Have Disk Error when installing XP

[Magus2727]

am trying to get a few video games to work on my new Windows 7 OS...but with all the combination of patches and compatibility modes it still does not work. So I tried yesterday to do a dual boot system taking 50 Gig's of my 300 Gig Raptor drive (which has my current OS on it), I went into the control panel and un-allocated 51200 MB of disk space and then crated a new partition. I then proceeded to install Windows XP on the new drive (after formatting the section). However after windows finished copying over the needed files to start the install, it restarts before actually installing windows. I get a "Read Disk Error press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart" right after i chose not to boot from the disk.

It never gets installed... The only way I was able to get the disk to boot back up in Windows 7 again was to remove the partition (just leaving 50 Gigs un-allocated) and putting in the windows 7 disk and doing a Boot Repair. Is this a problem with the drive? I have done numerous types of drive scans and the drive is in good condition and have never had any issues with bad sectors.

I am worried of trying it again on the same drive as my main OS, is there any harm in having it on my storage disk?

Thanks for any help or direction you can provide.

 

[Saltgrass]

XP can be problematic with Win 7, especially in some circumstances. Have you been following one of the tutorials?

Do you have the System Reserved Partition (100 mb) on the drive? It can cause an XP install to not be able to find itself after rebooting.

 

[Magus2727]

I do have the partition... should I get rid of it?... I have been following the tutorial that is on this web site... it talks about naming the partition. I did not do that...

Is there any pros or disadvantage by having the OS on a second physical drive?

 

[Magus2727]

Guess I can try partitioning part of my second drive off and installing it there... And see if I get the same kind of error with it on a seperate disk.

the tutorial that I been using has been this one: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[Saltgrass]

You do not have to get rid of it, some folks like the protection it might provide.

But I believe the tutorial you are using suggests putting a drive letter on the partition, at least until the install is done.

I personally prefer another way suggested by Iseeuu that makes the XP partition active during the install. What this will do is allow a normal install, but you will have to get back into Win 7 and run EasyBCD from there to keep the Win 7 boot partition in control.

Maybe he will come by to explain, but if he doesn't, after you get XP installed and updated and whatever else you want to do, mark the Win 7 System Reserve Partition active again and then do a startup repair on Win 7, several times.

Then you can use EasyBCD to setup the dual boot. Get EasyBCD from the link and register for their forums so you can download the beta 2.0 version.

Then run EasyBCD and add an XP entry to the boot menu. Any question, post back. I am sorry, but I do not have a link to Iseeuu's tutorial.

If you decide to install on a separate drive, I would suggest you disconnect the Win 7 drive until you are done, or set the XP drive to primary in the bios until the install is finished. Then Reconnect, and set it back to primary to use EasyBCD to set up the dual boot.

 

[Magus2727]

Does it mater if the formating is FAT32 or NTFS?

 

[Saltgrass]

I have not tested, but since Win 7 and XP agree on NTFS, I would use that.

 

[Magus2727]

So it does it on both drives. I am worried about doing it to a full drive that has information on it...

I also labeled the 100MB partition (L: ) and it still has the:
"A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

I remove the partition and try to have windows just boot up with the new partition deleted and get the error. I had to use the Windows 7 disk to repair the boot to start in Windows 7...

 

[wee]

If you have enough ram use the sunVM. VirtualBox

 

[Magus2727]

I have 8 gigs of DDR3... That should be enough right?

so what all does this VirtualBox do? I have gone on the web site but it is kind of confusing to see how i can use it for XP. does this allow me to "install" XP or does virtual box become an "emulator" even though on the about it says that it runs better then an emulator.

 

[wee]

I have 8 gigs of DDR3... That should be enough right?

so what all does this VirtualBox do? I have gone on the web site but it is kind of confusing to see how i can use it for XP. does this allow me to "install" XP or does virtual box become an "emulator" even though on the about it says that it runs better then an emulator.

That is plenty of ram, with a virtual machine you will setup a virtual operating system that runs while you are running W7 you have both. It is easy to install just download the windows version and you can get started its fairly straight forward.

 

[Saltgrass]

Can you post a picture of your Disk Management window? Just attach it using the paperclip.

