Original issue was network connectivity and pretty consistent hanging. Had windows XP Home edition. When attempting to run ipconfig I would get “An internal error occurred. The request is not supported” I researched this at length. Tried the following without success:
1 – netsh winsock reset
2 – netsh int ip reset c:log.txt
3 – Downloaded rarepair.exe from practicallynetworked.com, installed and ran it.
4 – Copied tcpip.sys from my laptop to David’s PC
5 – Removed wireless card drivers.
6 – Uninstalled and reinstalled all network components (except tcp/ip since you can’t under windows XP)
7 – Uninstalled and reinstalled network drivers, intel chipset drivers and others.

I did hear the hard drive clicking even though several diagnostics (spinrite 6.0, built-in system diagnostics, Windows “check for errors” and “chkdsk /f /r”) did not show any bad sectors.

Ended up formatting and installing windows XP Professional. David had an extra license for XP Professional and I did not have the install media for XP Home and he could not find his install CD. Selling David a SATA 80GB HD. Setting up software RAID1 (mirroring) in windows using raidfiles from www.jonfleck.com (full link).

Downloaded seagate “seatools for dos” so I cold do a low level format (if it even does that… not sure if it’s really any different) the new 80GB drive as it has a few bad sectors around 95% in spinrite. Spinrite keeps trying to save it and I just want it to mark it bad so it will skip it, but no joy. That’s why I’m trying the seagate deal to see if it will mark the sectors bad.

FULL ERASE FAILED in seatools. Can’t use this 80GB drive. Darn it.

Using 250GB Western Digital drive. Downloading Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2. Also downloading “Low Level Format tool Ver. 2.36 Build 1181″ from hddguru.com which is supposed to do a low level format for seagate, WD, Maxtor, Hitachi, Samsung, and others.

I’ll run western digital one first. I’ll try the one from hddguru on the failed attempt at still using the Seagate 80GB one.

• Western digital lifeguard tools for dos would not load. Problem with recognizing the cd-rom drive (message from boot process of application.)
• Copied over lifeguard tools for windows.
• Also copied over the low level format tool.
• Ended up running the HDDguru tool because the WD data lifeguard tools obviously did not perform a low level format (went way too fast)

Went to bed at 1:00AM

Next Morning

Low level format tool completed Western Digital 250 drive. After running this tool I had to boot into ultimate boot disk for windows ver 3.2 and ran the MBRFix to create a new MBR record for it. Then I rebooted into the existing windows installation and initialized the disk and partitioned it.
Then I decided to try the LLFT on the seagate 80GB drive. It finished sucessfully. I have now run the MBRFix on that drive, rebooted, and partitioned. I am now reinstalling windows because I can’t change the existing windows installation to not have the C drive think that it still has a mirrored drive. So I couldn’t mirror to the 80GB Drive without reinstalling windows on the existing C drive.

Installing windows now… it just finished. – 8:40am

Okay, a word of caution. Make sure you convert any existing “Dynamic Disks” back to basic disks before you install the OS. It messes things up if you don’t. Windows finished installing and the root drive was F: instead of C:, there was an extra drive that was “not found” or something to that effect. Basically all messed up.

So now I have converted the second 80GB drive to a basic disk and am reinstalling Windows for the 3rd time now.

Okay, so that didn’t work. The option to add a mirror was grayed out and when I choose to expand volume I got “the selected volume is a system or boot disk or was created on a basic disk in an earlier version of windows and cannot be extended”
This led me to go back into Ultimate boot disk for windows and clear out the MBR for drive 0 using MBRWizard and then creating a new MBR using MBRFix. Now I am installing Windows for a 4th time.

What might have been the issue last time is that I forgot to recopy over the raidfiles after reinstalling. I’m doing that now.

Here are the files that need to be copied and where they need to be copied to:

copy d:dmboot.sys system32drivers
copy d:dmboot.sys system32dllcache
copy d:dmconfig.dll system32
copy d:dmconfig.dll system32dllcache
copy d:dmadmin.exe system32
copy d:dmadmin.exe system32dllcache

Here are the steps I took which were successful:

1 – Clear partitions and MBR from each drive if they were dynamic already.
2 – Create new MBR records using MBRFix in Ultimate Boot CD.
3 – Install windows on primary drive.
4 – Copy raidfiles to correct locations as shown above from withing UBCD.
5 – Boot back in to windows and then convert both drives to Dynamic, but do not partition the second drive.
6 – After you reboot it will detect another new device and ask you to restart. Do it.
7 – Within device manager you can then right-click on the C drive and choose “Add mirror”. Then it will begin replication.

