XP install..stalling

[Questor]

While running a drive fitness test on my IBM drive, I found some bad clusters, but was able to make mends with the given utilities. However, upon reboot for installation of XP..I get this..press any key to boot from cdrom (RAID array 0 was detected right away and properly). I press space bar and get the next message...windows is scanning hardware configuration..that is where the trouble starts. The screen goes blank after that and nothing happens.

I tried disassembling the RAID array and rebuilding, changed out cd roms, ran drive fitness test again just for safety sake, low level formatted both hard drives again out of desperation, reset BIOS to defaults, cleared CMOS, disconnected/uninstalled anything not necessary to boot up and I am sure many other things I can't quite remember at this moment. Checked my XP install disk too, no appearant damage.

I am lost here on what to do or what is wrong. Help would be appreciated.

ASUS A7V266E, XP2000 cpu, 512 megs Crucial PC2100 DDR RAM, Geforce 4 Ti 4600, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound, Lite On 32x12x40 burner, 3COM 10/100 NIC, 3COM/USR Modem, (2) IBM 60 GXP 40 gig hard drives, floppy (of course)

Questor

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

try one drive at a time?
unless youve already tried it

 

[Questor]

Yes, I did that too. I got it up and running after taking a nap and clearing my head.

I figured posting what and why may help someone else.

After rebooting to install XP, the install failed, still not sure why but the system tried to read the hard drives as the boot device rather than the cd-rom. Changing boot selection in BIOS did no good. What I did was disassemble RAID array, yet another low level format to both drives in succession, rebuilt array and then re-installed XP. Flawless.

The confusing part is why the computer wanted to read the hard drives for no real reason and why the install failed to begin with but I guess those things happen sometimes.

Questor

 

[Rav3n]

THe IBM GXP drives are notorious for overheating, and then failing completely. I had a pair of 60 gb IBM's, and they crapped out on me, one right after the other. Try placing a fan right under the HD with windows, or scrap the evil things and get a Maxtor or Western Digital. In the past, I have removed the side to my case, placed a normal room fan next to the computer, just to make sure things went right. Also, if you have another CD-ROM drive laying around, try that one to install - then swap it out and replace it with your CDRW...