What is you status exactly. You can get into Win 7 but still unable to install XP? What have you tried to get it to install.

 

[Magus2727]

I have the virtual machine up and running... although trying to activate windows is having problems and is having problems connecting.

I am at work and will try to do a picture of the disk management. I have tried the following two things both with the same results...
I have two drives C and D, C has windows 7 installed and D is my storage drive. ON another forum (before posting on this forum) I asked if the tutorial on this site was the right way to do a dual boot. I also said I wanted to install it on the storage disk. It was recommended that it may run better if it actually was on the same disk.

So I proceeded to follow the tutorial found on this site.

I went into disk management and created a 50 Gig partition on the drive, formatted it and assigned it a drive letter and name. I proceeded to reboot the computer and boot from the XP disc. It detected my SATA drives fine with out problems (no need for loading drivers) and I selected to install XP on the new partition. it starts to copy over the files and then reboot's once it has done copying the files over to "load" into the XP install program. When it reboots i go through my BIOS start up screen and then on a black screen says:

Loading operating system....
Boot from a CD/Disk....
Press any key to boot from a CD/Disk...
Disk read error
Press ctrl+alt+del to restart.

No mater how many times I restart the computer it will always do that. I then tried booting from the CD again, and I have done combinations of reformatting, deleting the partition and re assigning it. And I get the same thing. I then delete the partition, and quit out of the install of XP (so XP has not copied any thing over and the drive is "gone".) It still says a disk read error and I reboot with the windows 7 DVD and complete a reboot repair and it starts up like nothing ever happened.

I then tried on the second “storage” drive and when in disk management I also assigned the 100MB system section that windows 7 has a drive letter.

Same thing happened when I tried to install on my second drive which I crated a 20 gig partition with one difference is that it would freeze after the initial files/drivers saying starting Windows install... it never got around to letting me pick a drive to install on or copy files onto. I would do a hard restart on the computer (Ctrl+Alt+Del did nothing) and try the install again. On the second time it would work but give the same disk read error and previous times.

I am afraid of trying it on a whole drive it self since I have backed up data on the drive that I don’t/cant loose in the event a complete deletion of the drive is needed to reboot in windows 7 again.

 

[Magus2727]

I have 8 gigs of DDR3... That should be enough right?

so what all does this VirtualBox do? I have gone on the web site but it is kind of confusing to see how i can use it for XP. does this allow me to "install" XP or does virtual box become an "emulator" even though on the about it says that it runs better then an emulator.

That is plenty of ram, with a virtual machine you will setup a virtual operating system that runs while you are running W7 you have both. It is easy to install just download the windows version and you can get started its fairly straight forward.

Got it running, curious about the drivers.... do i need to install drivers? I have tried a few times to install my video card drivers but it fails to install. It’s the XP version so its not a compatibility problem. But noticing on the settings for the VirtualBox that it has video card options, that limit memory or 3D rendering done.

Do I need to do audio, USB, Video, and such drivers?

Also is there a hot key command to bring up task manager in VirtualBox?

In order to move files over to the Virtual machine I will need to copy the files onto a USB drive or some sort when on my “actual” computer and then access the drive through the virtual machine right? Or is there a setting that you can do some sort of drag and drop?

I got XP up and running and installed all some 70 updates so I will be making sure every thing else is up and running and then install one of the games and see how it works.

Last question… on this post…. I have an “O.K” video card ATI XFX 5770 series that has plenty more memory space then what VirtualBox will allow to be used…. I have it maxed out at 128MB, will limiting it to 128 MB cause issues with full screen graphic intensive videogames (i.e. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2)? Or can I balance that out with the amount of physical memory that I allot for it (have 3 out of 8 Gig now).

 

[wallyinnc]

I am afraid of trying it on a whole drive it self since I have backed up data on the drive that I don’t/cant loose in the event a complete deletion of the drive is needed to reboot in windows 7 again.

Magus, please please please, before you do anything with the drive you have your important data on, back it up. Yes, you should be afraid, you can loose the data in there when you start to put other OSs in

Also is there a hot key command to bring up task manager in VirtualBox?

