Can't Install Windows XP On Gigabyte P35 DS3L

[ryan4021]

Hi i'm new to computer, i just put this computer together... I have a dual core e6750 / gigabyte p35 ds3l , 250gb sata hard drive and im trying to install windows xp sp2 on it... it copies the files, then prompts me to reboot... when i reboot it boots up in dos perfectly, but then it randomly restarts... i dont know if my hard drive is bad or i have any settings wrong... i just pretty much put it together and loaded it. i havent done anything to the bios or anything.

if anyone knows anything about this problem , tried 3 different windows xp copies.

if i need to provide any other information , feel free to let me know... i know im probably missing stuff in my post... so dont hesitate.


thanks

ryan

edit: it lets me go through the COPYING process... tells me it needs to reboot then when i goto reboot it starts the installation process all over again as if i never even went through the first step of the installation. it says that i have another copy of windows and that i can install a second os or format again... am i doing something wrong here? i know its not a bad copy of xp because i installed it fine on my other computer and a couple computers at my work... thanks

 

[DarkRogue]

When you reboot, does it ask you to press a key, or tell you that it's booting from the CD?
If so, don't press anything and it will probably move on to phase 2 of the setup.

 

[BolleY2K]

Hi Ryan,

do you have a PATA drive for testing? Perhaps you need to install an extra SATA driver during installation of XP? I had a similar problem with a notebook recently which I downgraded from Vista to XP - there I needed to include the specific SATA-driver manually into a new XP-CD.

 

[ryan4021]

It just boots from the CD as if it was a brand new installation when it's supposed to go into the next step of the installation process.. I pressed R (for repairing instead of installing) and it took me to a dos section which showed C:\WINDOWS as my 1st option, and when i did a directory listing of my C:\windows\ folder in dos mode it showed all the installation files from the first step in installation process in there so i have no clue what's wrong with it...

I do not have a PATA drive for testing..

I'm going to install Vista at work today and see if it's just that... If not It's either

A. Wrong settings in bios
B. Bad hard drive

 

[Syrup]

Is it possible the boot sequence in your bios is incorrect atm? I may be wrong but I believe if you have the optical listed as primary boot device it will always load of that so long as the windows CD is in the drive.

OR

What happened to me, same mobo, was that the bios by default was not setup to detect usb based input devices. I actually had to turn it on in the bios. For me it would load the files and when it said "hit any key to continue" id hit a key but because it couldnt detect my keyboard it would auto-reboot and start the whole process over again. Im not at home so I cant tell you the exact BIOS setting but it has an obvious name.

Hope that helps, good luck.

Syrup

 

[ryan4021]

I have it set

Cd-rom as primary (so i can load windows setup)
hard disk as second
floppy as 3rd

i do not have my floppy connected at the moment since I don't have an extra FDD cable lying around..

however, i did try to make hard disk as primary after the 1st step of the installation process and right about where it would say 'boot from cd/dvd' if i had cd-rom as primary it just restarts the computer. everytime...

my mouse is usb which shouldn't matter at the moment and my keyboard is ps/2 and it detects it fine (when i go into bios settings i press f8 and i have no problems doing that , and i pressed f6 during windows xp installation and it worked fine) so i dont think it's my keyboard either.

 

[Syrup]

Im just shooting in the dark here but I noticed you said it tells you there is an existing copy of XP already installed. Are you reusing this harddrive from another PC? If so Id suggest formating the drive and starting fresh.

You've tried 3 different XP discs and assuming all are legit copies I cant imagine all 3 would be defective so id rule that out.

If your convinced its one of the two(CD or HD) id start by trying a different harddrive. Maybe just go buy a cheapy from Staples or wherever to test it out,,,

On a side note you might get more replies if you put this thread in the "computer help" forum of anandtech.

Syrup

 

[BolleY2K]

Sounds exactly like what I described above...

I also tried different XP (all SP 2) with no results. I had to make an image of XP on another PC then manually include the specific SATA driver into this image (there are tools for this on the net) and install the problematic PC with a CD burned from that image.