This is driving me crazy and waisting tons of my time and I can't seem to make it without some help...

I have been trying to install win2000 on my hard drives (on promise 100), but can never succeed. Everytime when the first part of the installation (capying files)ends and reboots the machine to finish the rest of the installation process, I get an error message saying "couldn't open the boot partition for a signature."

No problem with the hard disks (checked with both IBM DFT and Western Digital data guard utilities);

No boot viruses found after checking with F-Prot dos floppy;

What I did that might be wrong:

-erased boot partition with IBM DFT utility....

Can anyone help me out?

Thank you very much in advance!

almazkhan

I have seen several suggestions elsewhere to try the 2k install on the onboard IDE channels and then after it is installed switch it iver....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Hello mjc:

Thanks for the quick reply. I just ran through your web links quickily but couldn't eaily find what I wanted without digging deeper into each site (sorry just not enough time at this moment!). Can you direct me to the relavent links where those suggestions are? From your brief mentioning, I took it that I need to connect the drives to the onboard EDE channel rather than Promise 100 controller card and that would make it possible to install win2000? Does that mean that it is the Promise card that's causing the problem? And, if I can thus install win2000 and reconnect the drive to Promise 100, it would boot no problem from there? Just wanted to be as sure as possible to avoid endless repeated trials!

Thanks very much again for the help.
almazkhan
Originally posted by mjc:
I have seen several suggestions elsewhere to try the 2k install on the onboard IDE channels and then after it is installed switch it iver....

I didn't save the links, sorry, they were just a couple of things I came up with looking on Google...but the general idea is, connect the drives to the onboard channels, install and then switch over...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Any chance you have an ASUS MB? Never though it might just be the Promise Controller....I had to connect my HDD to the IDE when I first put this system together to accomplish loading WinMe (different error was generated though)...then switch over to the ATA 100. I just figured it was probably the MB...Hmmmmm.

I do remember the post also mjc but don't have a link.

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

Thanks for your replies. I did moved the HDD to the onboard channel, then booted up the system, saw the HDD listed in teh initial bootup detection screen. But when its time to fdisk, I get the message "no fixed disks present" and gave me no more options. What'the heck is happening here?

The motherboard should be OK since both hdd were working once.... I was trying to rearrange hdd configurations when all this happened. Now Im wondering if in the process I have somehow damaged the two hard disks!

Try this , its a workaround but might work. Reformat the drive using youre regular ide port and then when every thing is loaded , put the driver in for the ata100 card while in windows .

Then disconnect the drive and hook it up to the controller card and then boot up. Make sure to unplug every thing when you hook up the drive to the contoller card. But im sure you know this, but when your in a rushh it happens. See Post back lets us know something

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

Thanks everyone for the help. I did follow the advice regarding hooking up drives to onboard IDE ports and then when things seem working, disconnect and switch them to the Ultra 100 Promise card. I set both drives as master before installing them on their own separate ports on the promise card. Sure enough, the primary drive C booted into windows 2000 no problem. I then got into the bios and changed the boot sequence so that hdd #2 would boot first. But bummer! The same message "No oeprating system found"! I got back into BIOS and went through all the options concerning hard drives and found a place that is about hdd configurations. And I noticed three items listed there. Strange, here the problem drive D was listed twice. So i thought there must be something wrong and hit the restore settings to default option. I booted again and voila, I got right into drive D. So, after all this trouble and worry about hardware failure, it appears that the problem turned out to be bios configuration!

Anyway, thanks to MJC, Wyzman and Diurnal for taking time to reply with pointers and information.

almazkhan

Great to see the follow through http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif
Fixing or helping fix 1 out of 100 problems is cool man. See YA

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks