AAAAAAAAAHHHH Can't get Windows installed...

[GyRo567]

My frustration has led to one reaction: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

At least I haven't kicked the thing yet...

Right, so here's the computer I've got built (well, physically built so far anyway) for a friend.

500w Fortron Source Blue Storm
DFI LANParty NF4 Ultra-D
Athlon 64 FX-53 (he got one free from a friend at AMD =O being phazed out, so yeah)
2x512 MB PC3200 RAM (in DIMMs 2 and 4, not a problem that I know of, I think this motherboard is actually accepting them)
Sapphire X800 XL

Here's where the problems start:
2x250 GB Seagate SATA HDDs (trying to set up in RAID1, which, well, also not quite the problem, but related I'm guessing)
2xNEC DVD-/+RW ND3520A
A floppy...

So here's basically what's happening. I boot up the computer, it no longer shows me the "Press F1 or Delete to enter BIOS Setup", although I FINALLY got back in (just waiting in it until I get a response) by hitting Delete the entire time until I randomly got in. It shows the "LANParty" screen while it boots up and goes directly to the "Press F10 to enter RAID configuration" part. I've tried with or without RAID... actually that reminds me, I haven't tried with RAID disabled entirely yet. Just with or without an array actually built.

Now when it moves past that, it jumps down to the "Boot from CD" (I don't know why it won't take the time to let me see the diagnostics, but yeah) and it either tries to access the floppy, which does nothing and says it's not a bootable disk, or does nothing. It won't access the Windows XP Pro disk 1. =|

I'm hoping a bootable floppy diskette will allow me to get into the Windows installation, but I'm afraid that maybe there's something else major I'm doing wrong (probably involving two SATA HDDs in RAID without any IDEs...) and I'm afraid it'll take me a rather long time to get into BIOS again to fix it.

In short, I need to know if I'm doing something wrong or if the bootable floppy for Windows XP Pro (still need to figure out if it's SP1 or not, friend just gave me CDs themselves) will be able to properly get the system up and running.

 

[pat]

You need to activate RAID for the 2 connectors your HDD are connected. It is in BIOS. The IDE RAID doesnt apply to the SATA connector. You need SATA RAID. Plug your HDD in connector 1 and 2, set RAID for connector 1 and 2, go in RAID setup, make the array, then start the install. press F6 to later install RAID drivers and you should be good to go.

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[GyRo567]

Yeah, that part's taken care of, the thing just won't boot from the Windows disk... =|

 

[dunklegend]

Did you check the jumper on the DVD?
Try setting it as a master on it's own cable.

<font color=red>It's impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious<font color=red>

 

[GyRo567]

Yeah, I accidentally forgot to set the second DVD_RW to Secondary, so I've already checked that. They're on the Primary IDE cable, so I'm wondering if that's got something to do with it. I'm kinda just running out of ideas on what it could be, I'm looking for my older Windows XP Home disk that I know works as a bootable to see if maybe just the disk is bad.

 

[GyRo567]

YES YES!!!

I got into the installation and actually set up RAID drives and all that stuff... It was just on my Windows XP HOME disk... =(

Darnit, now I need to figure out how to work that XP Pro floppy or get a different set of disks from my friend. =|

Somebody wanna help me out on the boot disk? The one from the MS site is a 4 MBish .exe that... well it doesn't seem to do anything useful yet. Just runs and crashes.

EDIT: Wait, I just had a brain storm.... =O
Isn't there a difference when copying a disk between a normal and a BOOTABLE!?! YES!!!! I think that must be it. He gave me disk copies for some reason, not the real things, so maybe that's why it's not booting!!!!!!!!! ^_^ *dies*

Um yeah, I'm gonna try recopying them but formatting the disk as a bootable.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by GyRo567 on 07/12/05 07:02 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Ned_Flanders]

J.H.Christ - What goes through your head when you post?! :lol:



_____________________
<A HREF="http://snipurl.com/fxwr" target="_new">Welcome to the House of Horrors, welcome to the House of a 1000 Corpses</A>

 

[GyRo567]

I dunno, I'm just trying to get Windows XP Pro installed on my friend's computer... >_>

Still looking for a way to either copy it to another CD as a boot disk or find a boot floppy that actually works.

 

[riser]

This is a burned copy of XP Pro? I see this all the time.. made an exact duplicate of the CD and it will probably boot. I was having the same problem where I couldn't get a burned copy of XP to boot. I burned it again and it worked.
Apparently the CD I had burned out of the area that stores the boot info. /shrug

 

[Zoron]

Another thing to be aware of is that you should burn slowly... at least that's been my experience with Windows 2000 / XP CDs. I have ISOs on hand for reloading computers... and I find if I burn the disc at any more than 8X, optical drives have a lot of trouble reading the CD. I usually burn Windows CDs at 4X, and so far it's worked well.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[dunklegend]

I agree with the slow burn. You never know how old is the CD ROM gonna be.

<b><font color=green>Celibacy is not hereditary<font color=green></b>

 

[GyRo567]

Very interesting. =)

So I can theoretically take the copies I already have and slow burn another copy to get it to work? I have plenty of CD-Rs to waste, and I'm running low on coasters if it doesn't work... >_>

I'll try it out. Thanks for the help, if not I'm getting another set of disks from my friend tommorow, lol. I never would have thought about disk burning speed...

 

[GyRo567]

One last small question:

For the life of me, I can't remember how to bring back that little Windows XP setup wizard. You know, the one that you go through the first time it ever boots up? Well yeah, I forgot how to bring that back... and Google is bringing up either network setup wizard results, or the actual installation wizard that's installing.

I know I'm missing something obvious, that or remembering something that doesn't exist.

 

[riser]

Setup wizard where you name your computer and stuff?

Like using Sysprep? (system prepartion) where it allows you to rename your computer, create network connections, enter in your license, etc?

That can be downloaded from Microsoft, search for Sysprep.