Windows XP boot issue

[harle]

I purchased the new 640GB western digital hard drive not too long ago to replace an old 200GB ATA drive. Today I decided to install XP Pro on a 20GB partition of the 640GB drive. Everything was going well, and the computer rebooted so that XP could continue the installation process. Unfortunately, it only got past the BIOS screen, then it gave an error message:

"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."

I thought that maybe there was a problem with the installation, tried booting to the copy of XP on my old drive, but it gave me the same error message. There is also a 250GB SATA drive with Vista installed on it, but the same error occurs when I try to boot from it.

From doing some research, it looks like the boot initialization is messed up. On Microsoft's site, it says to boot form the recovery menu, select the correct drive, and type bootcfg /rebuild. I do this, but nothing happens. If anyone has some suggestions as to why this is happening, it would be much appreciated.

Current build:

Antec P182
A8n-Sli
Athlon 3500+
2GB DDR ram
Geforce 7800GT

200GB ATA (XP Pro)
250GB SATA (Vista Business)
640GB SATA (XP Pro)

 

[dbailey]

Have you tried starting over yet? I'd begin again with a fresh format.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: dbailey
Have you tried starting over yet? I'd begin again with a fresh format.

That is actually the first thing I did, as I thought that maybe it was a bad install.

First I re-installed XP over the previous version I installed earlier this morning. It went through the formatting and copying process and restarted the computer. It got past the BIOS screen and gave me the same error message. I then went back, unpartitioned the drive, and installed a quick (NTFS) of XP on it so the process would not take as long. The same error came up after the installation was complete.

I am almost 100% sure that the XP installations and all the hard drives are working correctly. It has to be something wrong with how the the boot process is setup for both the XP and Vista installs. If I was more familiar with this, I could probably solve the issue. Fortunately, I have all the experts of Anandtech to hold my hand through this mess.

 

[harle]

A little addition to my original question: There are some articles online that state that Windows XP does not recognize SATA HD's when you install the OS onto them. The solution is to make a boot floppy with the necessary drivers and press F6 when prompted on the Windows XP CD. The articles do not state where to get the necessary drivers, or how to boot from a flash drive, for example. Any assistance on this would be much appreciated.

 

[boomerang]

Put your motherboard disk in and explore the contents. Somewhere in there you may find a makedisk utility that will create the floppy you need. The Drivers folder would be a good place to start. (See 2nd Edit below)

You could also look at the Asus site. I just tried and the site is not cooperating. (Nothing new there!)

Edit: Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but XP will not look for a flash drive. It's going to have to be a floppy. You could install one temporarily if needed.

Someone's going to pipe in about slipstreaming those drivers into XP. I'll let others handle that.

And someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

2nd Edit: A copy and paste from the Asus site because one can't link directly to the page.

Please use the bundled Support CD along with the motherboard and then boot from CD-ROM/DVD-ROM, you will see the following steps to make suitable SATA-Diskettes easily if you need a SATA-Diskette.

Step: (Example: A8N-SLI M475)
1. FD 1.44MB System Type-(86)
Loading FreeDOS FAT KERNEL GO!
Press any key to boot from CDROM...

1) Make Sil3114 SATA/RAID 32bit driver disk
2) Make Sil3114 SATA/RAID 64bit driver disk
3) Make NVIDIA NV11 Raid 32bit driver disk
4) Make NVIDIA NV11 Raid 64bit driver disk
5) Format Floppy disk
6) FreeDOS command prompt
Please choose 1 ~ 6:

Please insert your Formatted Floppy to B:
Press a key to continue.

From the FAQ section of the site.

 

[robisbell]

someone did not choose and perform the F6 option.

 

[harle]

I think that the SATA drivers are not an issue, after spending a bit more time researching and receiving some help from a friend of mine. It looks like the problem is Windows XP no longer works because of the way I installed it. This page from Microsoft outlines the problem that I have and some possible solutions. A friend led me to this step by step instruction to install XP after Vista has already been installed.

I do not have much experience in doing something like this, but hopefully it will turn out alright.

 

[robisbell]

you never stated you had installed Vista, if you have not installed Vista, it's the SATA drivers you did not install that are needed to perform a proper install.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: robisbell
you never stated you had installed Vista, if you have not installed Vista, it's the SATA drivers you did not install that are needed to perform a proper install.

I know it was kind of small, but I stated in the OP that Vista Business was installed on my 250GB drive.

