[Retired Tech]

If it were me

To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Click this to download Boot and Nuke

Click this for a guide to using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so to format a 200 GB Hard Drive, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

Run XP set up using the default, not quick format

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I changed where my HDD was plugged in on the MOBO, making the drive Primary IDE 0 Master. Then I reformatted the drive out of recovery panel, rebooted, and installed. All the files copied, but I get a blue screen after the windows logo screen. Error is a stop c0000221 systemroot\system32\ntdll.dll corrupt or missing
error.

I did some web research and a lot of people have success combatting this error by just rearranging how their hardware components are set up. A lot of solutions have to do with drives/jumpers not being set to master. I know my DVD jumper is set to master, and the BIOS has it in a master slot; I know the BIOS sees the HDD as Primary IDE 0 Master. The HDD is a Western Dig wd2500ks. Is there a place to set the jumper to master? It's the only HDD I have for the build. Should I swap in the DVD/CD drive from my Vaio to see if I can get past the error?
Also, would it make a difference if installed the AHCI drivers from Gigabyte in the beginning of the XP install? I'm trying to think of solutions that would affect how the computre sees the hardware... but I could be totally off.

Lastly, at this point, since the files are on the drive, how should I have my boot options set up in the BIOS? HDD as 1st priority , cdrom as 2 (no permanent floppy)?

[JimB]

I changed where my HDD was plugged in on the MOBO, making the drive Primary IDE 0 Master. Then I reformatted the drive out of recovery panel, rebooted, and installed. All the files copied, but I get a blue screen after the windows logo screen. Error is a stop c0000221 systemroot\system32\ntdll.dll corrupt or missing
error.

I did some web research and a lot of people have success combatting this error by just rearranging how their hardware components are set up. A lot of solutions have to do with drives/jumpers not being set to master. I know my DVD jumper is set to master, and the BIOS has it in a master slot; I know the BIOS sees the HDD as Primary IDE 0 Master. The HDD is a Western Dig wd2500ks. Is there a place to set the jumper to master? It's the only HDD I have for the build. Should I swap in the DVD/CD drive from my Vaio to see if I can get past the error?
Also, would it make a difference if installed the AHCI drivers from Gigabyte in the beginning of the XP install? I'm trying to think of solutions that would affect how the computre sees the hardware... but I could be totally off.

Lastly, at this point, since the files are on the drive, how should I have my boot options set up in the BIOS? HDD as 1st priority , cdrom as 2 (no permanent floppy)?

[dsenette]

you should jumper the drive as master...look at the back of the drive and you'll see a block of pins with a little rectangle of plastic crossing some of them...somewhere back there you should see a diagram on a sticker or etched on the drive that describes the jumper positions look for mstr or something like that and move the jumper to that positioin

[Retired Tech]

From the CD Rom, the XP CD is about the only disc which will use that function

I would still go with boot and nuke, then if it won't install you can look at the memory, then other hardware

Boot and nuke will take an hour per 25GB of drive size, it doesn't need supervision, so you can have an break from it

[JimB]

so I can run BOOT NUKE with the HDD still in the build, right?
I can run the prog from a floppy or the CD? and then I run the CDs for XP after.Correct?

[ultimateslacker2]

Yeah it just erases all the hidden partitions that may be corrupting the install.

[JimB]

1. Monkey- West Dig support said no position for Master/slave on jumpers. Oh well. Either they're lying or it just wasn't meant to be, so...

2. The enola gay and bock's car have entered Japanese airspace BootNuke should be done in... oh... say somewhere between 92 hours, 19 minutes, and my birthday 2 years from now.... and I thought it would be a while when the display indicated 22 hours left....

[JimB]

the enola gay and bock's car got shot down. BootNuke stopped; got a black screen with this message.
(I selected autonuke to run the prog.)

DBAN finished with non-fatal errors. This is usualy caused be disks with bad sectors . Send the log file with all report requests.

Unfortunately, I had removed the floppy from the drive, so I don't have that log, bc comp is frozen on that screen (pressing enter after putting floppy in drive does nothing.) So am I talking to Newegg and or WesternDigital at this point?

I tried to run bootnuke again and it failed. I had the floppy in and still no log file.

Edited by JimB, 14 March 2007 - 10:25 PM.

[simon_shaft]

Did you have any other operating system install disc with you? (the bootable one). For example, Ubuntu? If you do, it might make things easier since you can access the disk partition and delete the whole thing up. Just my 2 cents worth though...

[dsenette]

if dban didn't finish then there's something wrong with this computer...is it a 100% new build/

[JimB]

Monkey- it's a 100% new build.

Most of the forums I looked at for the system32/ntdll.dl problem indicated that the problem was one of the drives. Therefore, lI'm going to RMA the drive, but get stuck with a replacement. Hopefully, I can ping the ear of NE enough to get a refund.

I don't have any other OS boot disks; I don't know that I'm enough of a gearhead to get into Linux. Frankly, I just want to game, play my music, and store movies...oh yeah, and do homework for classes and er...projects for work...yeah...

Either way, I'm just going to cut my losses and get one or a couple Seagate or Samsung drives. My experience with Western Digital seems to be matching up with what happens when these WD2500KS drives go bad (7-10% of the time in 1205 reviews at N e w e g g http://www.newegg.co...e...100&Page=.) I guess I got what I paid for...

Anyway, thanks to Dsenette for stickin with me throughout the ordeal, and thanks to Keith, the disk drive doctor kevorkian, for providing the tool to effectively terminate the defective drive. I appreciate y'all's help.

Edited by JimB, 15 March 2007 - 07:21 AM.