Win XP not installing

I

idyllhands

New Member
Win XP formats my new SATA HDD, but doesn't seem to completely install. It formats the HDD with an 8MB unpartitioned space (which I read is normal) and then the rest of the drive is a NTFS as it should be. But when the blue screen installer finishes formatting, it goes back to the screen asking which partition to install windows to, and if I select the NTFS drive, it says windows already installed there. I seem to remember that once it formats the HDD, it should reboot into windows to finish installing.
I deleted partition and reinstalled it with the same result.
The partially installed OS will not boot the HDD if I just exit the setup after formatting, it gets to the "Boot from CD:" line (where it will say CD Found if working) and hangs up
If I boot off the CD, the same blue screen installer pops up and all I can do is reinstall it
If I disable CDROM boot in the CMOS, for some reason, it still says "Boot from CD:" and hangs at the same spot
CMOS problem?? Any help here would be eternally appreciated!!

edit: could it be a SATA/RAID controller problem? Kinda weird, because it will format it, but not boot off of it once it's formatted. Also, there is a jumper on my drive...what is that for??
 
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Erox1991 said:
If you don't have SP2 XP SATA won't work. You've to update your cd..
Click to expand...

But the Windows installer is seeing the drive, which leads me to believe that I must have SP2 right? Or would it even be able to see the drive, but not boot off of it after formatting it??
 
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GIGABYTE GA-K8NU-SLI 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

This is the model mobo I have..but the gigabyte website doesn't list that model. The closest I can find is GIGABYTE GA-K8N-SLI
(which drops the "U") Will these SATA drivers work? All I have to work with is a laptop right now with no disk drive so I need to go to a friends house to make my drivers disk. I just need to download the exe to a disk and run it to extract it on the disk, and then hit F6 when Windows installs, right?
Also, I'd like to know if anyone else thinks this may be a hardware issue, since Windows installer is seeing my SATA drive, but just won't boot from it after install. Thanks for the help
 
Erox1991 said:
If you don't have SP2 XP SATA won't work. You've to update your cd..
Click to expand...

Not true. I've installed XP SP1 on countless SATA systems with no additional drivers.

Idy, it could be a few things at this point, including a faulty CD. What kind of CD is it (Retail, Upgrade, Full Version, etc.)? Are there any scratches/smudges on it? Have you used this exact CD to install before? How is your drive Partitioned (do you just have the one C:\ area and the 8 MB free space)?

The Installer goes in this order:
CD Setup (loading the files it needs to do it's work)-->Type of Install (Repair, New Install)-->License Agreement-->Create Partition(s)-->choose which Partition to Install to-->Format/Beginning of Installation.

You Installer is going *back* to the Partition screen after it formats the Drive? Have you tried selecting other Filesystem Format options?
 
It goes back to the Type of Install screen, where you press Enter to install windows.
Then when I accept agreement then it goes to available partitions, where it now lists the NTFS partition, along with the 8MB unpartioned bit. I can then delete the partition and reinstall, or I can quit setup (at which point it says something to the extent of Windows has not been installed). If I choose to re-format, and I leave it to format once the status bar appears (and check it periodically...it is increasing towards 100%) then once I come back, it has apparently completed installation but it goes back to the type of install screen (I think it's supposed to reboot instead and then continue installing Windows, right?)
I have installed it successfully on at least 2 of my previous HDD, both being SATA drives.
I have taken good care of the disc, so it shouldn't be scratched, but it is OEM Pro version (and it's 64 bit...in case I didn't mention that already)

Also, what other Filesystem formats are you referring to? I get either NTFS or NTFS (quick) and that's all.

Thanks for any help you can give, I'm a little frustrated since I already lost a HDD and that's why I have to reinstall =(

Another possibility is my CMOS...When my last HDD went out, it kept having to "restore defaults" on it, but it's not doing that now..what a mess =(
 
I'm guessing your not booting to the HDD after it partitions and does the basic install.

After boot, try pressing the key to select the boot device, and it should work.
 
What do you mean by selecting boot device?
I can set 3 devices in my BIOS, I set all 3 to "Harddisk" but for some reason it is still trying to boot off a CDROM.
I think you maybe on the right track saying it's not trying to boot from the HDD, would "Harddisk" in my BIOS mean IDE HDD only? My BIOS doesn't offer a SCSI option, just Harddisk, CDROM, ZIP, or USB.
Is there like a function key to hit on the keyboard to select boot device? I don't think it even gets far enough to hit F6 if that's what you mean.
 
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OK, I tried running setup using my mobo's sata drivers disk and hitting the key to install "Third party drivers" when setup starts. Trying that way, the installer does not detect the HDD at all..
If I don't install the drivers, it detects it and lists it as "476938 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]"
I can get into the console and run commands on it, but no luck booting...this is a royal pain and I don't understand the issue at all, since I have installed a SATA drive before with no problems =/
 
My friend came over and figured it out for me. 2 problems: first, I installed it without the SATA drivers. Then, while trying to figure out that problem, I enabled the SATA RAID in BIOS, which caused BIOS to stop seeing the drive, I guess because it was not RAIDed. I thought I tried resetting BIOS defaults, but must've changed it back...=P
Thanks for trying to help, I'll know better next time.
 
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