I'm lost - minidumps attached

[dugawug]

Format disk crashes system - minidumps attached

I have a dual boot XP SP2...I just reinstalled one of the 2 OS's. it's been fine for 3-4 days. then today suddenly it won't boot. I've gone through a lot, trashed the whole second system and still Windows won't let me format that partition. it crashes each time...minidumps attached.

and I can't re-install Windows for some reason, now it doesn't recognize any drives! they are SATA drives and yes I properly loaded the drivers beforehand!!!

any help is appreciated before I have to trash both systems and start from scratch.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Your minidumps are crashing at csrss.exe. This is the Microsoft Client/Server Runtime Server Subsystem, and is a very important system file.

First go and follow the Read stickies in the security and the web forum.

This is to rule out any viruses, or malware.

If your computer is clean, then maybe doing a Windows repair may help.

Instructions for doing a repair can be found HERE

Regards Howard

 

[howard_hopkinso]

You might also want to check your hard drive.

Maybe check the ide cable.

Run a disk check. You can do this by clicking start/run and typing chkdsk /r /f and following the onscreen instructions. Note the space inbetween the chkdsk command and the forward slash, and again between the r command and the forward slash.

Now reboot your computer, and the disk check will run.

Regards Howard

 

[dugawug]

thanks, but i've already erased the contents of the partition, which used to contain my second OS.

i'm still getting a crash and instant reboot each time i try to format that partition from my main OS. thank God, my main OS is working fine and i've ghosted off an image of it for backup.

but something is majorly wrong, even a free demo version of Partition Magic won't allow me to reformat the second partition. (it won't allow for the wizards to do it, says to use the Operations menu which never gives me any options!)

what's the best way to re-format this partition? i'm guessing i need to get into a DOS mode to do it. Windows seems to have a major malfunction regarding this partition. please explain, i'm a newbie techie keep in mind...

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Did you run the disk check?

I`m not sure why you can`t format the partition. maybe some of our other members will have other suggestions.

Could it be that your hard drive is bad?

Regards Howard

 

[dugawug]

any windows disk service ran on that partition totally kills windows and causes instand reboot.

i recently did a fresh intall on this OS. what i recall is Windows choosing a different letter name for that partition. It used to be E: but I remember it being odd that Windows recognized it as F: Anyway, it was fine for about 5 days, then this. I noticed that partition, when viewed from my other OS, was named E: again!

so my guess is somehow it got jumbled between what that partition actually was.

anyhow, i've canned the contents and just now need to format it and start over (again...sigh). i guess fdisk is the best way? repeat : newbie techie alert!!

thanks for the feedback so far