Anyways, I am out of town and away from the computer, so it looks like troubleshooting will have to wait a few days! Ill keep those of you that are still interested in this updated when I get back.

 

[RebateMonger]

I don't do dual-boots. Too messy for me. But I understand that if you want to dual-boot Vista and XP, you have to install XP on the drive before installing Vista, due to changes in the way that Vista writes the boot sectors.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
I don't do dual-boots. Too messy for me. But I understand that if you want to dual-boot Vista and XP, you have to install XP on the drive before installing Vista, due to changes in the way that Vista writes the boot sectors.

Exactly. I even unhooked the drive with Vista on it, so only the 640GB drive was recognized in the BIOS. I tried to install XP on it, and I still get the same error. It looks like the boot sector of this drive is messed up even when it is the only drive hooked to the motherboard. Damn you Vista!

 

[BostonMike]

RebateMonger is correct. "you have to install XP on the drive before installing Vista"

Reformat the drive and install the sata drivers. Install XP then Vista.

 

[robisbell]

just disconnect the drive with Vista already installed, from what I can see it is still doing it with or without Vista drive connected, which goes back to the XP SATA drivers not being installed when XP is installed.

 

[boomerang]

From my perspective, I need some clarification. Where do you want to end up?

XP only?
Vista only?
XP and Vista?

Same drive, different drives - what? I think you've been throwing drives in it to try and get it to boot, but I'm not certain at this point.

If you do a fresh install of Vista you will not need to do a specific install of SATA drivers.

If you do a fresh install of XP, you will need to do the F6 install routine for the SATA drivers.

This information relates to the specific motherboard you are dealing with right now. To compound things, your motherboard has two different SATA controllers. 4 ports, two different controllers. You need to know which controller your HD is connected to and have the corresponding drivers available.

BIOS settings could get ugly on this board too.

Tell us exactly where you want to end up.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: boomerang
From my perspective, I need some clarification. Where do you want to end up?

XP only?
Vista only?
XP and Vista?

Same drive, different drives - what? I think you've been throwing drives in it to try and get it to boot, but I'm not certain at this point.

If you do a fresh install of Vista you will not need to do a specific install of SATA drivers.

If you do a fresh install of XP, you will need to do the F6 install routine for the SATA drivers.

This information relates to the specific motherboard you are dealing with right now. To compound things, your motherboard has two different SATA controllers. 4 ports, two different controllers. You need to know which controller your HD is connected to and have the corresponding drivers available.

BIOS settings could get ugly on this board too.

Tell us exactly where you want to end up.

I would like to end up with the following:
XP Pro installed on the 640GB drive
Vista Business on the 250GB drive

Vista Business has been installed on the 250GB for a while and would dual boot fine with the copy of XP I had installed on the old 200GB drive. XP was installed before Vista, so im guessing why those two played nice for dual booting. The 640GB drive is going to replace the old 200GB drive with XP on it. Ive backed up everything from the old 200GB drive onto a partition of the 640GB drive, so I cannot reformat the whole drive or I lose everything. I am hoping that I can change the boot file for Vista so it will let everything boot. I still don't quite understand why Vista will not boot, though. Wouldnt installing XP on the 640GB drive only mess up the boot file for it, not Vista?

Anyways, I really appreciate the help thus far. I still cannot believe that something as simple as installing XP when Vista is already installed messes up EVERYTHING.

 

[boomerang]

I think I've got it.

Install XP onto the 20GB partition of the 640GB as you had originally planned. You're absolutely going to have to install the SATA drivers at the F6 prompt. There is no way around this. Skipping this is what messed up your XP install every time thus far. During the install, you will see your partitions. There should be no problem saving the data partition you created.

I dual-boot myself. I did it "backwards" as you are doing now and installed Vista first. There's a program out there to make this painless.

Google EasyBCD. It's free. It will help you rewrite the boot files to allow you to also boot into Vista.

EasyBCD is pretty easy to use. They have an extensive help section at the web site. There are many, many scenarios for dual booting. The EasyBCD site can be confusing in their explanations for this reason. Once XP is installed, start under "Setting up the Dual-Boot" on this page.

Your Vista drive booted off this board before, so SATA drivers will not be an issue. (Vista has what it needs for your board, which is why no extra steps are required.) Your board came out after XP, which is why you need to F6 and install those drivers during the install.

I hope I've understood correctly.

