I need help. This is fustrating. I Have a new motherboard which is a Gigabyte P35-DS4, upgrading to this from a previous motherboard. Also upgraded to a new core2 duo cpu.

I need to reformate my system because it has the previous motherboards drivers on it. And the furtherest i can get into Windows XP is the start menu for 5 seconda before my system freezes up. The person at the computer shop who installed it also suggested i needed to reformat it because of that reason.

Im pretty sure it is a Raid controller. I have been through this before when re formatting. I insert the XP cd and the raid controller preinstall disk in and press F6. I spam F6 and it does not go to the setup, Windows just starts normally and then eventually it will lock up and i cannot go from there. I have tried downloading the updated BIOS driver for my motherboard and manageed to install that though the startup motherboard utility. It had fixed nothing. I dont know what else to do. I


Please help

This post has been edited by mrtypr: Dec 5 2007, 05:42 AM

can anyone help?

The data currently on the hard disk is probably interfering with a new XP setup process, especially since something as important as the motherboard has been changed. If that's the case the disk will need to be 'wiped' first. You can do this with a 'Darik's Boot And Nuke' (DBAN) bootable floppy available from here:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Create the DBAN floppy using the downloaded file on a working PC, boot up with it on your problem PC, let it wipe the C: drive then try running XP setup again.

This post has been edited by pip22: Dec 5 2007, 05:47 AM

ok i did all that. Tried to boot it from the floppy i created. It does not boot from the floppy. Windows just boots up again

It sounds like you have your boot sequence set to boot from the hard drive before the cdrom. Look in the motherboard manual to see exactly how to set the boot sequence, but typically you go into the bios setup menu and look for a tab or area called boot. Then just make sure that your cdrom is higher than your hard drive.

I hope this helps.

na im aware of all that. I changed the boot so the had drive boots last

Well, there is really only two reasons that your computer would not boot off of a CD. 1)boot sequence and 2) the CD itself is not bootable.

Can you verify that the CD you are using is actually bootable? Maybe try it on another computer.

ok managed to make it boot from cd.

but now more problems sigh...

I formated my partition which was 250gig. Then i went to proceed to install windows. It kept saying it still had a windows xp version on it. So i formatted it again. Then the same thing. Third try i deleted it. It then left me with this other partitin with 130gig. It says: 13062MB (131061MB free) I dont know how i can get the other partition back. But i proceeded to install windows on that partition. It keeps saying there is a Windows XP copy on that partition. Now i have reformatted that twice and deleted it. But it keeps doing the same thing over and over saying there is already a windows version on it.

How do i bring back the other partition that i deleted I think i need that one to install it. The new motherboard did not come with a RAID floppy disk. Althought the previous motherboard did but it is replaced now..

Update...

I manaaged to format c:\ through the recovery console.

Windows XP is now installing....

But, I am worried about that partition i deleted. It said on the Windows setup wad 130gig, When my Hard disk is like 250gig. Will i get it back once i install my motherboard drivers?

Any ideas?

this just keeps getting better

Windows installion get to, "installing devices" and locks up over and over

i really need help with this

First off, I understand your frustration as I had a similar experience when I first started getting into all of this, but you'll make it

As far as your first problem, there is a known limitation in Windows XP (with no service packs) that prevents partition sizes greater than 137 gigs to be created. I think this is where you're having problems with partitions. The easiest way to get around this is to "slipstream" service pack 2 into a new Windows XP installation disk. There is a handy program called nLite that can assist you with this.

www.nliteos.com

nLite will also allow you to build your raid driver, hotfixes, and other programs into your install cd. They have a good guide on nlite at http://www.nliteos.com/guide/

To obtain the raid driver for your motherboard, you will need to look at the manufacturer's website for it. More than likely, it will be under their support or downloads page.

Hope that helps.

I am not sure I understood the sequence of events but something is weired with those formats and installations. It looks to me as if you do not install correctly, therefore leaving xp installations (or part installations) on the HD. Please read the installation instructions carefully. At some point you will see a list of your partitions. Delete all of them, one at a time, following the instructions. After that recreate the partitions which should be defined as raw. Now mark the C partition and proceed to format it. Run full format (not quick) and proceed with the installation.

If still no good I would reformat the disk under DOS. (If you don't know how to do this please ask). After that I would reinstall XP, reformating to NTFS in the process.

Alternatively, you can perform a low-level-format which zeroes every bit of your computer then reinstall windows.