problems formatting sata drive

[imported_logan]

hey everyone, i've been reading threads in this forum for about a month now. i've learned alot just from that, but i must ask for help now.

i just built a new computer. its a p4 3.4, asus p5ad2 mobo, 200g maxtor sata, 1g kingston hyperx pc5400, ati radeon x800 pci-express, turbo-cool 510 express psu.

all hardware is hooked up and seems to be running fine. but i cant format my hdd. im planning on using winxp pro.

i was able to set a dos partition with win98 startup disk, but couldnt go any further. i tried downloading the xp startup files from window site(all types sp1, sp1a, sp2) none of them worked, i tried using my cracked copy of 2000 pro to make startup's, but to no avail. i keep getting random file corruptions, which fails and ends the boot. the main 3 that i keep gettings are \ntkrnlmp.exe, ochi1394.sys, and dmio.sys

as far as i know sata should work the same as a pata. i could definetly be mistaken. im not sure what other info i may have could give anyone a clue to what im talking about...if you have any suggestions please throw em my way. thanks in advance.

 

[stevty2889]

you need to put the SATA drivers for your motherboard on a floppy disk. Boot up with your windows xp disc, and press f6 when it prompts you. Put the floppy in with the drivers. You will then be able to partition and format the drive with the windows XP cd.

 

[natto fire]

Or, if you are like me and loathe floppy drives, you can slipstream the drivers into a windows XP installation.

 

[effee]

Yup, press F6 when your BIOS askes you to install additional drivers

 

[episodic]

Just curious what do you do if you don't have a floppy drive?

 

[boomerang]

Why do you feel you need to format the drive beforehand? Partitioning and formatting is part of the install process for XP. You will be prompted to create a partition and you will be prompted to format.

If you could create a DOS partition on the drive using a 98 startup disk then the BIOS is able to see the drive. You should be golden in that regard.

You need to run memtest and test that memory.

Also, you do have the 4 pin, P4 connector plugged into the board?

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: episodic
Just curious what do you do if you don't have a floppy drive?

See my above post. You can sliptstream SATA drivers into an XP install. I haven't used a floppy drive in my main rig. Nor do I intend to, they are teh suxors.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Why do you feel you need to format the drive beforehand? Partitioning and formatting is part of the install process for XP. You will be prompted to create a partition and you will be prompted to format.

If you could create a DOS partition on the drive using a 98 startup disk then the BIOS is able to see the drive. You should be golden in that regard.

As boomerang said, you have the option to format as a part of the XP installation. Did you ever try that? You do not need to format first.
Again, as boomerang said, you should not need to put a driver on the floppy if you were able to create a DOS partition. The fact that you were able to do that, shows that the BIOS can see the drive and access it.
May be you should explain exactly what it is you want to do. The assumption of beemerang is that you have an XP CD that you want to use to install XP.