XP won't install on New Un-Formatted HD? ideas?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Booda
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Booda

Booda

Master of the Obvious
What am I doing wrong? I've built several systems and can't get this one started.

I'm building a PC for friend out of my spare parts and some new parts. I got a new 80g Hard Drive that is Not Formatted or Partitioned. Usually when building a new system, XP just fires right up from the CD-R and asks if you want to format and load XP... Right? (Unlike the old w95/98 days)

When this system boots up... after finding the CD-Rom... Nothing happens. I've tried it with an older lite-On 24x CD-rom and my new NEC DvD-RW. I can't get it to do the F8 thing either... where I can load up the W98 start-up Floppy to get CD-rom support. If I unhook the Hard Drive I can do the F8, but I need the Hard drive to load XP.

Any Ideas? What am I doing wrong? Should I Format and Partition this new Hard Drive in another working XP PC and then load XP on it in the new PC?

Thanks for any help,
B.
 
Do you have the CDROM as the first boot device set in the bios?
 
Booda said:
If I unhook the Hard Drive I can do the F8, but I need the Hard drive to load XP.

Thanks for any help,
B.
Click to expand...
The drive may be bad.
 
Check the jumpers. The CD and hard drive may be set the same (Master slace or CS).

I would put the hard drive on the primary IDE controller as the master and the CR drive on the secondard IDE controller as master.
If you only have 1 IDE controller put the hard drive as master and cd as slave.
 
I believe there is something called a low-level format which is the very first thing done to a hard disk and seperate from the standard format. Has this already been done?
 
Thanks for the ideas!

I should have explained more of the setup...

HD is on IDE 1 as master , CD-Rom is on IDE 2 as Master.

The hard drive is Brand New and shows up in the BIOS... I don't think it's Bad.

tamky "I believe there is something called a low-level format which is the very first thing done to a hard disk and seperate from the standard format. Has this already been done?"

No, no formatting what so ever. Maybe I should put the drive in My PC & format it? I just don't think I had to do that in the past.

Which variable makes the boot from CD work? I remember sometimes having to use a Win98 startup disk to get the CD-Rom support. I'm pretty sure it's the CD-Rom?... but maybe it's the MB or HD? This is a older PII 333 that I'm puting together.

Thanks,
B.
 
Booda said:
Thanks for the ideas!


No, no formatting what so ever. Maybe I should put the drive in My PC & format it? I just don't think I had to do that in the past.

B.
Click to expand...
I would be real reluctant to perform a low-level format. I remember screwing up a drive with a low-level format. I'd visit the manufacter's website before I'd try that.
 
Which variable makes the boot from CD work? I remember sometimes having to use a Win98 startup disk to get the CD-Rom support. I'm pretty sure it's the CD-Rom?... but maybe it's the MB or HD? This is a older PII 333 that I'm puting together.
Click to expand...

If you are not getting bumped into XP setup on boot, than it is def the boot order in the bios
 
Is it a new hard drive? If so, try running the software that came with the driver before installing Windows. With XP, though, it has a pretty good installation routine.

It sounds like the Windows setup isn't even showing up. As they guys have said, check your jumper settings and make sure that you aren't sharing CD-ROM's and HDD's on the same IDE cable. Next, go into the BIOS and check the startup order. Make sure the CD-ROM is set to first boot priority. Some BIOS will need you to specify the drive.

Also, the Windows XP install CD has a timeout of about 5 seconds, so you need to watch your computer when you start it up. It should say "Press Any Key To Install Windows....." or something like that. If you see that, hit a key, and you should be good to go.

I recommend doing a FULL (not QUICK) format of the hard drive before installing Windows from the setup screen. You can either delete or add partitions from the XP setup screen, as well as format. Good tool.
 
I figured it out. Like I said this is an older MB and I put a jumper on to Limit the size of disk... and she fired right up!

One more question...
Once XP has loaded will I be able to partition and use the other 1/2 of the drive? It's an 80G drive and is now limited to 40G.

Thanks all, for the input... and Merry Christmas!
B.
 
Is your motherboard limiting the hard drive space?

What does the hard drive space show up as in the BIOS / XP setup screen?

If it's 80000 MB or thereabouts, you could split it, but I'd imagine that if the MoBo limits it to 40000 MB, you're stuck there.
 
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