Ntfs.sys issues..

[Guest]

Now I've read most of the articles I could find through Google and I have absolutely no clue what I can do to fix this ASAP.

Specs:
Asus P5Q
1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066MHz
Maxtor 7,200RPM 250gb HDD
BFG Geforce 8800GTS 640MB OC
Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0GHz
Windows XP Home SP3

Basically I woke up yesterday and went about my daily routine on the PC, after about an hour I had a BSOD. After rebooting whenever I tried loading Windows I got an Ntfs.sys 0x00000050 error.
I've reformatted about 2 dozen times in the last 3 years, from XP to Vista and back again .etc
After browsing the web the best solutions I could find were HDD wipes with Active Killdisk or GParted and programs similar to those and I managed to make the USB pendrive boot fine and such but the utilities tended to just freeze after the first line of text from boot, IE "Loading FreeDOS Kernel", "SYSLINUX Loading blahblahblah".

I tried to hook an IDE drive into my system so I could boot up and format the SATA drive from the XP installation on the IDE drive except it wouldnt' even load windows. It would be detected fine in BIOS and works perfectly fine in this system I am on now however it just wouldn't bring up the Windows XP loading screen.

Obviously I've tried using the XP installation disc but when you get to the options of hit Enter to format or R to repair, using either option causes a random BSOD.
I also loaned a copy of Vista from a friend to try and format the drive with that but that would load the setup files and then start loading the temporary Vista install and then give me another random BSOD.

Besides buying a new HDD I don't really have any idea what else I can do to fix this, I've tried different BIOS setups for running the SATA drive as IDE/AHCI and I've also run it in the orange SATA slot using ASUS Drive Xpert in normal mode but I've just had no luck.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[Twoboxer]

If you suspect the HD is the issue, have you tried installing it as a "data drive" in the system you are on now . . . exercise it and see if that's really the problem?

 

[sminlal]

Is there any chance you've changed the disk configuration in the BIOS from AHCI to IDE mode or vice versa? The two modes require different drivers and so an OS installed in one mode can't boot if the disks are switched to the other mode.

 

[Guest]

@Twoboxer - I'll do a little research and try and install it as a data drive if possible.

@sminlal - I am aware of the driver difference but I fresh formatted XP in AHCI mode using the Driver Xpert SATA port on the ASUS mobo and then I had an issue down the line where I switched it to a standard SATA port and ran the HDD as IDE - Enhanced via the BIOS. I have actually tried both methods to get it working again but no luck.
I also fully unplugged my SATA drive that is giving me the issues and tried to get the USB pendrive running with some of the utilities I used before just to see if the HDD was causing the issues but I still had the same issues so I'm going to try a different pendrive now.

 

[selea]

I think the MBR of the hard disk got corrupted when you did switch from AHCI to IDE. It can happens and cause much trouble. The problem is that if you don't fix the MBR you cannot do anything at all and the installation will always hang. Changing only drive mode on the BIOS do nothing if you don't fix it.

So you have to set up the HDD in legacy IDE in the BIOS and fix the MBR:

0. Set the HDD mode to legacy IDE in the BIOS, save and reboot.
1. Boot with the XP installation CD.
2. When prompted, press R to repair a Windows XP installation
3. If repairing a host with multiple operating systems, select the appropriate one (XP) from the menu. If you have only one operating system, enter 1 to select it.
4. Enter the administrator password if prompted.
5. To fix the MBR, use the following command: "fixmbr" (without the "). This assumes that your installation is on the C:\ drive. You will be presented with several scary warning lines the reading of which will make you want to say no. Microsoft is exceptionally vague regarding the conditions under which fixmbr can cause problems although they are clear about the consequences (losing all data on the hard drive), so use this at your own risk.
6. Type y and ENTER to fix the MBR.
7. Type exit to leave the recovery console and reboot.

You should now be able to install properly XP.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info, this method still didn't work for me as the XP and Vista installation discs still continued to cause random bsods after loading the setups.
I did however manage to fix it via using UBCD beta that I transfered to my USB pendrive. I managed to get one of the many tools finally working via the Grub4Dos menu without any errors, erased all partitions and the MBR and then my discs ran installations perfectly fine.

Thanks for the help you all gave, hope this method or any of the above methods helps anyone unfortunate enough to experience this pain in the arse problem