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leevil

4 Posts

174710

August 6th, 2006 15:00

partition signature !=55AA

i have recently formatted my dimension 4700C using wipedrive. i partitioned it as wipedrive said, using fdisk. and when i try to use my windows xp restroe disk, it comes up with "partition signature !=55AA" error. i am at a loss as to what i should do to fix this, please help.

dg1261

623 Posts

August 6th, 2006 19:00

What do you mean by "formatted"?  The term 'format' refers to file systems.  Did you wipe the hard disk--ie, remove all formatting?  Or did you add partitions and format a file system on those partitions?

If the latter, remove all partitions and start over.  If the former, make sure your bios is set to boot from CD, press any key at the "boot from CD" prompt, and let XP create and format your partitions for you.

 

leevil

4 Posts

August 7th, 2006 20:00

I completely deleted my harddrive and then i partitioned my drive using the command fdisk, and now nothing will boot, though i can boot from my floppy drive. i cant use a CD, and when i try to boot from my harddrive i get a partition signature !=55AA

dg1261

623 Posts

August 8th, 2006 01:00

"I completely deleted my harddrive and then i partitioned my drive using the command fdisk, and now nothing will boot..."
 
The fdisk command only lays out the partitions, it does not create/format file systems or make a partition bootable.  To do the complete job, fdisk is usually used in conjunction with the format and sys commands.  But this is really only useful if you're installing DOS.  That's not the way to do things if your aim is to install XP.
 
If your goal is to install XP on a NTFS file system, you would instead boot from the XP CD and use its menu functions to create the partition layout, format each partition with a file system (including NTFS), and install XP (which will install the system files so the partition is bootable).
 
If your computer cannot boot from the XP CD, then you need to make the set of 4 boot floppies and boot from the floppies.  From there you can continue the partition/format/install process from the CD.
 

leevil

4 Posts

August 8th, 2006 01:00

"If your computer cannot boot from the XP CD, then you need to make the set of 4 boot floppies and boot from the floppies.  From there you can continue the partition/format/install process from the CD."

how do i go about doing this?

dg1261

623 Posts

August 8th, 2006 02:00

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310994

(BTW, looks like it's a 6-floppy set, not 4-floppy as I mistakenly said earlier.)

 

shesagordie

10 Elder

 • 

46K Posts

August 8th, 2006 02:00

leevil

How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks,

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310994

Bev.

leevil

4 Posts

August 10th, 2006 00:00

is there anyway to boot windows XP install from the CD using the recovery console?

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