IDE problem, old VIA Pentium III motherboard.

[Matias16]

Hi, i was trying to revive an old Pentium III pc. It has a socket Pentium III 600mhz, 256mb DDR, an old VIA Motherboard (i dont know the model), and an 80gb IDE HDD.
I was trying to install Windows XP, and I got to the part of the intallation where it reboots itself to continue from the hard drive. But when it gets to the "verifying dmi pool data" part, it hangs there and says "error loading operating system". I'm almost sure I has to do with the Bios config, but I don't know what I should be modifying.
I would be really appreciate if you could help me on this one, and sorry for my english, I'm obviously not a native speaker.

 

[C12Friedman]

First thing, check the jumper on the back of the HDD which should be in the "Cable Select" or "Master" position if on slot 0 (it should state on the cable) or "Cable Select" or "Slave" if in slot 1 or 2. There are instances where CS doesn't function properly so the master/slave jumpers would need to be used.
In BIOS you can check your boot order to ensure the HDD is listed as first or second

 

[Matias16]

The HDD is in Master (16 heads), and I tried both slots just in case it actually made a difference. I also tried putting it first or second in the boot order (right after the CDROM) and nothing changed. I tried putting it as large, lba, and normal even though I don't know what that is, and didn't make a difference.
"Fixboot" and "fixmbr" didn't work either.

 

[C12Friedman]

The HDD is in Master (16 heads), and I tried both slots just in case it actually made a difference. I also tried putting it first or second in the boot order (right after the CDROM) and nothing changed. I tried putting it as large, lba, and normal even though I don't know what that is, and didn't make a difference.
"Fixboot" and "fixmbr" didn't work either.

Aw shucks, that pretty much covers my act - just on a lark, you might try changing all IDE devices to Cable Select but other than that, I'm dumbfounded

 

[Matias16]

The HDD is in Master (16 heads), and I tried both slots just in case it actually made a difference. I also tried putting it first or second in the boot order (right after the CDROM) and nothing changed. I tried putting it as large, lba, and normal even though I don't know what that is, and didn't make a difference.
"Fixboot" and "fixmbr" didn't work either.

Aw shucks, that pretty much covers my act - just on a lark, you might try changing all IDE devices to Cable Select but other than that, I'm dumbfounded

It's Ok thanks anyway! Hope to find a solution. I know that PC can run windows xp without problem, it used to have it but I just don't know how it did it lol.

 

[C12Friedman]

You might try running SeaTools for DOS http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/ (which doesn't need an OS installed to run) to ensure the HDD is working properly, could be an issue with the HDD itself

 

[Matias16]

You might try running SeaTools for DOS http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/ (which doesn't need an OS installed to run) to ensure the HDD is working properly, could be an issue with the HDD itself

I think it's ok. The last time I checked (about a week ago) the HDD was showing better stats than my new 1tb caviar black. I'll try it anyway just to see if the PC is recognizeing it properly. Thanks!