win2K disk in my library. I forgot that this install knows nothing of NTSF formatting. When install told me it would have to format to Fat 32, I permitted the reformat, which of course failed. Now there is no OS at all. Well, I thought, I'll reinstall XP Pro and let it replace the NTSF formatting. Then I'll use a utility like Partition Magic to convert the format to FAT32 and install Win2K.

The XP install does in fact reformat the drive, and proceeds to deploy the XP files. But at the first install reboot, it returns to the Welcome screen and starts over. It wants to reformat again, deploy the OS files again, and start over again. And again.

UBCD4Win finds drive C and reports it healthy, so I'm assuming the physical drive has not failed. I need to clean it such that XP will not trip over the data which causes the endless loop in the reinstall process. I wonder if there is something on the UBCD4Win disk that will do the trick, or if someone here can suggest a remedy other than a resource from UBCD4Win.

Best regards,
O.

Make sure that virus protection is not enabled in the bios, this can cause exactly what you're describing because it doesn't allow the new mbr to be written.



Hmm, I just last night installed Win2k SP4 on a 40GB drive that had XP Pro SP2 previously installed on it. I let setup delete the partition then create a new one and the only option it gave me for formatting was NTFS???



You can use DBAN (Daric's Boot and Nuke) from the initial UBCD4Win boot menu to completely wipe your drive.

Just a comment on my post above. Member BvF7734 was kind enough to suggest Darick's Boot and Nuke to clean the disk (reply to my first post on this subject above) and I did engage it with the copy on UBCD4Win. It reported that it had done its work, but XP installer found the NTSF partition intact, though (almost) empty. The XP installer looped again. Clearly, the drive was not scrubbed.

However, I'm plumb scared of Darick's . I've got intact data on my second Western Digital drive (D: & E:), and the text accompanying the Darick's app tells me it will destroy the data on any disk it finds. Well, I can find D: and E: using the UBCD4Win cmd function. The data's not been harmed, but if I can find it so can Darick's. How do I make sure that Darick's: 1. cleans disk C: such that the installer thinks it's a new install (Setup doesn't ask for a serial #, for example), and 2: leaves the other drive alone?

O.

Thanks pcuser; I can't account for the failure of my Win2K disk to offer NTFS; I bought Win2K several years ago, but slipstreamed it successfully last year (used it a couple of times to install at a different house). I would have thought that SP 4 would *insist* on NTSF, if anything. However, DBAN will do the job, I'm sure, once I know how to run it without harming the data on the other HD. At the moment, though, I don't know how to get it to wipe C:

My mobo is an Asus P5-E; I don't think the BIOS has antivirus built in, but I'll ask on the Asus site.

Hi oyster


The best way to ensure that DBAN only wipes the disk you want to wipe is to disconnect any other hard disks before starting up

The full wipe will take a long time , you only need to wipe the start of hard disk (partition cylinder) so you can reboot after 5 minutes
There are a few other utilities which just wipe the Partition Cylinder but there is always the risk of getting the wrong disk wiped

From NT4 onwards the default Format is NTFS which is best unless the disk is very small or data has to be shared with Windows 95/98/ME

regards
Mike Barnes