installing windows

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robina_80

Active Member
im trying to install windows XP Pro on this pc, ive upgraded the RAM to 384 and ive just installed a new hard drive its an IDE 500GB Western Digital, i enter bios select boot first from CD, once windows cd boots it then does the usual, then it asks me to select a hard drive and format it so i do, after it completes it restarts the computer and thats when i get the following message.

A disk read error ocurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

does that mean my Hard drive is faulty, or maybe the Hard drive is to big for this pc im trying to install windows on. my pc is a Dell Optiplex GX1 450S+
 
Your problem is having left the cd rom option set as the first item in the boot order. That will now have to set to hard drive in order to see the bios look to the hard drive itself for boot information. From there Windows will finish installing.

Many boards see a separate boot device menu where you can select the optical drive for a one time boot session while leaving the hard drive set as the default device in the bios. That option seen on the first post screen is generally one of the F keys assigned for this and makes things go quicker then repeat trips into the bios.
 
It sounds like a bad install then if you had reset hard drive as the first item in the boot order. Even with the second item set for cd rom you can still see problems however depending on the make and model board. I generally set the first 2 or 3 to hard drive and disable the rest.

If the installer didn't partition the drive correctly along with a normal disk scan you might run into this. Upon seeing the setup files are now copied and the system restart the problem is software however not the drive. You wouldn't even get that far with a dead drive.

Here the first item I generally use a 3rd party drive tool instead of allowing the Windows installer to first partition and later format the primary as part of the installation. The Gnome Partition Editor(GParted live for cd) is used for both XP and Vista as well as when going to try out a distro on occasion. From there if Windows then runs into a problem something never went on fully requiring a full reinstall.

Unfortunately that's precisely what the MS support section also indicates for that particular error. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911080 You may even want to use GParted since that is free to see a new primary for the next attempt to avoid the same thing from reoccuring.
 
The size of the drive doesn't matter since a new model ide drive is still backward compatible with older system ATA 33, 66, 100 boards. The problem with size is a problem seen with XP SP1 and prior to SP1 seeing a 137gb barrier and older versions like 98 where a bios bypass utility was an option then.

The problem is generally seen when you have a bad install of Windows. Bad ram is one culprit to look at if you are now reinstalling Windows having just added memory that clashes with the original for some reason like mixing a performance dimm with value ram or a dual sided dimm added on a board that is limited to single sided only.

When you mention upgrading to 384mb what amount did you upgrade from 256mb? Trying to get specifications on that model is certainly a Dellmare for sure on any discontinued model! :rolleyes: Those would be helpful here as well as where you bought the additional memory to see if that's your problem.
 
Older BIOSes cant see drives that are over certain sizes. The fact he upgraded the ram to 384 points to an older system, and therefore probably an older bios
 
He's probably looking at a few things as a rule. The newer, larger drives themselves however are still backward compatible. The one thing not mentioned earlier was a likely need to go into the bios itself and enable LBA(Logical Block Addressing) support there. That is a common necessity when working with older systems.
 
There is no way a GX1 is going to see a 500gb harddrive. Think those came with a up to a 10gb harddrive. It probable has lower than a 32gb. limit. Doesnt matter if the harddrive is backward compatible or not, its a bios limit, the backward compatible only applies to speed not size. When your booting to your XP cd it can see the drive fine, but when that first restart happens and your booting back to the drive instead of the CD the Bios just loses the drive. The Bios limit on the board makes it impossible to see it. The reason for the (disk read error ocurred). One way to do it is to use a Bios Overlay.
 
ive updated thye bios to the latest version A10 also i got the ram where i worked so i dunno what ram it is, also one last question is the cd in the computer is an IDE as you probably have guessed but it doesnt have jumper pins its got none so does that mean its master or slave?!?
 
Most older prebuilds naturally see ide drives(HDs, optical) set to cable select by default. All a service tech has to do when replacing a drive is simply mount it in and plug it in the way it comes since ide type drives are shipped out from the manufacturer set to CS already.

If the bios on the board there supports larger drives there will be a large capcity drive setting in the bios itself and the following would apply regarding Logical Block Addressing mentioned before.