There is a tool bar on the center of the screen with a button saying Ctrl+Alt+Del. Click on it and it will have the same effect of the key sequence, but won't take you out of XP mode. There you can select Task Manager

Last question… on this post…. I have an “O.K” video card ATI XFX 5770 series that has plenty more memory space then what VirtualBox will allow to be used…. I have it maxed out at 128MB, will limiting it to 128 MB cause issues with full screen graphic intensive videogames (i.e. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2)? Or can I balance that out with the amount of physical memory that I allot for it (have 3 out of 8 Gig now).

XP mode uses stripped down, emulated versions of the hardware. I don't think you will be able to actually "use" your video card, only the emulated one (not on my Win7 machine right now, I can't tell you exactly what it is)

Finally, have you tried installing and running the games in compatibility mode? You might not need dual boot or Virtual XP.

 

[Magus2727]

I have tried patches, modified *.exe files, replacing *.DLL files running in and out of compatibility... I get a start screen and I can change the video setings and options but when I hit the button to play game it just closses. the disk drive spins up but after a few seconds turns off. I have installed it multiple times with different combinations and still get nothing.

Well techically I have nothing improtant on the storage drive, i have a second USB connected that sereves as a second back up drive. I just have recorded movies and TV shows on the storage drive. and they are to large to move over to the external USB backup drive.

Edit: I will load one of the games up and see how it runs... if it runs slow I may have to try and go back to the dual boot option. I was informed that removing the curent drive with the OS on it and then install windows XP on the other disk and once installed plug the other drive back in and configure the dual boot...

 

[wee]

I have 8 gigs of DDR3... That should be enough right?

so what all does this VirtualBox do? I have gone on the web site but it is kind of confusing to see how i can use it for XP. does this allow me to "install" XP or does virtual box become an "emulator" even though on the about it says that it runs better then an emulator.

That is plenty of ram, with a virtual machine you will setup a virtual operating system that runs while you are running W7 you have both. It is easy to install just download the windows version and you can get started its fairly straight forward.

Got it running, curious about the drivers.... do i need to install drivers? I have tried a few times to install my video card drivers but it fails to install. It’s the XP version so its not a compatibility problem. But noticing on the settings for the VirtualBox that it has video card options, that limit memory or 3D rendering done.

Do I need to do audio, USB, Video, and such drivers?

Also is there a hot key command to bring up task manager in VirtualBox?

In order to move files over to the Virtual machine I will need to copy the files onto a USB drive or some sort when on my “actual” computer and then access the drive through the virtual machine right? Or is there a setting that you can do some sort of drag and drop?

I got XP up and running and installed all some 70 updates so I will be making sure every thing else is up and running and then install one of the games and see how it works.

Last question… on this post…. I have an “O.K” video card ATI XFX 5770 series that has plenty more memory space then what VirtualBox will allow to be used…. I have it maxed out at 128MB, will limiting it to 128 MB cause issues with full screen graphic intensive videogames (i.e. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2)? Or can I balance that out with the amount of physical memory that I allot for it (have 3 out of 8 Gig now).

So with the virtual you can share folders with both systems, I never needed to do that but information is on the web, and the sun virtual site. Basically the XP is running as a normal operating system so any hotkey command would be a usual I assume here again I don't use that feature. I am not sure about drivers and 3d graphics etc you will have to look for more information. I mainly suggested this as I had used it with W7 and XP inside with only 2 gigs of ram on a netbook and it worked fine a little slowed down, but your system is more robust so it seemed like a alternative.

 

[Magus2727]

Thanks for the info on the Virtual so far its the furthest i have gotten.

 

[wee]

I am primarily a open source user and spend most of my time on this forum which has a virtual, area of discussion. You may find helpful hints and many on this forum are multi-booting so it is pretty open for help. Virtualization - Ubuntu Forums

 

[Magus2727]

Well the Virtual Machine fails at playing the games... since they run a hard ware detection and can not detect the video card or since the Virtual machine cant detect the VRAM of the Video card or allows for an openGL... it says it needs Non-windows Generic OpenGL 1.4.0 Drivers...

Blah...