I think my harddrive is dead or something.

[BRP]

It lacks a boot.ini file and the file "vgaoem.fon". I can't seem to make a recovery from my Windows XP disc...

[Koga]

Copy Pasta this into boot.ini if your using XP Pro (Like every normal person should)
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

Follow directions to re-add other file.
Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For more information about how to do this, please refer to your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
2. Insert the Windows XP compact disc into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
3. When the Press any key to boot from CD dialog box is displayed, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP compact disc.
4. When the Welcome to Setup screen is displayed, press R to start the Recovery Console.
5. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, select the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
6. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password, and then press ENTER.
7. At the command prompt, type map, and then press ENTER.

Note the drive letter assigned to the computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP compact disc. It is displayed in a format similar to the following:
D: \Device\CdRom0
8. Type the following line, and then press ENTER (where CD-ROM drive is the letter of the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP compact disc, and drive is the letter of the drive on which Windows is installed):
expand CD-ROM drive:\i386\vgaoem.fo_ drive:\windows\system
For example, type the following:
expand d:\i386\vgaoem.fo_ c:\windows\system
Note the underscore character after the "o" in "Vgaoem.fo_".

You receive the following message: Vgaoem.fo_
1 file(s) expanded.


9. Type exit.

The computer restarts.
10. Remove the Windows XP compact disc from the computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then start the computer normally.

[BRP]

The second one did not work and the first one confuses me. Uh, I guess I should mention windows doesn't start(without a boot.ini and all). Where exactly do I copy and paste that? If it's on windows, no worky ;/. Thanks anyway though!

[Koga]

If you put the Windows XP CD into your drive does it give you the option to load up using the CD?
(Recovery CD's from Manufacturers will not work)

[BRP]

Yeah. I've tried doing recovery with the XP disc, with no luck. After awhile, I figured I was doomed to just totally start over. So I begin the reformating proccess, something I'm not extremely familiar with but have done before. I delete my current partition(gigs and gigs of FFXI pictures, movies, and games gone oh woe) and try to install windows... but I get this: "Setup was unable to format the partition. The disk may be damaged". At first, I figured my fears of the harddrive dying is true, but I google it and find out some harddrives apparently can't simply reinstall windows as easily and need to get hit with another program first... so right now I'm googling that.

Btw, I have a Maxtor harddrive.

[viperlasson]

Looks like there is a problem with the drive because after all of the times I have formatted my harddrives through window's formatting utility it has never failed. There is a trick where you can put your broken drive into a a freezer baggy and into the freezer for say about 24 hours then pop it back into your computer. Sounds crazy but it does yield some results. Google it. But in any other cases, i'm no good at data recovery

[BRP]

I think for simplicy I will just get a new harddrive... how annoying can that be? Anything I should know? I imagine what kind of motherboard I have could matter a big deal.... pretty clueless about it.

[viperlasson]

Yeah your motherboard information would help ^^ You would just need to know if your previous hdd was sata, ide, or scsi and get the appropriate one.

The back of a SCSI drive would look like this- (not so much this one)
clicky
SATA- (this one if your computer is new-ish)
clicky
IDE- (most likely this one if its old)
clicky

I'd order online through newegg since that's one of the most popular online seller of computer parts. I've ordered a crap load through them and everything is shipped promptly and cheap.

[Killgannon]

never ever ever buy maxtor drives, they die within a weak

ONLY buy western digital, or suffer the consequences

(que snowknight saying "maxtor is the greetest evar and nevar fale")

edit:

goto ubcd.sf.net and download and burn the ultimate bootcd, once you boot that up go down too Hard Disk Tools and use MaxBlast 5 (try this first if it works congrats) failing that try SeaTools for DOS to test the drive itself (if it fails, ur fucked)

[Shuemue]

You probably needed RAID drivers installed so your SATA would work. Maxtor roll like that.

[Killgannon]

i think thats what maxblast does, however i wont swear too it since i wouldnt buy those drives ever.

[Vyvian]

If your windows installation disk is XP SP2, it doesn't need the drivers for sata hard drives when they're in ata mode anymore, the older XP with SP1 installation disks needed sata/raid drivers for those drives.

After having to fix/replace a whole bunch of broken hard drives this summer, I'd have to say I've had the worst experiences with seagates, only seen 1 maxtor drive actually be bad, but now seagate owns them so we'll see what happens.

As for installing a new drive it isn't too big of a pain, determine if your drive is SATA or IDE, then boot off the xp installation CD and let it do a full format on your drive since its the first time. Once that finishes, and it will probably take a while as big as new drives are now, you can move on with the normal install.

What version and service pack of windows you're installing with, and what type of hard drive you end up having can be kind of important in providing detailed instructions, especially if you do end up having to manually provide sata drivers.

[Melena]

never ever ever buy maxtor drives, they die within a weak

ONLY buy western digital, or suffer the consequences

(que snowknight saying "maxtor is the greetest evar and nevar fale")

edit:

goto ubcd.sf.net and download and burn the ultimate bootcd, once you boot that up go down too Hard Disk Tools and use MaxBlast 5 (try this first if it works congrats) failing that try SeaTools for DOS to test the drive itself (if it fails, ur fucked)

I think you have that backwards there. Every WD I bought Died within a year. I have a maxtor popped into an enclosure that runs 24/7 and going good for 2 years now. Personally though I prefer Hitachi drives.

[Myrle]

Add another vote for Western Digital from me. Excellent drives, no problems whatsoever. Have an old 200GB drive and dual raptors in raid 0 running in an older machine. Never had a single issue with them.

[BRP]

It's Maxtor SATA.

I don't think I can even get a new harddrive... there isn't even enough space to take it out. I do believe my Windows XP disc is old, very likely older than SP2. So I'll try the drivers thing.

[BRP]

I need to burn a iso image to a CD... does anyone have any free programs that can do that, w/o torrents ;/?

[Myrle]

I need to burn a iso image to a CD... does anyone have any free programs that can do that, w/o torrents ;/?

http://www.imgburn.com/

Try that

[BRP]

Can this program make a boot CD though? Well, I guess I'm about to find out.

[BRP]

Hmm, okay, when I try to boot up with the ultimatebootcd I get an error along the lines "operating system error" or something. Hmmm, I think it's done for.