HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xeyes]

Hmmm
Missed your edit

When you boot off the CD, XP should give you a choice of overwriting the existing OS (which is what you want). You shouldn't have to erase anything. And, no, a full disk erase would mean (since you don't have a working OS yet) booting off a floppy, and using that to erase the contents of your HD. Since you probably don't have one handy, try letting the XP CD do the work for you. New HD = nothing to lose!

 

[nick1985]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[trexpesto]

I have heard of some boards requiring a raid setup, even if you dont use it. I forget which, think it was a P4 board.

EDIT: HERE Read from the bottom up I think.

 

[Chronoshock]

Originally posted by: ikickpigeons
would i have to do the F6 thingy if i only had one SATA drive???
*EDIT* how could i earase the whole hard drive? in BIOS???

If you are only setting up one sata drive, then you do not need to install drivers. I put my raptor in controller 1&2, my SATA storage in 3&4 and then put in my win xp cd. I set cd rom, then hd, then floppy. Since I wanted to install it on the raptor I set the raptor as the first drive in hard drive boot order. Then I restarted and it saw the xp cd, asked where to install and I was all set. If you want to erase the partition, just try to install xp as normal. When it asks you where to install windows, choose the drive with the os already on it and choose to format. I had to do this because at first I had the raptor in 3&4 and the storage in 1&2 and ended up with F: as my boot drive and C: as my storage. I then reversed and reinstalled windows (since installs on different controllers apparently don't like each other). I chose to do a format (normal format, not quick) on the raptor and then installed xp. Worked fine after that

 

[TekDemon]

Hmm, do you know any huge computer geeks who are better versed in setting up a computer? Sometimes it's just easier that way since they can just tinker with the computer till it's working right.
But let's see, first off I'd clear the CMOS (check your manual on how) to get the computer back to square one. Then I'd boot it up and see if the thing will now boot off of your installed copy of windows.

If it still doesn't boot, go back into the BIOS and set up the boot order as others have posted. I'd also make sure all my hard drive cables are connected properly and such. Then reinstall Windows XP and take the CD-ROM out of the computer after it finishes installing and before it reboots. If it still won't boot Windows XP...umm...go find a really good computer geek.

Oh and don't just find some random computer nerd...there's plenty of people who might know everything about software and even be a little obsessed with hardware who haven't a clue about actually getting a freakin' computer to work. Lots of CS majors seem to fall into the category of software only nerds, which are the wrong people to consult on this issue lol.

 

[ikickpigeons]

ok im going to reinstall os so before i do which order should i have the boot priortity set to? Which order would be the most reliable and stable?


*EDIT*

I read through to find the correct boot order and im going to try and reinstall XP Pro with this correct order. If this doesnt work i will isntall the RAID drivers. If that doesnt work my dad has a programmer working for him that i will ask for help. Once again thank you so much for all the help.

 

[trexpesto]

Chronoshock has your same board. So it should be the same as what he did. Didn't see that before somehow.

 

[Xeyes]

It's not about reliable and stable.

If you are always going to boot off your HD, then it can be set as your first boot device. That will get you the fastest bootup (it takes time to check each source for an OS to boot). If something goes wrong then you can change the BIOS to boot off something else or in your case use the F11 boot option for a one-time boot from something else.

The choices are there because sometimes the board owner needs/wants to boot off something else (no OS on HD, virus on HD, fried HD, workstation with no HD, etc.) Don't forget there are millions of other people who use a computer in different ways, with different OS's. Most of the BIOS settings/choices ARE NOT IMPORTANT to you, me, or most of the people using them. Default settings work fine. It's up to you to know what's needed for your own machine and what you want it to do.

Floppy boot is good for troubleshooting some systems, but doesn't work well with big OS's like XP or sophisticated file systems. Also, it's easy to forget there's a floppy in the drive when you reboot, and if there's a virus on it you're toast. (it happened to me - just lucky it wasn't a boot floppy- and I could have sworn I checked every floppy I owned since I was dealing with a virus on another machine at the time). Besides, more and more machines are doing without floppies these days.

CD boot is good if you are installing/repairing an OS off CD, or have a recovery CD to boot from. Not every machine has a CD.

Same goes for the other choices = they are there for people who need them. If you have the hardware they should all be stable and reliable.

Good Luck!

 

[ikickpigeons]

ive decided to let my dad's programmer fix whatever is wrong. When its fixed ill post what he did. ALso many thanks to everyone who posted a reply.

 

[ikickpigeons]

IT WORKS!!!!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: ikickpigeons
IT WORKS!!!!

Excellent. Now make sure it stays working: secure it!

 

[ikickpigeons]

already did it, been playing doom3 BTW MechBgon thank you for your guide because thats what i used to build my computer, it was very helpful. What was wrong was my computer though i had a raid setup and all i had to do was disable the raid integration. Appraently it defaulted to it for some reason.... but anyways thaknk you