Fix MBR in XP?

[firebush05]

Here's my problem. I tried to NTFS format, then install XP on a hard drive that had an old copy 10.4.3 installed. The XP install failed within 10 seconds, and gave an error stating the drive was unreadable. The drive won't show up in XP. Can this be fixed within XP, as my OS X install is now erased. Doesn't this have something to do with the MBR?

[Danyel]

Was the XP able to reformat the whole drive using NTFS (or FAT32)?

[punkrockml13]

When I've dual-booted xp and linux on the same drive i would have xp installed, and then install linux, thereby erasing the xp mbr and using lilo or whatever bootloader came with the distro i was trying out. anyways, after i was done messing around with that linux distrobution and wanted that hard drive space back, i would go through the normal means of doing such. to get the original xp mbr back, you can put the xp install cd into the drive and bootup. type R to go to rescue, and when you get to the promt of the rescue program, type "fixmbr" without the quotes. it writes a completely new mbr that will start up your xp installation.

 

but if your saying it wont let you install xp new, then just erase the whole drive unless theres things you need to backup. or do the rescue -> "fixmbr" thing and then erase. let us know how that goes

 

it sounds like theres still remnants of the OS X install though, so trying reformatting by any means that you have, or try going to killdisk.com if thats still around. itll wipe the entire drive to zeros, which should let you use the drive in any way you want