AHHHH!!! Need Help

F

fej180

New Member
Hey guys, I am helping a friend put Windows XP on his new HDD. He has a Gateway 300x, and the new HD is a Maxtor SATA II 500GB. He is upgrading from the stock 40GB IDE HD that came with it, and when he bought the drive he had to get a PCI adapter card in order for it to work with his MB.

So, Windows is installed on the old HD, and the new one is recognized by the BIOS and Windows, but what he wants to do is basically do away with the old drive and just use the new one. However, I can't get Windows to go on this drive to save my life. When I put in the XP disk, it loads it and starts to install and all that, then when it gets ready to format, it doesn't display the disk. It says that there is no disk in the drive.

So I brought the HD over to my house thinking it might have something to do with the PCI card, since my MB has SATA ports. Install Windows, and when I go to format it works. Then it reboots and I get this:


Couldn't open drive multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)
NTLDR: Couldn't opn drive multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)

I downloaded this software and used it which is supposed to fix NTLDR errors, but had no luck with it.

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

So I am really lost with this, I think it has something to do with it being an SATA II disk, because I have never had any problems putting XP on a IDE or SATA disk before, and have done it many times. The primary problem isn't what the disk is doing on my computer. Ultimately it is going on his computer, and thats the problem I need fixed. Any help is greatly appreciated :)
 
The SATA hard drive is hooked up to the PCI card? What is the cards manufacturer and model number? You need to get a special driver for the windows installer to work with external controllers.
 
Thanks Cromewell. The HD is hooked up to a PNY PCI card that has SATA ports on it because the MB doesn't. The PCI card came with a CD that you can install (I think) but how do you install it when the Windows CD is already in? I will call and get the specific model number.
 
fej180 said:
Thanks Cromewell. The HD is hooked up to a PNY PCI card that has SATA ports on it because the MB doesn't. The PCI card came with a CD that you can install (I think) but how do you install it when the Windows CD is already in? I will call and get the specific model number.
Click to expand...

When the Windows CD is loading, it will prompt you to hit a specific key if you need to install 3rd party drivers during it's CD-read phase. It will be at the bottom of the screen after the CD starts to load. If you choose to install 3rd party drivers at that point, the Windows CD will make an allowance for you to do so and Setup will pick up from that point after the drivers are installed.

I know I'm late to this Thread and don't want to step on Crom's toes since he's already started helping, but you may wish to give that a shot.
 
You'll need a floppy drive.

I'm assuming Windows XP 32bit. Download the drivers here. In this zip file, open 32-bit Windows then copy the contents from SiL 3132 32-bit Windows BASE Driver Version 1.0.19.0 to a floppy disk. Then at the start of windows setup when it asks you to press F6 for any additional drivers you hit F6 and put the disk in.
When the Windows CD is loading, it will prompt you to hit a specific key if you need to install 3rd party drivers during it's CD-read phase. It will be at the bottom of the screen after the CD starts to load. If you choose to install 3rd party drivers at that point, the Windows CD will make an allowance for you to do so and Setup will pick up from that point after the drivers are installed.

I know I'm late to this Thread and don't want to step on Crom's toes since he's already started helping, but you may wish to give that a shot.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about it, it's no skin off my back :)
 
I see. Thanks for the help. The computer doesn't have a floppy drive, so can I do what imsati suggested and put in the CD when it asks? I suppose if I have to I can take the floppy drive out of the computer and use it in his temporarily. But I would prefer to use the CD that it came with, if thats what it is for and I can use it. And just to be sure, this F6 thing is so that Windows knows that the HD is bootable, right?

Also, after I install this F6 thing, should I expect his computer to do anything different than what it is doing in mine? Which is, giving me the error message listed in my first post in this thread, because in my computer I don't have a PCI card like that.
 
After you get the drivers set and install it on his sytem it will work fine on his system. As far as I know you have to use a floppy, there may be a way to make it use a USB device though.

The F6 driver method is so you can add the driver for the new drive controller to the windows installer. Without the driver windows doesn't know how to use the controller and so you can't see the hard drive.
 
ok, thanks for the help guys! I'm gonna test it out with a USB before i go floppy style. But thanks for taking the time to help me. If I have any more questions or whatever Ill post it here, you guys ROCK!!!
 
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