XP install on SATA drive... problems

dkh

New Member
Specs for new build:

ASUS A8N-SLI
3800+ X2 AMD
XP Home OEM (newegg)
WD SATA 3Gb/sec 250GB 16M Cache
Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W
2X NEC DVD/CD RW

I also have two HDDs from my old PC which I am installing for extra capacity:
WD 40GB IDE
Maxtor 250GB IDE

I'm attempting to install XP on the new SATA WD HDD. Partitioned it first using WinSetup. Got through entering the product key the first time and it gave me the "Boot drive failure, insert system disk". I remembered I had to do the whole press F6 to install SATA driver thing. Made SATA driver floppy disk using provided ASUS CD. Started WinSetup again, erased first install, installed SATA driver (it was called Soft RAID, not SATA, but it seemed like the only choice as all the others were nVRAID drivers or for 64-bit OS). Sailed through Setup, entered product key, and XP loaded and was working. It asked me the initial setup questions, I played around a bit with the screen resolution, checked MyComputer to see if everything I installed was showing. I then popped in the ASUS CD to install the nVidia chipset drivers. When that finished it prompted me to re-start. Then I got the "Boot drive failure, insert system disk"... and that's all I continue to get.

Please help!
 

Trizoy

VIP Member
All the HD plugged in are Sata? Or Ide converted to Sata? Im looking for jumper settings...
 

dkh

New Member
Only one is SATA - the one I'm trying to install XP on.

The other two are true IDE/PATA drives hooked up on the same PATA cable using cable select on both.

All of my hardware is recognized correctly by the BIOS.
 

robina_80

Active Member
to make your sata drives work on your motherboard you need the motherboard cd and in there should be the drivers for the sata h/d BUT you need a floopy to copy the drivers to and then when XP installs press f8 to install the sata/raid drivers
 

dkh

New Member
So I have to install SATA and RAID drivers even if I'm not doing a RAID configuration with any of the HDDs?

When I boot from the ASUS CD, these are the choices I am given:

1. Make Sil3114 32bit Sata/Raid Driver disk
2. Make Sil3114 64bit Sata/Raid Driver disk
3. Make Nvidia 2000 RAID Driver disk
4. Make Nvidia XP RAID Driver disk
5. Make Nvidia 2003 RAID Driver disk
6. Make Nvidia 64bit XP RAID Driver disk
7. Make Nvidia 64bit 2003 RAID Driver disk
8. Format Floppy disk
9. FreeDOS command prompt

I am using 32bit WinXP and don't want to set up a RAID configuration. When I installed the XP using the Sata driver floppy the first time, I formatted with choice number 8, and then copied choice number 1 above to the disk. Did I need to copy any of the other choices above?

More help is needed, please.
 

dkh

New Member
Damn this is getting frustrating! @#$%!!! Now it keeps wanting to install XP in the same place over and over. I made the RAID and SATA driver disks, attempted to install, it went through the copying of XP files, restarted, and Setup wants to copy files again, rather than installing the files it already copied. WTF!!! I'm in desperate need of help here, guys. Please!
 

Trizoy

VIP Member
NO.. Let the winxp cd load. It will say Press f6 to load raid drivers. This is before it gives you any other options. Nothing has loaded. Press f6 and plop in the a: disk. Then once they are loaded, restart pc.

NOW your IDE drives are hooked up on the IDE cable? you have two on the same ribbon? The first, or second IDE? What im trying to get at is.. Are there 2 IDE hard drived on ONE IDE ribbon, both with cable select? And then the main HD on the SATA0 port?
 

dkh

New Member
Trizoy said:
NO.. Let the winxp cd load. It will say Press f6 to load raid drivers. This is before it gives you any other options. Nothing has loaded. Press f6 and plop in the a: disk. Then once they are loaded, restart pc.

NOW your IDE drives are hooked up on the IDE cable? you have two on the same ribbon? The first, or second IDE? What im trying to get at is.. Are there 2 IDE hard drived on ONE IDE ribbon, both with cable select? And then the main HD on the SATA0 port?
Yes, both IDE HDDs are on the same IDE cable connected to primary IDE channel with HDD jumpers set to cable select.I don't know which is the SATA0 port, my SATA ports are labeled SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, SATA4. I have the SATA HDD I'm installing the OS on hooked up to SATA3.

Here is the order I used when loading XP CD.

1. Made SATA/RAID driver disk from ASUS support CD
2. Boot from WinXP CD
3. When promped, pressed F6 and got the section on installing 3rd party drivers.
4. Installed drivers from floppy
5. WinXP then copies XP files, restarts PC
6. The whole process starts over again! It wants to copy XP files, asks to press F6 again, basically starting over!

I don't need to press F6 again, do I?
 
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Trizoy

VIP Member
You dont need the cd in after you have loaded the driver. Also try pluggin the main SATA drive into the lowest sata port possible, AND disable the other ports which are not being used(in bios). I would also recomend disconnecting the IDE drives so as not to delete, or create extra problems while installing. IF WinXP has not been installed properly, restart the pc with the disc in and load the OS.

Is there a problem with this?

By disconnecting the IDE drives, you will see if they are causing some of the problem. It is easy as pie to just plug them back in later.
 
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dkh

New Member
Got past the copying of files, restarted, now it's starting to install files, gets from 39 minutes remaining to 37 minutes remaining (IOW, 2 minutes in), and box pops up that says "Windows has not passed Logo testing, we recommend you do not continue with this installation, please contact your software vendor..."

Now WTF do I do? This whole system building thing is for the birds.
 

Trizoy

VIP Member
Just continue.. is this a GOOD version with a good cd-key? Or did you download it? Just tell it to keep going. You can get a new key from MS later.
 

dkh

New Member
Trizoy said:
Just continue.. is this a GOOD version with a good cd-key? Or did you download it? Just tell it to keep going. You can get a new key from MS later.
Yes, it's a brand new, just openned last night, with SP2, from Newegg that no one else has used. Believe me, I tried to find a way around paying $85 for it, but I gave in and ante-ed up to MS.

Could it be having this problem because I've installed it close to a dozen times in the past 24 hours?

Anyway, I seem to have gotten it to run. Plugged the SATA drive in to SATA1 instead of SATA3, disconnected the two IDE drives, re-made the floppys with the drivers for the third time, and it worked. However, I did have the problem again when I connected the 40GB IDE HDD up. You see, on my old PC (a Dell), this was the disk that had WinXP installed from the factory. The second IDE HDD (a 250GB Maxtor) I added to the Dell over a year ago. I had no problem when connecting the non-OS-containing IDE HDD (Maxtor 250G) to this new build after I had finally installed correctly on the SATA dirve. But when I connected the disk containing the old WinXP (40G) from the Dell it gave me the "boot disk failure, insert..." again. I suppose it saw that OS and attempted but failed to load it...? Anyway, I have it disconnected and have left just the old 250GB IDE and new 250GB SATA. Seems to working well.

Sorry for the rant earlier... I'm sure many of you guys have felt the same way at some point. Thanks for all the help, folks.
 

Trizoy

VIP Member
Dont do cable select. I would place the 40gb drive on the first ide ribbon, as a SLAVE. Then plug the 250gb ide drive on the same ribbon as the master.

As the slave the 40gb wont be given the option to load the OS.
 
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