Unable to install XP on SATA

Welcome to GTG.

You said you formatted the drive using seagates software, did you just create one massive 160GB partition or several smaller ones?
What files system did you use (FAT32 or NTFS)?
Did the seagate utility make the drive active (bootable)?
Has your copy of XP got SP1 or higher on it?

did u configure the drive to be usable in the sata config field for ur mobo

example ctrl+f for promise on asus to enter drive setup utility

Edited by stuart813, 04 June 2005 - 03:31 PM.

Welcome to GTG.

You said you formatted the drive using seagates software, did you just create one massive 160GB partition or several smaller ones?
What files system did you use (FAT32 or NTFS)?
Did the seagate utility make the drive active (bootable)?
Has your copy of XP got SP1 or higher on it?

Thanks for your response.

The Seagate software was strange because the hard drive was bigger than 120GB it had to partition anything after 137GB. So I agreed and understand that it must have two partitions.

The software didn't specify what file system.

Seagates software made the drive readable through the software itself and displayed that it was blank.

The actual CD I am using doesn't. I do have SP2 on another CD, though.

STUART813,

The ASrock mobo doesn't specify any way of configuring the SATA drive.

Thanks for your help,

KoDy.

ok thanks for telling me that i have never used an asrock mobo

OK, heres what I want you to do...
Go to the link below & download the Windows XP system setup disk (single floppy disk version)

http://freepctech.co.../files010.shtml

When you have it, insert a blank floppy & double click the wxpboot.exe file you downloaded. This will create a bootable floppy.

Next boot up your system with the floppy inserted (NB you may have to change the boot priority order in the bios first, to set floppy disk as the first device to boot from)
When its loaded, from the A> prompt, type fdisk and press enter.
If it asks you about large drive support & ntfs, answer Y to both.

In the menu screen, select option 4 to view the drive.
You will see column headings such as partition, status, system etc
Look at the first row underneath these headings & let me know if you see a capital 'A' under <status> heading.
Also let me know whats listed under the <partition> heading & under the <system> heading

Fdisk will ask if you wish to view the logical drive info, answer Y.
You should see one or more entries here, again let me know what is listed under the partition & system heading. (there won't be a status heading)

Press ESC to quit fdisk, remove the floppy & shutdown the system.

Sorry if this sounds rather complicated, but I promise it should all make sense when you actually go to do it.

I created the floppy as you said and...

After selecting option 4 and I saw a capital A under the status heading. It then had a 1 under the partition and a 0 under the system.

Fdisk then did not ask if I wanted to view the logical drive info.

Many thanks for your help, I would appreciate any further guidance you could give...


KoDy.

OK, the A under status is good, but bit concerned about why it says 0 under system.

What did fdisk report the size of the partition & of the drive to be?
EG if you have 137GB partition on 160GB drive, it should report 137000MBytes, 85% usage (as 137 is 85% of 160)
If it states 137000MB and 100% usage, then the seagate utility you used has clipped the drive down to 137GB

It did report that the hard drive had been clipped down to 137GB and the rest was on a seperate partition.

I can now get a little further on setup before it reboots. It starts to copy the windows files over but then reboots after doing a couple of %. It is random when it does this. I have had it reboot after 1%, 15% etc.

Could it be the memory?? I have 1 x 512MB DDR 400 mem in the correct slot. I really don't know what to do with the computer at the moment.

Thanks for your help.

KoDy.

This is my first post to this thread, but I am having EXACTLY the same problem as KODY. I have a new ASUS MOBO and the Seagate 160GB SATA drive. I've gone into the BIOS and booted from my XP CD. I created the SATA drivers diskette and add it during the proper spot in the XP install. Files begin to get copied and then XP says "Install will continue after reboot." The reboot occurs occurs, and this process starts all over again - getting me nowhere fast. I've done this process two ways - leaving the BIOS alone to boot from the CD; and again by interupting the reboot to make it boot from the HD thinking the install would now begin looking at the drive to continue the install. Nothin!

I'll keep watching Trusted Tech to see where we should go from here. Many thanks by the way!!!

COS
Hi there. I'm happy to help with your problem but could you start a new thread so we don't get confused!
Thanks


KODY SCOTT
I don't reckon the ram is the problem, it sounds more like the drive. Can you tell me what fdisk reported the size of the partition etc to be? (ie 137GB or not)
It sounds like you may need to repartition & format the drive again. Fdisk reported 0 under the system heading, when it should have read NTFS for example. 0 indicated that the drive hasn't been setup correctly.

When you run the XP CD, do you get the option to repartition/format the drive?

Hi Samm,

I've partitioned and formatted the drive many many times now using the Seagate software floppy and using the XP Pro CD at different times.

Still, each time I try to install windows it is still getting to a random percent of copying the files then reboots. Last night I got to 35% which Is the furthest I have got!

Fdisk shows the following:

Partition: 1
Status: A
Type: NTFS
Vol Label:
Megabytes: 21545
System:
Usage: 100%

This is really driving me crazy, I have no idea what the problem is!

Thanks for your help,

Edited by Kody_Scott, 21 June 2005 - 06:44 AM.

Can anyone help me with this?? I've been without my PC for about 2 months because of this. I have no idea where the problem is.

Thanks,

KoDy.

hi Kody Scott is this not a simple case of not pressing a key to boot from cd on the second reboot,,,after windows has copied the files from the disc ??

dont mean to imply any lack of knowledge...

Can you confirm for me that the bios recognises the drive size correctly?