please don't laugh...

DocBrown · 23 Oct 2010

[QUOTE=gregrocker;1032131]
But running the Extended Test is a good idea, anyway, since I dont' think any of us are confident in the HD. So many of the google results I've read for all of her errors point to bad HD.

I like your thinking, Doc. These errors all seem to have in common possible boot sector corruption which may require more than one set of zeroes to overwrite.

[/QUOTE]

No Greg, that is why I built a new Home Prem desktop from scratch today to see the size of the Home Prem 32 bit install. It was 9.10gb.

Bare Foot Kid · 23 Oct 2010

Partition Wizard has many different wipe options.

click to enlarge

gregrocker · 23 Oct 2010

The Dept of Defense (DOD) standard for a HD being wiped good enough to avoid data recovery is 3 sets of zeroes, which is listed above on the PW options Ted posted.

I'd set aside 3-4 hours to do that and then you'll know if boot sector corruption is the cause which is highly likely. In fact the Startup Repair result you got "Missing OS loader" points directly to it, which is why I had you run the commands to rebuild BCD last night.

mypcbroke · 23 Oct 2010

Ok good, because I haven't checked back since my last post (went out to grab food) and I had left PW writing zeros. It looks like its not going to be done for a while, but it's moving along

DocBrown · 23 Oct 2010

I'm glad you have been patient with us. I once made an image of a 80gb HD that took 12 hours, it was on a slow CPU computer. But when I restored the image to a new HD it worked!

gregrocker · 23 Oct 2010

While that's running: do you have another computer with Win7 or which you could install Win7 temporarily onto a partition on the HD?

There is a way to get Win7 onto your problem HD (if it's tested out to be good) without having to install it. I do this sometimes on problem installs which are taking too much time.

The Howling Wolves · 23 Oct 2010

karlsnooks said:

doc,
I like the new avatar. One of these days I'll have to learn how to do those fancy things. Recognize that mine is from the Arizona Haunted House?

Karl,
How's this for starters....

Want something else? Let me know!

mypcbroke · 23 Oct 2010

gregrocker said:

While that's running: do you have another computer with Win7 or which you could install Win7 temporarily onto a partition on the HD?

There is a way to get Win7 onto your problem HD (if it's tested out to be good) without having to install it. I do this sometimes on problem installs which are taking too much time.

What would I do with another Windows 7 pc? Because there is someone I could bribe... the pc i've been using the past few days is an xp...

gregrocker · 23 Oct 2010

By installing WIn7 to a partition on the other computer, creating a backup image of it saved to external, you can restore image to laptop HD.

Before booting up, use Paragon Adaptive Restore CD to remove all of the drivers so new ones are installed fresh for the new hardware.

mypcbroke · 23 Oct 2010

O_O

?????????

PW is at 62% DoD 3 passes... I'll take it one step at a time from there