"LBA has in recent years become the dominant form of [COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]hard [COLOR=blue! important]disk[/color][/color][/color] addressing. Since the 8.4 GB limit of the Int13h interface was reached, it became impossible to express the geometry of large hard disks using cylinder, head and sector numbers, translated or not, while remaining below the Int13h limits of 1,024 cylinders, 256 heads and 63 sectors. Therefore, modern drives are no longer specified in terms of classical geometry, but rather in terms of their total number of user data sectors and addressed using LBA. See here for more on this." http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/modesLBA-c.html

Even an old I486 system ran here for a period of time saw the option in the bios for enabling large drive support. That would be found in the integrated peripherals or hardware configuration section depending on what bios is used.

You'll likely have to browse the bios on your own since the system manual may not provide enough information about this feature if available. If you run across it there you should see something like "this enables using larger hard drives" or something to that effect once you have it highlighted. On many old boards you had to manually enter the total number of sectors, cylinders, heads you read on the drive's label to see it work.
 
its wierd coz when i plug in the old HD that i had on that computer the bios recognizes it plus also shows the CD aswell but when i plug in the new HD it doesnt show in bios atall not even the CD
 
robina_80 said:
its wierd coz when i plug in the old HD that i had on that computer the bios recognizes it plus also shows the CD aswell but when i plug in the new HD it doesnt show in bios atall not even the CD
Click to expand...

Like I said in post 9. The bios is not going to see a 500gb harddrive regardless of the LBA settings. You will have to use a bios overlay.
 
Bios overlays or better put bios bypass utilities provided by drive manufacturers would allow older versions of Windows like 98SE to see a single Fat32 primary on a 250gb ide drive realizing some 232-234gb after partitioning and formatting. The enhanced FDisk update tool only realized some 74gb max.

When a drive itself was over what the bios could recognise there were some software utilities made available to fooling the board into seeing the drive's actual size. Otherwise you had to split drives up into several smaller partitions in order to use it.

Since the board there is newer then an old I486 it should see an option found in the bios for allowing large capacity drives. What someone else is focused on is dynamic disk volumes while most desktops will see the basic. For insight on disk size barriers and methods used to overcome what is seen on old systems review the information at http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/over_DDO.htm
 
robina_80 said:
its wierd coz when i plug in the old HD that i had on that computer the bios recognizes it plus also shows the CD aswell but when i plug in the new HD it doesnt show in bios atall not even the CD
Click to expand...

robina_80 said:
bios overlay?
Click to expand...

Since it doesnt show at all in the bios. Go into the bios to the IDE channel that its on at, set it to user defined- 1023 cylinders- 16 heads- 63 sectors- set any other setting to 0. Then set the mode to normal or LBA disabled.

Restart and see if it show up in the bios, doesnt matter what size it shows, only that it shows in the bios. If so then download W/D Data Lifeguard tools for floppy or CD, boot to it and partition and format the drive. Then pop in your XP cd and do the install.

Edit
If the first above doesnt not work, reset the IDE in the bios back to Auto. Look on the end on the drive at the jumpers. If this is the only drive on the cable put jumpers on pins 3/4 and 5/6. If there is a two drives on the cable put jumpers on pins 1/2 and 5/6. restart and see if the bios sees it. If so do the Data Lifeguard tool
 
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If you don't see the LBA or Translation mode option then you will have to go for the Lifeguard tools. WD's own instructions for their ide models however specifies enabling the LBA mode if the drive isn't seen immediately. http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2779-001001.pdf?wdc_lang=en

You'll see on page #8 of the pdf instructions once you select the PATA/ide type of drive and reach the support page at http://support.wdc.com/product/install.asp?groupid=502&lang=en

The links for the various downloads including those for burning to cd or preparing a 3 1/2 floppy are found at http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=502&level1=&prodid=&modelno=&lang=en The download will be a zip file.
 
From the very link you gave.


If your system BIOS does not have an
Auto Config drive type or does not show full
capacity, (((disable LBA))), select User Defined, and enter 1023 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63​

sectors for the drive parameters. ((Selecting User Defined ensures that the software will
install on your system)).​

I,ve done this many times and do not need any google links. In the bios the IDE are set to Auto by default, if it has LBA setting it is at auto by default also. So if it has it, it was enabled already.​
 
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First of all the link you just quoted from wasn't any "google link"? Sorry! But I've been dealing with WD drives for a bit lot longer then you've been around. The links there are for the installation guide and Lifeguard downloads direct from WD.
 
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