[Pico32]

I made a new installation of WinXP today and after downloading some updates and rebooting, I can not access some drives in my PC and I get this message.
"The Disk in Drive D is not formatted, do you want to format it now? "

I was scared at first cause i've a lot of important data on my pc so i rebooted again and run my windows installation CD again and when i finished I've found all my drives working again so i started running windows update and installing my software again and then after some updates I rebooted and the same problem happened again.

anyone can help me plz?

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Hello Pico32.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,


So what was the last software to be installed before the issue started?

[rshaffer61]

Hello Pico32.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,


So what was the last software to be installed before the issue started?

[Pico32]

Thnx for the welcome.

Computer Info
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ
L2 Cache 2 GB
Ram: 3 GB
Motherboard: MSI

Video card: Nvidia Geforce 7100 GS
Hard Drive: Western Digital, 250 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8 MB Cache, 7200 RPM

System Informationa
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 2002
Service pack 2

Windows updates

• Windows Installer 3.1
• Windows Genuine Verification Tool
• Security Update

Software I installed before rebooting

• Winrar
• AVG Anti-Virus and updated it
• Spybot Search & Destroy and updated it
• Klite codec pack
• Tune Up Utilities 2009
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Daemon Tools but did not reboot and finish installation.
• Firefox 3.5

[rshaffer61]

So if I am reading this right you have one physical drive in your system with two partitions on it.
One partition is the OS partition.
The other partition is for data?

Here is what I would do since this is a new installation.
Format and reinstall the OS. Install the following in the order I give you and make sure to reboot after each installation. If this is not an option then skip step one and start from step two.


STEP ONE

1. Winrar
2. AVG Anti-Virus and updated it (Resource hog. If you haven't paid for this I would scrap this and go with either Avast or Avira. Both are free and a lot less stressful on the system. Both are in my signature below.)
3. Spybot Search & Destroy and updated it
4. Klite codec pack
5. Tune Up Utilities 2009( Not sure what this is needed for as basic maintenance can accomplish just as good results and in most cases not problems with auto settings)
6. Adobe Acrobat Reader (Drop this and get Foxit)
7. Daemon Tools but did not reboot and finish installation.
8. Firefox 3.5


Do you have an external drive to backup your D drive?
I would suggest that if you do.


STEP TWO


Go to
Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y

If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.
Of this finds errors and fixes them, then rerun the steps again till there are no errors found

Let me know if this fixes the problem

STEP THREE

Let's check your memory and make sure there is no issue with it. Download memtest86 from the link in my signature below.


Get the file that is named Download - The one you want is "Download - Pre-compiled Bootable ISO (.zip). When it downloads, it will be labeled memtest86+2.11.iso.zip
Unzip the file once you download it. You should have a .iso file in the unzipped directory. It will look like a zip file in some cases but the file name will now be memtest86+2.11.iso

if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get burncdcc in my signature below.

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its memtest86.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

Make sure the bios is set for the cd drive as the first boot device
Put the cd in the cd drive and then boot your computer.

Running the Diagnostic Program:

The basic diagnostic screen has five main sections of relevant information. Three at the top which are labeled, PASS %, TEST %, and TEST #. This will basically show you the total progress of the current test, the overall progress of the diagnostic test, and the test number is currently performing.

On the middle left hand side of the of the program interface there is a “Wall Time” section that will keep track of how long the diagnostic test has been running for. This just gives you an idea if you are not attending the testing process.

The main section to look for is the lower half of the screen which is usually blank. As long as the memory testing is going ok with no errors this section of the screen should remain blank. If the diagnostic program finds any serious faults in the memory you will see it display a memory dump of address’s in this section. This is similar to what is displayed on your screen when you encounter a blue screen of death.

You now have most everything you need to know about setting up and testing your memory with diagnostic programs. This guide should help you get to the source of any intermittent problems related to your memory.


Run memtest for at least 2 hours
If it starts showing any errors during that time then you will have to replace the memory
If there are no errors after 2 hours press Esc and that will end the tests
We will then try other options

[Pico32]

I have four drives one for OS © and other 3 for my staff, 2 of them don't work while the third is working with errors, I can not access any files on any of them, only "C" I can access the files on it and sometimes it freezes and can not access files on it too.

The OS drive is NTFS while the other drives are FAT32, earlier today I had a new installation from another WINXP CD and the problem happened after 2 reboots not 1.

