[icyfyer]

hello,

i am an advanced user (in windows - midnovice in ubuntu). as such i have an advanced problem.

first the basics:
i have a dell mini 9 with the default 4GB STEC SSD. all of the other specifications are null as far as this post goes. being a netbook it obviously doesnt have a cd drive.
it came with ubuntu 8.04 dell netbook remix. as soon as i got it i installed xp from a USB flash drive. it worked flawlessly when i followed the instructions which are located here:

http://www.pctipsbox.com/installing-...b-flash-drive/

after using xp for a while i realized that i wanted to use ubuntu. i installed intrepid. i used it for a while but didnt like the audioplayers it had to offer, or the IM options, so i went back to xp. again, using the same USB method it worked without a problem. when it came out i installed jaunty. i like jaunty. but i still dont like the audioplayer options or the IM options in jaunty, so i want to go back to xp and use the persistent mode of jaunty most of the time so that i have in essence dual booting options.

when i tried to install xp again using the same method, the exact same flash drive with the same software following the same instruction, i get this error:

"windows could not start because of a hardware configuration problem. could not read from the selected boot disk. check boot path and disk hardware. please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

to me, this means that the MBR is toasted. so the first thing i did was go back into the windows setup disk, choose the recovery option which gave me a command prompt, and do FIXMBR. that didnt work. i know that the MBR and the operating system are independent, so i tried reinstalling after doing the FIXMBR. that didnt work either.

next i did FIXBOOT. no dice. tried reinstalling after FIXBOOT didnt work either.

then i tried using grub. i used the following instruction set:

GRUB bootloader - Full tutorial

when i do this command from inside grub:
find /grub/stage1
find /boot/grub/stage1
all i get is an error 15:file not found. so i sent this to google and came up with this page:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=297261
i tried some of the suggestions on this page, but nothing worked. i tried again with the "find" command and came up with nothing. i opened my grub menu.lst and it was completely blank. so i went back to this page:

GRUB bootloader - Full tutorial

and tried to edit the list manually. this was my input:

title Windows XP
grub boot menu
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

since i am not dualbooting, i took the input from the example given for a real grub list on this page:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Re...tallingWindows

that didnt work either. next i tried using gparted to delete and rebuild the partition table on the drive using this tutorial:

GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial

i could format the drive to NTFS after that, but when i install windows i still get the same error about windows not being able to access the drive.

my conclusion is so far that the drive cannot possibly be toasted, because i can still install ubuntu onto it just fine, but windows doesnt like it. i remember reading somewhere that windows and linux write differently to primary partitions and that once an inconsiderate OS is installed on a primary partition it is very difficult to get windows back onto that primary partition. maybe my memory tweaked some of that, so dont quote me.

all i am looking for is a solution, or some suggestions to get this working without having to buy a new SSD. because i know this could become a problem for someone else, i would like to solve it completely, with as much detail as possible. if you need any further information, please ask, providing terminal code if necessary, and i will oblige.

[palawan]

how about if you run gparted again, delete everything and just leave the whole drive as unallocated. reboot and try to install windows and let it create the partition during the installation process?

good luck.

[icyfyer]

thanks, ill try that.

[Connell]

tried sticking the disk into a win machine and running chkdsk /R on it?

[icyfyer]

well, the problem with that suggestion is that i am using the STEC SSD that cam with my mini. i dont know if it is possible to adapt it to hook up to a PCs IDE or SATA interface.

also, even if i could, i am deployed to kuwait and the only thing i have with me is my mini. and all of my friends who are deployed here are also using laptops, so that is out of the question.

however, there is an option in the windows setup recovery command prompt to do CHDSK, but for some reason i cant use it. it gives me a directory error, saying it cant find it in the specified directory. when i try giving it a manual directory it still cant find it. but that is a really good idea.

has anyone out there ever used ERD Commander from USB?|

[icyfyer]

i found a tutorial on booting into ERD Commander from USB:

ERD Commander 2005 to USB : Tutorials

i will try that next. hopefully there is a working CHKDSK option in there and that solves my problem. i really do think that there may be some errors on the disk after all the formatting and breaking of partition tables.

[palawan]

icyfyer,

running gparted and leaving the entire disk as unallocated didn't work for your windows installation? how about running gparted and deleting everything and creating a new partition table but assigning fat32 INSTEAD of ntfs for the whole disk/partition?

when i was setting up my dual-boot os x winxp, i had problems with bartpe (windows pre-installation environment) not recognizing the partition table assignments created by gparted. i had the following listed partitions a. 200mb unallocated b. 14gb ntfs c. 200mb unallacated d. 15gb ntfs. i could not restore my backup (driveimage xml winxp backup) to either ntfs partition. consequently, i tried just running the winxp cd installation disk and it doesn't see the drive to install to.

the thing that worked for me is to change the ntfs partitions to fat32, then bartpe/driveimage xml could access either partitions.

having the whole drive as unallocated also allowed windows xp installation disc to see the drive...

if you haven't tried, please try to delete all partitions using gparted, or setting up the whole drive as fat32 using gparted and see if you can install the windows using either method.

i believe bartpe and winpe (the initial environment setup by windows xp cd during the installation process) has a problem reading an ntfs partition created by gparted.

good luck.

[icyfyer]

to your question: no.

to the other stuff: yes yes yes! this is what i meant when i said "i remember reading somewhere that windows and linux write differently to primary partitions and that once an inconsiderate OS is installed on a primary partition it is very difficult to get windows back onto that primary partition. maybe my memory tweaked some of that, so dont quote me."

i just didnt remember the exact details. i had really considered formatting the drive to Fat32 and trying the install, but i figured it wouldnt make a difference. i did try everything else though, really. i tried:

-deleting the partition and leaving it completely unallocated.
-deleting the partition, formatting it as NTFS then deleting it again and leaving it unallocated
-rebuilding the partition table to msdos using gparted
-deleting the partition and rebuilding the partition table then leaving it unallocated using gparted
-formatting using NTFS in windows setup
-deleting partition, restarting setup, formatting, restart, install
-standing on my head while doing the things mentioned above

i will try this suggestion and find out if it works. thanks for the input.

[palawan]

i thought that maybe you haven't had the time to do them, yet. back in the days, you could do a low-level format (spinrite?) or from the bios, so maybe that's another option.

i remember having problems trying to use a partition table setup by osx disk utility for winxp, so i had to have gparted delete it, apply changes, then creating a new partition table by gparted.

it sounds like you've tried all of the different options (maybe with the exception of fat32 by gparted?) that have helped me, so low-level format is the only thing i can think of to wipe any trace of that offensive stuff. offensive to windows xp...

good luck.

[icyfyer]

well, i tried it and it didnt work. i guess i should have known. if deleting the partition completely, reinitializing the partition table and leaving the drive unallocated didnt work, formatting as FAT32 wouldnt work either.

the next step in my troubleshooting process is to download the rescue remix of ubuntu and try running a disk scan to find errors in the SSD and repair them if possible. then ill start the process over again. if this doesnt work, i am moving on the ERD Commander from USB and doing the same thing, then install. and if none of these options work, then i am going to replace the harddrive.

the unfortunate thing that i can see on the horizon is that this may not change when i receive my next harddrive. it is a used ebay drive that had ubuntu netbook remix (from dell) and i could encounter the same problem trying to install windows on it. although i doubt it. if this happens, i guess i will have to keep this mini as a linux box until i can afford to buy a runcoreSSD and start fresh.

thanks for the info.