New PC, Trouble Installing XP

1608 Views 10 Replies 4 Participants Last post by leroys1000, Sep 6, 2005

Komgol

Discussion Starter · Sep 4, 2005 (Edited)

I decided to finally give a shot at building my own PC - everything was seemingly going fine until I got to the Windows XP Home installation.

I booted up the WinXP CD, partitioned and formatted my HD, and after rebooting it fails to load from my HD. It copied the Windows Boot files to my HD just fine though.

I've edited the BIOS and made sure that it is explicitly attempting to load my HD first - but it can't seem to find it. After faililng to load from the HD and CD it goes to my OnBoard LAN (I can disable this in the BIOS, but it makes no difference).

My HD is a Western Digital Raptor (37GB) S-ATA... From what I can tell this is a BIOS problem. If anybody has help they can offer me I'd really appreciate your assistance.

edit: You'll probably want to know that my MB is a Gigabyte K8 Triton (GA-K8NF-9, nForce4 chipset).

Save

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

Geekgirl

· #2 · Sep 4, 2005

Hello and Welcome to TSF

Try putting the BIOS settings back to default

You may want to run a diagnostic utility. Go to this link and download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy) . You will make a boot floppy, insert it in the floppy drive and run the test.

Save

Komgol

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 4, 2005

I can't even get this to work.

I made the bootable floppy, following the instructions in the link you gave me. I made it for the correct HD (Raptor 10000RPM WD etc.). When I boot from this floppy I get the following:

//
Starting Caldera DR-DOS...

Bad or missing command interpreter.
Please enter a valid filename (e.g. C:\COMMAND.COM),
or just press ENTER to retry.
//

Then I just get the command line, "C>", and my keyboard stops responding. It is a USB keyboard - will this be a problem?

See less See more

Save

Geekgirl

· #4 · Sep 4, 2005

Its possible, do you have another one you can use?

Save

Komgol

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 4, 2005

I'm running the "Extended Test" now. I ran the "Quick Test" and it found zero errors.

Save

Komgol

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 4, 2005

Both the Extended and the Quick test found zero errors on my HD.

Save

Komgol

Discussion Starter · #7 · Sep 4, 2005

Still getting no luck here. If the Hard Drive isn't the problem, what is?

My BIOS? My Motherboard? My XP CD? Are there any other steps I can take to narrow down what the problem could be?

Save

Geekgirl

· #8 · Sep 5, 2005

I would eliminate the cd next, got another you can use?
It would prob be good to install the O.S. with just the bare minimum installed inside the pc. Only have connected what is needed, no extra adapter cards.

Save

Finchal

· #9 · Sep 6, 2005

Having the same problem

I'm having the exact same problem is Komgol...I have a Seagate Barracuda 80gig HD, 8mb cache, 7200 RPM, and a GA-K8N Pro SLI Mobo with an athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor.

Save

Geekgirl

· #10 · Sep 6, 2005

Hello and Welcome to TSF Finchal

I would appreciate it if you would start a new thread, this way you will get the attention you need for your issue. Although you think it is the same as Komgol's it needs to be put in its own thread. :sayyes:

Save

leroys1000

· #11 · Sep 6, 2005

Did you load the SATA drivers from a floppy when you installed windows?
Some motherboards will require you to set your boot device to
SATA or SCSI to boot from SATA,HDD0 is on IDE.
Also make sure your boot drive is connected to SATA channel 1.

Save

1 - 11 of 11 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.

Top Contributors this Month