Installing xp on sata: formated, how do I coninue?

[Deepmist]

I formatted it 3 times now. I tried letting it just go and it just stops, I tried booting from cd and it didn't continue. What do I do?

 

[Navid]

Go to BIOS and make sure that your PC is set to boot from the CD drive.

If successful, when you reboot with the XP CD in the drive, it will ask you to press any key to boot from the CD. If you don't see that message, it means that your PC is not set to boot from CD.

 

[Deepmist]

It boots from the cdrom, I couldn't start xp instillation if it didn't. I get through the part where it installs files on the hd then it says it is going to restart and to remove floppy, I do it and I start all over when the computer restarts.

 

[Navid]

OK, I am sorry I misunderstood. But, I read your first post and it says "I tried booting from cd and it didn't continue".

Can you be a little more clear and explain exactly what happend?

What do you mean when you say ".. and to remove floppy, I do that ...." What floppy did you remove?

What do you mean by saying "... I start all over when the computer restarts"?

The first time you reboot you have to press a key to make it boot from the CD. Next, when it reboots as a part of installation, it is going to ask you to press any key to boot from the CD. But, you should not press any keys anymore.

There is no floppy involved either!

 

[Deepmist]

Yah, I wasn't sure how to be more clear, if I don't press a key to boot from cd after the restart it just sits idle after it asks to press a key to boot from cd.

 

[Navid]

What motherboard is this?

Have you disabled RAID on your motherboard?
I am assuming that you are not attempting to set up RAID. Rather, just to boot to a single SATA.

Some motherboards have two different SATA controllers. One for RAID. The other, not for RAID.
So, read the motherboard manual and make sure that you connect the SATA to the right connector on the motherboard.

 

[Deepmist]

I'm not sure how to turn off raid if it is on.
There is 2 sata plugs, sec_sata1 and pri_sata1. I have it in the pri one.

 

[Navid]

What motherboard brand and model do you have?

 

[Deepmist]

a7n8x deluxe 2.0 rev 1005
athlon xp 2800+
wd 74gig raptor

 

[Navid]

Check out page 19 of the manual for instructions on SATA jumpers.
Check page 73 of the manual for installing SATA drivers during the installation of OS.

 

[Deepmist]

Thanks alot for all your responses so far Navid.
I did check the jumper and it is enabled.
Page 73 only has information about installing sata drivers inside windows, which I am trying to install.

I'll try to clarify on how far i've gotten now that i'm at a work with a decent keyboard.

I start the computer and boot from my windows XP Home CD. It goes into setup and I push in the floppy disk with the serial ata drivers and press f6 to go load the windows sata options. It takes me to the screen where I press "S" to specify drivers then I select the Sil3112A then I press f3 to continue. It brings me to the screen where I select wich drive I would like to install the Windows operating system on and I select the 74gig drive which is my wd raptor drive. I then select the option to format the drive (not the quick one), and it does so very slowly. It then moves to a screen where it says it is moving files to the drive. after a couple minutes it tells me it is going to restart in 15 seconds and to remove the floppy. I do so and the computer restarts. It goes through all the standard bootup procedures, when it asks if I want to boot from the CD I do not press anything. The last line I see before the computer stops doing anything is "Press any key to boot from CD....." then it just sits and does nothing. If I atempt to boot from the CD it does not continue instalation and if I go through the f6 part again it tells me an os is already installed on the wd raptor.

I hope that clarifies where I am at, if you need more info let me know. I have not gotten past this point yet.

 

[kuljc]

have you tried running any of the diagnostic software from WD. That would be the first thing I would do to find out if your drive is in fact defective, so you can RMA it.

 

[stevty2889]

Is the SATA controller set as a bootable device in the BIOS??

 

[Deepmist]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
Is the SATA controller set as a bootable device in the BIOS??

Heh, I figured out this was the problem just a couple hours ago. I ended up changing the boot order to floppy->cd-rom->SCSI. After I got it to boot from the sata drive it was still giving me errors. I ended up learning how to flash the new bios, 1008, reformatted everything and it worked! Thanks so much, I almost gave up but it finally worked out yay!

Now I have to figure out how to get my proc and memory running at the right speeds :/
Mobo says I have a 1500+ when I have a 2800+. The memory is running at 266mhz when it is 400. I'm still learning BIOS here so i'm afraid to mess with the settings too much. I manually changed the cpu speed to 166mhz in BIOS but then it only says my proc is 2700+, if I go the one step above that the computer doesn't boot properly. I have no clue how to change memory speed. At least my computer runs again.

 

[beefthing]

HI,
I have the same problem, I just set up my system, and I install XP (home) with several of the drivers i got on a cd with my mobo ( Sil3112, 3114, 3114r,3114r5,3112r). I continue on to format the drive,install on to the HDD, then reboot. The system does not boot from the HDD, and when I put the mobo driver CD in to boot, it says that there is no hard disk installed ( this is after the XP install). I will try change the boot order to use SCSI as the third option, like Deepmist. If you have anything to add please do so however.

thanks in advance,
Beef

 

[mechBgon]

What motherboard, beefthing? You don't ever use a CD-ROM to give it the SATA drivers, it needs them on floppy diskette if it uses any at all.

