FASTFAT.SYS is CORRUPTED!!

[CEichhorn]

SAeems to be something spreading from the governmentto the computer community....

Specifically, on a new HD, fresh install of WinXP Pro, during the initial copying of files to the HD (RAM?), after a bunch of SCCSI drivers, etc., suddenly he message comes up:

"The file FASTFAT.SYS is corrupted. Press any key."

Which pressing causes a reboot, and comes around to the same message again and again.

Hmmmm.

The WinXP CDROM looks OK; no scratches, etc.

The HD has passed all the Maxtor diag tests perfectly.

Any ideas?

 

[xsk8zerox]

That happens alot with burned cds...

 

[CEichhorn]

But, but, but...

But this is The Real Deal, a true-blue megabuck MS official retail pretty package disk!

I installed it on this machine. Then I decided on a different HD, so I swapped drives. Brand new drive, tested to death as OK.

So is it your guess that it is, in fact, a bad M$FT CDROM?

 

[xsk8zerox]

that is my guess

 

[RadicalEdward]

If the copy is ligit then it almost has to be a bad cd. Contact Microsoft and request a replacement cd, and make sure you have exactly what the error message is writen down.

 

[CHUBB]

hard-drive

What H/D?
Do you have ?
make and size?

xp dont like ibm!!

 

[Sazar]

eh chubb... they would not sabotage man... come on...

cd probably squeeked through QC somehow mate... give it back... do as the other lad said and report error message... you should have ANOTHER brand spanking new cd soon

and ask em to throw in some other stuff since they fudged up

 

[CHUBB]

ok

Do as you must!

 

[CEichhorn]

HD ddetail

It's a current model Maxtor 541 15Gb/5400rpm - ATA/100 (with correct cable). Comes up in the BIOS (latest greatest) and passes all the current Maxtor diags.

I'm more suspicious of the HiVal mystery brand 12x CDRW....

So, the consensus is that it's the CDROM that can't be read, the fault of either the CDROM disk itself or the CDRW reader.

Sigh. PITA.

Wow! Hey, just realized I have ANOTHER copy (original) of the same retail WinXP Pro Upgrade I can try.

Stand by....

 

[CEichhorn]

And the Winner is....

Sub par PC100 SDRAM.

By process of elimination (I just LOVE science!), it turned out that the two sticks of generic PC100 SDRAM I bought (at the same time) caused the problem. I tried each separately and each caused the same problem (on a different file).

The problem was the extraction/expansion of the file, not the reading from the CDROM.

Changed to known Mushkin PC133 and it worked fine.

Surprising, since the mobo (Asus P3B-F) only requires PC100 and it is not o'clocked or anything weird. But the RAM swap solved it instantly.

First time I ever bought generic RAM (out of buying perhaps 10 GB over time). Also the last.

 

[TomServo]

That was going to be my suggestion. (Yeah, sure it was ) I had a similar experience with a system I was setting up that I had the RAM overclocked on. Even though the same RAM at the same clock was working fine in Win2k before, it would not install XP. However, once I had XP installed, I cranked the RAM back up and it works fine. The install phase must push a system's proverbial buttons somewhere in the memory area so that it finds errors not normally encountered in normal running.

 

[CEichhorn]

Curious.....

Strange that the processing of expanding a file from the CDROM to RAM (?), prior to writing it to the HD (?) was a physical problem for the SDRAM module.

But, no doubt about it, swapping the PC100 generic for PC133 Mushkin worked.

I'll complain to the seller of the generic and see what I get....

Maybe I'll swap out the Mushkin and install the RAM I get in return from the dealer. Since this is a PC100 mobo, that's all I want to invest in it.