TESTING: I am going to test removing the primary drive and see if I can boot using the other drive.

It works! I disconnected the primary drive while it was running and I got a message “Windows – FT Orphaning: A disk that is part of a fault-tolerant volume can no longer be accessed.”

I tried hot-swapping (just reconnecting the drive) but windows could not recognize it until after reboot.

After reboot you have to go into Disk Managment and right click on EACH DRIVE and choose “Reactivate Disk”. Then it will begin regeneration.

SIDE NOTE:
I should have followed all of the steps in this post I found below, but I did not. Don’t know if it would have resolved issue.

1. Click Start, click Run, type Msinfo32, and then click OK.
2. Expand Components, expand Network, and then click Protocol.
3. You will have ten sections under Protocol. The section headings will include the following names if the Winsock2 key is undamaged:
” MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
” MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
” RSVP UDP Service Provider
” RSVP TCP Service Provider
” MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
" MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
" MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
" MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
" MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
" MSAFD NetBIOS [DeviceNetBT_Tcpip...
If the names are anything different from those in this list, the Winsock2 key is corrupted, or you have a third-party add-on, such as proxy software, installed.
If you have a third-party add-on installed, the name of the add-on will replace the letters "MSAFD" in the list.

If there are more than ten sections in the list, you have third-party additions installed.

If there are fewer than ten sections, there is information missing.

Note These entries represent an installation with only the TCP/IP protocol installed. You can have a working Winsock and see additional entries if another protocol is installed. For example, if you install NWLink IPX/SPX, you will see 7 additional sections, for a total of 17. Below is an example heading of one of the new sections:
MSAFD nwlnkipx [IPX]
Also, each of the new sections that are created by installing NWLink IPX/SPX start with “MSAFD.” Therefore, there are still only two sections that do not start with those letters.

If the Netdiag test fails, or if you determined that there is Winsock corruption by looking at Msinfo32, you must repair the Winsock2 key by using the steps in the next section.
Manual steps to recover from Winsock2 corruption
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 instructions
To repair Winsock if you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) installed, type netsh winsock reset at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Note Restart the computer after you run this command. Additionally, for computers that are running Windows XP SP2, there is a new netsh command that can rebuild the Winsock key. For more information, visit the following Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2netwk.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2netwk.mspx)
Warning Programs that access or monitor the Internet such as antivirus, firewall, or proxy clients may be negatively affected when you run the netsh winsock reset command. If you have a program that no longer functions correctly after you use this resolution, reinstall the program to restore functionality.

Note If these steps do not resolve the problem, follow the steps in the next section.
Windows XP without Service Pack 2 instructions
To repair Winsock if you do not have Windows XP SP2 installed, delete the corrupted registry keys, and then reinstall the TCP/IP protocol.
Step 1: Delete the corrupted registry keys
Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.

For more information about how to back up the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/) How to back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate the following keys, right-click each key, and then click Delete:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinsock2
4. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
Note Restart the computer after you delete the Winsock keys. Doing so causes the Windows XP operating system to create new shell entries for those two keys. If you do not restart the computer after you delete the Winsock keys, the next step does not work correctly.
Step 2: Install TCP/IP
1. Right-click the network connection, and then click Properties.
2. Click Install.
3. Click Protocol, and then click Add.
4. Click Have Disk.
5. Type C:Windowsinf, and then click OK.
6. On the list of available protocols, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click OK.

If Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) does not appear, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, and then click Search.
b. In the Search Companion pane, click More advanced options.
c. Click to select the following three check boxes:
” Search system folders
” Search hidden files and folders
” Search subfolders
d. In the All or part of the file name box, type nettcpip.inf, and then click Search.
e. In the results pane, right-click Nettcpip.inf, and then click Install.
7. Restart the computer.

Tags: bad sectors, formatting, hard drives, Low level format, tools