 

[beefthing]

I know, I made the 5 floppy diskettes from the CD ( i have this old system up and running). My new stats are in my signature, the mobo is a Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce 4.

 

[beefthing]

OK, I checked in the BIOS, and there isn't an option to use SCSI there. I don't really know what that is anyway (err) so could you enlighten me on that note too please? Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

I continue on to format the drive,install on to the HDD, then reboot.

If it's doing this without needing any drivers on a floppy for the first round of Windows Setup, then you won't need drivers on a floppy at all. You just need to get the motherboard to boot from the SATA controller and the SATA drive, and you're done, Windows Setup will carry on from there.

The specifics of how to make the motherboard do that, I'll need the motherboard manual to answer that. I'll get my system to download the manual and check it out in the morning (I'm on 56k dial-up here ).

 

[fuzzynavel]

Get a win 98 boot disk and start in dos....copy entire windows Cd to your C drive if you can....should be able to if it is formatted...

then go back to the c:\ prompt and go to the I386 directory on your C:\ drive.....then type winnt.exe and that should start the windows installation..

I ended up changing the boot order to floppy->cd-rom->SCSI

Why did you choose SCSI......Raptor is not a SCSI drive.....it is SATA???

Mobo says I have a 1500+ when I have a 2800+. The memory is running at 266mhz when it is 400. I'm still learning BIOS here so i'm afraid to mess with the settings too much. I manually changed the cpu speed to 166mhz in BIOS but then it only says my proc is 2700+, if I go the one step above that the computer doesn't boot properly. I have no clue how to change memory speed. At least my computer runs again.

chip FSB Core Multi Voltage
Athlon XP 2800+ 333 2.25 GHz 13.5x 1.65v
Athlon XP 2700+ 333 2.17 GHz 13x 1.65v
Athlon XP 2600+ 266 2.13 GHz 16x 1.65v
Athlon XP 2400+ 266 2.00 GHz 15x 1.65v
Athlon XP 2200+ 266 1.80 GHz 13.5x 1.65V

I have searched google and can find no reference to a 400MHz FSb enabled 2800+ lots of people overclocking to 400fsb from the rated 333 but no real 400FSB......even the newer sempron 2800+'s only have 333MHz buses...

the table above should help u set your correct speed.......I believe that the multiplier will be automatically set.....so set your bus to 166 and you should have 13.5*166 and that should be 2.241GHz....if you can set your multiplier....then put it to 13.5...

 

[mechBgon]

Why did you choose SCSI......Raptor is not a SCSI drive.....it is SATA???

That's the way the A7N8X Deluxe is. It regards non-chipset-native controllers as "SCSI" like a lot of mobos do, whether they're real SCSI or not.

beefthing, looking at page 34 of your motherboard's owner's manual, I think that stuff is probably the key. Your Windows Setup detected your hard drive and got everything prepped for the reboot and the rest of Setup, now you just have to get the mobo to actually boot from the drive so Setup can continue. Look into your Hard Disk Boot Priority list and your Boot Device options there and see if the right answer jumps out at you (I'm not sure precisely what it'll say).

 

[beefthing]

Ok thanks man I'll have a look at that.
Will try and give answers later today....

Beef

 

[beefthing]

Nope. No luck in that department. The funny thing is that the mobo does recognise the HDD, I mean, it will install on to it, if I go into the RAID setup utility, then it will be listed there, and also when I reinstall it shows that the windows files are obviously loaded on to the disk, since there is space taken up by them. It just does not want to boot off the drive!
When I look in the Hard Disk Boot Priority in BIOS the only thing listed is 'addable cards' or something, and otherwise I have set the boot priority to 1: HDD; 2: Floppy 3: DVD/CD Drive and it still does not want to boot. There are four slots for the SATA wire to plug into, do I have to change it to one of the others maybe? I have tried on both slot 4 and slot 1, so I don't know.

Beef

 

[mechBgon]

aw man...




Ok. Look at page 6 of your manual. It should have a big line drawing of the motherboard. See how there are eight SATA fittings, four up by the motherboard's fan-cooled southbridge, and four down at the bottom. Do not use the ones at the bottom.

The ones up by the southbridge are the nVidia ones. If the southbridge is in non-RAID mode, then these should be just like "regular IDE" to the motherboard. But guess what? They're not, or not always, anyway. Here's a invaluable thread that should help you the rest of the way. I think that one's going in my Favorites > Forums > Threads as a handy reference thread

Hope that helps

 

[beefthing]

SH*T!! I have followed the advice from your thread (thanks for that by the way) but now I get a stupid error message - NTLDR missing, after formatting and setting up my HDD with Disk Wizard, and windows doesn't want to boot, it seems to try and boot off the HDD before the CD, even though the settings in the BIOS are such that it should do the opposite.