I tried to repair the windows through windows XP CD but I could not, probably because my hard is SATA, I also tried to run my PCLinux Live CD but I could not, the next thing I'm thinking of is to make another new installation but this time I'll format drive "C" with the FAT32 not with NTFS.

After reading your post I'll go with first step and turn off Automatic updates and see if the problem arise from one of the software. I had an external drive and I've already copied the most important files to it.

Why you think Avast and Avira are better than AVG? also what is Foxit?. Is there a sub forum here where I can discuss what Anti-virus I setup? also Is there a forum that have tutorials about HTML and Blogging?

Thanks again and sorry I'm sorry for being annoying by asking about Foxit, Avast, ...etc but Firefox crashes a lot and freezes a lot and It is difficult to run Google search with my PC in such a miserable state.

[rshaffer61]

Why you think Avast and Avira are better than AVG? also what is Foxit?

AVG is a resource hog and can slow your system down.
Also you have topay for it
Avast and Avira are both free programs and do not use anything near the resources that AVG uses.
They do just as good if not better job also.

Foxit is a alternative to Adobe Reader for the same reasons stated above.

The more system resources that are freed up the less likely to have the issues you are having now.

After reading your post I'll go with first step and turn off Automatic updates and see if the problem arise from one of the software.

Not sure where you see I said Turn off Auto Updates as I never did.
Your system needs to be kept up to date with critical updates to the Windows itself.
Security updates from Microsoft fix holes in the system that could lead to lose of data and personal information.

I have four drives one for OS © and other 3 for my staff, 2 of them don't work while the third is working with errors, I can not access any files on any of them, only "C" I can access the files on it and sometimes it freezes and can not access files on it too.

The highlighted statement alone tells me that there may be somethng physically wrong with the main drive. I still suggest you do Step Two to check the drives for any problems.

[Pico32]

Not sure where you see I said Turn off Auto Updates as I never did.
Your system needs to be kept up to date with critical updates to the Windows itself.
Security updates from Microsoft fix holes in the system that could lead to lose of data and personal information.

I always turn on Automatic updates and know well its importance but I think you meant that i should not install any additional components until I'm sure that the programs I install are not the reason of my problem.

The highlighted statement alone tells me that there may be somethng physically wrong with the main drive. I still suggest you do Step Two to check the drives for any problems.

I do not think that there is something physically wrong with the main drive, the Drive start to freeze and do those stupid thing after a certain reboot otherwise it is working well.

I've formatted the OS drive and installed WINXP again and I'll start install programs by the order you wrote and will update it here
1. Realtek Audio Driver Checked
2. Nvidia GeForce Drivere Checked
3. FireFox 3.5 Checked
4. Winrar Checked
5. Spybot Search & Destroy and updated it Checked
6. Klite codec pack Checked
7. Tune Up Utilities 2009
8. Adobe Acrobat Reader (Drop this and get Foxit)
9. Daemon Tools but did not reboot and finish installation.
10. AVG Anti-Virus and updated it

I'll do step2 now before installing any other program.

Edited by Pico32, 11 August 2009 - 06:41 AM.

[Pico32]

I've run the Chkdsk and no errors were fund, it only checked drive C and the all the drives are working well so i'll start setup other programs and reboot after each program.

[rshaffer61]

Than you for the update.
We will continue to monitor for progress. Hopefully doing this one step at a time will find the culprit so we can fix this for you.

[rshaffer61]

I have four drives one for OS © and other 3 for my staff

Is this in a business situation?
IS there a IT department to handle this?

[Pico32]

I've installed TuneUP Utilities 2009 and restarted and only then the same error happened but this time Drive C is working probably and I can access Control Panel so I uninstalled it and rebooted but still having the same problem.

[Pico32]

I have four drives one for OS © and other 3 for my staff

Is this in a business situation?
IS there a IT department to handle this?

No, for both questions. It is just to make it easy for me to find files. one drive for Music, one for my uni files and studying and the last one for Games.

[rshaffer61]

So then Staff should be Stuff if I'm understanding you correctly?

It looks like you found the problem.
Tuneup is making some kind of adjustment to the system files when you install it.
Can you boot to the boot menu and choose Last Known Good Configuration?
Does this work?

[Pico32]

So then Staff should be Stuff if I'm understanding you correctly?

yeah, I've not sleep since long time.

It looks like you found the problem.
Tuneup is making some kind of adjustment to the system files when you install it.
Can you boot to the boot menu and choose Last Known Good Configuration?
Does this work?

I'll give it a try.

[Pico32]

It did not work