 

[harle]

An update: I ended up deleting the Vista install that I had on the 250GB drive (there was nothing installed on it besides a chat program). The install that I attempted on the 640GB I deleted also. Someone said that if I tried to install XP with the Vista drive unhooked, it would cause more problems (which I did, unfortunately). So, I thought that starting from scratch would be a good way to go about this mess.

My question now is: Before I deleted everything, when I would install XP on the 640GB drive, it would get all the way to the reboot and then get the error message I talked about in my original post. Now, it will not even let me install XP onto the drive. I delete the partition, pressed ENTER to install XP, and it just gives me the message "you need to create a partition to install XP." After this, it creates a partition and I go to install XP again but it just gives me the "you need to create a partition to install XP." So, I am thinking that it is the SATA driver issue that you guys have pointed out to me several times. It just seems kind of weird that it will not even attempt to install XP on the drive now. Oh, and I was wondering where I would get the SATA drivers from. I have looked around the Asus site for them to no avail. Edit: I just saw the explanation from Boomerang on how to get the SATA drivers.

Edit: When I do get the SATA drivers, what do you guys think would be the best way to install them? I do not have a floppy drive, so that is not an option. Ive read a few articles stating that using nLite is a good way to get a fresh install of XP with all the necessary drivers attached.

 

[robisbell]

goes back to the F6 option, which you will need to get a floppy drive so that it can be done properly. I am wondering which version of XP is this exactly?

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: robisbell
goes back to the F6 option, which you will need to get a floppy drive so that it can be done properly. I am wondering which version of XP is this exactly?

It is XP Professional w/SP2. Is there really no way to install the drivers without acquiring a floppy drive? It seems like these kinds of procedures need to be updated now that so few people have a floppy drive.

 

[robisbell]

you'd have to rewrite the core programming of XP completely. remember when XP was written and put out, floppy drives were still a normal part of a pc. either get a floppy drive or just install vista.

 

[boomerang]

Go here and download Data Lifeguard Diagnostic v5.04c for DOS (CD).

You need this version to burn to a CD. If you can go with a floppy, download Data Lifeguard Diagnostic v5.04f for DOS (Floppy). (Buy or borrow a floppy and install it temporarily, you need it anyway for your SATA drivers.)

Boot to the disk and choose the option to write zeros to the first and last sector (wording will be similar, I can't recall exactly what it says.) You DO NOT need to write zeros to the whole drive. It will take FOREVER to do so.

You should be able to do your XP install afterward.

Get a floppy drive. As I said, borrow one, buy one, whatever. You can install it temporarily and it will make your life so much easier with this project.

 

[harle]

I will acquire a floppy drive somehow.

When writing zeros to the first and last million, I can limit it to the the partition with the OS installed on it, correct? The way they word it, it sounds like it gives you the choice to apply it to only one sector or to write a million zeros to the first and last parts of the whole drive.

Thanks again for all the help. I hate to keep asking questions, but this issue is way more complicated than anything I have encountered before. Ill update tonight, hopefully with everything fixed!

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: harle
I will acquire a floppy drive somehow.

When writing zeros to the first and last million, I can limit it to the the partition with the OS installed on it, correct? The way they word it, it sounds like it gives you the choice to apply it to only one sector or to write a million zeros to the first and last parts of the whole drive.

Thanks again for all the help. I hate to keep asking questions, but this issue is way more complicated than anything I have encountered before. Ill update tonight, hopefully with everything fixed!

Hmmm, I forgot you had data on another partition. Use common sense and make sure you have yourself covered. Pay close attention when within the software is all I can tell you without having it in front of me. Sorry to sound so vague.

Edit: Obviously the first sector of the XP partition will serve you fine. No need to worry about the last. I didn't recall there being an option for just the first. That's the way to go.

 

[boomerang]

I'm going to jump ahead to head off another potential question. In my post above regarding making your driver disk(s), you need option 1) and option 3). I'm assuming you're running 32-Bit XP here.

I don't know if the utility will allow you to install both sets on one floppy or not, you may have to do two. One for each.

You need both, because I don't know (and I don't know if you do either), which controller you have the 640GB plugged into. Just do both, install both, XP will figure it out and utilize the set it needs.

 

[harle]

Caution is the #1 priority on my list. Unfortunately there is information on both of the drives I want to install OSs onto, so writing zeros to the first and last parts of the whole drive is not an option. I work as a hardware manager for some campus labs (Its pretty sad when I can solve other computer issues, but not my own), so I was able to borrow an external floppy drive. l'll head home in a bit and see how things go.