Re-Install issue

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rskjackson

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I have attempted to do a complete re-install and restore of a Compaq 6016 Presario with Windows XP Home Edition. I have done the re-install and restore before with no problems, but on this occasion I was asked for a floppy disk with FBISM.exe to install. I did not have before, and never have had a floppy disk, just CD's to re-install. I cancelled out of that request and the re-install continued, but when the computer tried to load, I got this:
An unrecoverable error has occured
Installation can't continue
Contact Compaq support (which i did by live chat, now HP)

I then hit ctrl-alt-delete, brought up task manager that said
FBI Gui Manager not responding.

After searching for info on FBISM.exe, I found a way to finally get to where I could bypass that and disable in the start-up.

Restarted the computer and everything seemed to work fine...however, it's a 60G hard drive, but only showing 15 gig available for use.

HP support says that it may be the re-install disks are bad? I'm a little leary of that however.

Any ideas from this group?
 
since everything seemed to work fine before I think your harddisk might be the problem.
could be a broken hdd (damaged sectors - run checkdisk with repair options) or a corrupted partition table which can be caused by faulty sectors as well...
 
I'm going to agree with the above due to the fact that its showing the incorrect size.

However i can agree with HP to the install disk is the one asking for the file from floppy which would suggest that its gone. I had a similar problem with a Dell OS Installation disk were as when i install the OS i corrupts the entire hard drive.

If i was you i would request a new disk from HP (they should give you it for free) and while waiting run check disk as above to check your hard drive.
Running Check Disk
 
Thanks for both reply's...I'll run the Chkdsk and contact HP to check on a new install disk. The computer is running great as is, but again...only 15.9 G of the 60G hard drive available.
 
I contacted HP about a new recovery CD and was told by HP that they no longer have that computer's restore CD, but one could be made for about $60. Not sure if that's worth it if it's not the problem, plus I did a search on the current Compaq restore CD to find the fbism.exe file in question, found it and copied it to a floppy disk. Worth the try to re-install and restore again, and then have the floppy ready if it asks for it again? Or, any suggestions where I can find that file elswhere?

I'm not trying to be cheap (sort of) but since I've got at least a 15.9 Gig hard drive thats working fine, not sure if I want to chance it?

Oh, I did a disk check as suggested and nothing came back as bad, but again, it only looked at the 15.9 gig portion I presume?
 
if you have the time then download gparted live cd and boot the computer with it.
it will show you what exact size your hard disk can and will use.
if it shows you the full amount with probably only the 16gig partitioned then let it delete the whole disk and re-create a new full ntfs formatted disk with all 60gig of space. then re-install windows and see what comes out. I can't imagine that your cd is broken unless it is full of scratches or fingerprints.
please post back if you tried that and the result
 
mscrx said:
if you have the time then download gparted live cd and boot the computer with it.
it will show you what exact size your hard disk can and will use.
if it shows you the full amount with probably only the 16gig partitioned then let it delete the whole disk and re-create a new full ntfs formatted disk with all 60gig of space. then re-install windows and see what comes out. I can't imagine that your cd is broken unless it is full of scratches or fingerprints.
please post back if you tried that and the result
Click to expand...

I'll download that file when I can...question, how do I go about booting the computer to start with that?
 
usually you can hit a function key during the post screen which loads a menu where you can choose the device you want to boot from... not sure about hp but for dell it is f12. it should be displayed in the post screen like:

press f1 to enter setup
press f12 for boot menu
 
mscrx said:
usually you can hit a function key during the post screen which loads a menu where you can choose the device you want to boot from... not sure about hp but for dell it is f12. it should be displayed in the post screen like:

press f1 to enter setup
press f12 for boot menu
Click to expand...

I downloaded the file, burned to a cd, and then rebooted the computer...however, it didn't do anything. I even looked for the boot menu and it showed cd first.
The cd light flashes and it looks as if it's going to the cd, but then boots to the desktop and windows as normal. Have i missed a step in the process.
Looks like the entire the large file/program downloaded and the burn to cd was okay.
 
I just noticed that I burned the gparted live iso file to a cd, but did so as a data file? I went back and burned the image as it should have been done. At least I believe...I'll try to boot the computer later with what I did
 
mscrx said:
if you have the time then download gparted live cd and boot the computer with it.
it will show you what exact size your hard disk can and will use.
if it shows you the full amount with probably only the 16gig partitioned then let it delete the whole disk and re-create a new full ntfs formatted disk with all 60gig of space. then re-install windows and see what comes out. I can't imagine that your cd is broken unless it is full of scratches or fingerprints.
please post back if you tried that and the result
Click to expand...

I burned the gparted live cd image and was able to boot my computer as was suggested. The information showed 16 gig FAT 32 and 39 gig Unallocated. I wasn't sure what to do after that.
 
thats good. from the menu you can resize the formatted partition and use the unallocated diskspace. usually with gparted you can do that on the fly without data loss. I recommend to save important data anyway which I believe you already did before the reinstall.
after you resized the partition and rebooted the computer it will show you the full amount of disk space in windows as well.
good luck!

edit:

have a look at the documentation for help:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/documentation.php
 
I will attempt to follow up and work on the resize as I have time this weekend. I've printed the documentation provided...anything that anyone would suggest to make the process smooth? I'm not anywhere near a computer expert, but have some knowledge and like to try and work out my own issues if possible.
Thanks in advance for all the help
 
there is nothing to make it smooth or something. the tool is really easy to use and very quick. I bet you will be done in like 5 minutes or even less.
good luck and post back the result
 
I was able to use the program this morning, in about a 5-minute time frame, and get my hard drive that had been showing 15.9 gig available, and 39.6 gig unallocated, after the re-store issue mentioned at the beginning of this thread, now showing 55.9 gig available. Not sure where the other 4.1 gig of the 60g hard drive is, but I'm pleased with what happened.
Thanks so much msrcx for you assistance and direction to the gparted live cd...it worked as you said, and I'm very thankful and pleased!
Is there anything I need to watch for as we use the system to make sure everything is running as it should?
Again...thanks!
 
you're welcome buddy
there is nothing you need to watch. you just got the unallocated spaced in use with you system. basically it was a change in the partitiontable of the hard disk which tells the system that there now is more space.... and the formatting of course.
don't worry about the 4 gig. this is by design and a common misunderstanding.
in the computer world the conversion rate between byte, kilobyte, megabyte and so on usually is 1024. in reality it is 1000 (e.g. metric system). now hardware vendors make a disk with 60000 megabyte and say its 60 gigabyte (60000 / 1000 = 60). your comuter is based on the computer world conversation rate (1024) and makes 60000 / 1024 = 58,8 gigabyte. ok this is not exactly your 55,9 - however... this is how it works and all those who buy a 500gb disk will have 480 or somthing.
maybe your system (hp) reserves some space by bios functionality. but this is nothing to worry about.

did I write all the babbling above? sorry for the spam :)
good luck and have fun with your hdd
 
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