Help needed with Vista reinstall!

Meatball

Meatball

Meatball

Soldato
Joined
12 Jun 2005
Posts
6,359
Location
St Albans
Im stuck and need some OcUk help! My friend gave me her laptop which wouldn't boot after dropping it. She damaged the hard drive beyond repair (makes horrible noises) so I bought a replacement WD Black 160Gb SATA. The problem I face is when I try and reinstall Windows Vista I get as far as partitioning and get 0x80xxxxxx errors (I'll give exact errors when I'm home) I believe the error lies with the hard drive settings in the BIOS (AHCI, SATA or IDE mode) however the BIOS doesn't allow me to change these. The laptop in question is an E System 1201. I've tried the following:

Installing from USB

Installing and partitioning using Windows 7 disk, same error

Updating the BIOS

Formatting (full) the replacement hard drive using my laptop via SATA>USB.

Using disk part to fully clean the drive.

Any ideas? I'm convinced it's not a faulty drive as I can use it fine as an external drive.
 
Last edited:
Can you try installing from a DVD without the USB drive attached?

I don't know why, never fathomed it out, but I've had some machines that just plain refused to allow me to install to a recognised hard drive.
 
Tried installing with nothing attached, still the same.

Regarding SATA drivers I'm having problems identifying the hardware inside, Googling E Systems 1201 doesn't reveal much. From the research I've done it's a SIS chipset.
 
ChileanLlama said:
Have you tried installing from a DVD instead of from a USB stick yet?
Click to expand...

Yup, both USB and DVD and Windows 7 and Windows Vista disks.

The most common error I receive is:
15gz7ds.jpg


Also 0x80070045
 
Did you check for anything that might have come lose when dropped, cable wise? As you've been able to update BIOS fine, but anything HDD related suffers error.
 
Bane said:
Did you check for anything that might have come lose when dropped, cable wise? As you've been able to update BIOS fine, but anything HDD related suffers error.
Click to expand...

No I haven't, I'm not a fan of opening up laptops due to all the fragile ribbon cables etc. The hard drive clicks and locks in place.

EDIT: I've just reseated the RAM and also taken the CMos battery out. I'll post back in 10 minutes or so.

This laptop will end up being dropped again and not by accident :D.

EDIT 2: On the first BIOS page it reports the hard drive as being connected to SATA Port 1: WDC WD1600BEKT-00PVMT0- (S}. When you then select the hard drive the following is listed:
Maximum Capacity: 160GB
Transfer Mode: [FPIO 4 / DMA 2]
Ultra DMA Mode: [Mode 6]

However when you go to 'Boot Priority' it's listed as IDE HDD?

Why any one buys these cheap own branded laptops from DSG Group which have NO support pages I have no idea :(.
 
Last edited:
Could be worth trying Data Lifeguard tool from Western Digital to wipe drive? In case it does it differently to disk part.

I personally would put her HDD in your laptop and use the Vista disk to delete existing partitions, then format disk. Then transfer the WD Black back to her laptop and see if that works.

If that doesn't, then move her HDD back to your laptop and install Vista fully on it. As seen it mentioned on here about a command you type to change drivers (specific to your laptop) to a generic set. But need to search for it.

Edit: Can't find thread with info about resetting drivers to generic set, and it might of just been a W7 feature. Suppose trying a repair is only option if above worked.
 
Last edited:
Saw a post elsewhere that they had that first stopcode and the cause was a dodgy SATA cable. Might have damaged the interface/connector assuming there isn't a cable on the laptop.
 
Bane said:
Could be worth trying Data Lifeguard tool from Western Digital to wipe drive? In case it does it differently to disk part.
Click to expand...

Will give this a try.

I personally would put her HDD in your laptop and use the Vista disk to delete existing partitions, then format disk. Then transfer the WD Black back to her laptop and see if that works.
Click to expand...

I tried this with a full format on my Windows 7 machine, same.

If that doesn't, then move her HDD back to your laptop and install Vista fully on it. As seen it mentioned on here about a command you type to change drivers (specific to your laptop) to a generic set. But need to search for it.
Click to expand...

I can't install Vista from my laptop onto the external disk as it's saying I've not got enough temporary space on any partition (inc. my own internal laptop drive) despite me having 100GB+ free.



EDIT: I'm going to try installing to the hard drive whilst it's connected via my SATA>USB. If that works I think I can point the finger at a faulty SATA port or SATA driver issue.
EDIT2: Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Set up does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through USB or IEEE 1394 port :(.
 
Last edited:
When I format the drive with my laptop via SATA>USB the installation goes a little further. It passes the "copying files" stage and then gets to about 50% when under "expanding files" then brings up another 0x code:
9rr68o.jpg


Google results for the above errors also mention faulty ram. I suppose if it was dropped hard enough to nuke the hard drive the ram could have been damaged as well.
 
Last edited:
Have you tried installing Linux?
It may help you find where the problem lies.

Meatball said:
Google results for the above errors also mention faulty ram. I suppose if it was dropped hard enough to nuke the hard drive the ram could have been damaged as well.
Click to expand...

Unlikely to have damaged RAM memory, maybe dislodged it.
Also try Ultimate Boot CD, as it has various utilities including memory tests.
 
Last edited:
You've checked the hard drive in another machine, and you get the same symptoms with the original drive. I think it points to something else that was damaged when the machine was dropped :(

I was going to suggest looking at creating a Windows preinstall kit image and try and deploy from that, but if you can't get Linux running I think it would be a waste of time - also it's not fixing the underlying problem which even if you were successful would probably lead to problems/data loss in the future.
 
Meatball said:
When I format the drive with my laptop via SATA>USB the installation goes a little further. It passes the "copying files" stage and then gets to about 50% when under "expanding files" then brings up another 0x code:
Click to expand...

Nawh I meant taking your HDD out of your laptop and putting hers in it, instead of trying USB/eSATA, etc. Assuming there is no warranty seals over the HDD bay on your laptop.

If it did install I don't know what you'd have to do for it to boot when transplanted back in to her laptop. May be a repair will alter drivers to her specification.

Also have you tried another Vista installation pack? Not using the same one via different methods such as DVD and USB, but an actual different Microsoft made DVD or ISO. Probably make no difference, but it's something to consider.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom