[Richard John]

Hello,
At the moment I'm running A Ubuntu/Windows 2000 dual boot. The Windows 2000 partition has become corrupted, so I've decided to put XP over it (As much as I like 2000, I'm inreasingly seeing XP only things).
I put in my XP disk, and it went through the file copying stages (the text installer). At the end, I got to the Starting Windows.... point, and got a BSOD style screen with the error:
SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

At first I thought this might be because of my uneven RAM, so I took the 128 stick out, and tried again, but got the same error.

I'm guessing this is now due to the dodgy 2000 partition?

I can delete that partition using a GParted live CD if that's what'll fix it, but I want to check this is the problem before messing with the partitions!

Any help appreciated,
Richard John

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preliminary research is pointing to a bad cdrom or a bad hd...
http://www.techimo.c...um/t135371.html

http://msdn.microsof...2kmsgs/1216.asp <---Ms explanation of the stop error
http://support.micro...kb/153742/en-us <---a different explanation

[dsenette]

preliminary research is pointing to a bad cdrom or a bad hd...
http://www.techimo.c...um/t135371.html

http://msdn.microsof...2kmsgs/1216.asp <---Ms explanation of the stop error
http://support.micro...kb/153742/en-us <---a different explanation

[Richard John]

Deleted the partition - no luck,
Tried a different CD-Drive - no luck

[dsenette]

hmm...does linux have some form of disk checking utility (like chkdsk in windows?)

[Richard John]

If it does, I can't seem to find it.

edit: do you think it's possible my XP disk is corrupt?

Is there an integrity check?

If it is corrupt (I can't phone the manufacturer, they went bust last year), is it fair use to download an xp disk and use my serial?

Edited by Richard John, 25 May 2006 - 03:23 PM.

[dsenette]

question...what would be the problem with formatting the whole drive and starting from scratch (as far as loss of data and time installing apps and such)...because..honestly...installing windows AFTER installing linux...generally screws up the boot loader..(of course that has nothing to do with this error you're getting...but maybe wiping the dirve may make a difference).....

[Richard John]

question...what would be the problem with formatting the whole drive and starting from scratch (as far as loss of data and time installing apps and such)...because..honestly...installing windows AFTER installing linux...generally screws up the boot loader..(of course that has nothing to do with this error you're getting...but maybe wiping the dirve may make a difference).....

Mainly the hassle of restoring my linux partition, apparantly it's easy to sort out the bootloader anyway.

How would I actually format the drive without an OS? I haven't done that for years, last time I did it I was using 3.1 and it was MS-DOS

[dsenette]

you can use dban (google it) to completely wipe the drive and start from scratch...

[Richard John]

Thanks for that, it turned out it was the disk though - borrowed a friend's and now I'm posting from XP.

[dsenette]

hmm...was it scratched or something?...did you use your license key?