hard-drive won't accept OS...

mark richards

mark richards

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I had a problem with a pc that i use for work..it had a hard-drive failure, so had a new one , but when i try to install OS, it goes has far as : setup is starting windows then starts all over again...I have formatted the drive and partitioned it , dont now what else it could be...I have tried windows vista ,windows 7 & windows xp , xp was the original OS...any ideas, mark..
 
Not sure what point you are getting to, do you get to the partition / format part and then starts copying files after that will reboot at that point you don't want to boot from the cd again but from the hard drive so setup can continue

Maybe i have got the wrong end of the stick here :shrug:
 
youll need to load your SATA controller driver. XP has a press F6 to load storage drivers prompt near the start of the blue screen section (youll need a floppy with the driver). but as far as i know vista and 7 should just give you no hard drives displayed when you get to that section and there is an option to specify a driver.
 
unless he's running RAID or AHCI or an addin SATA card it's unlikely that he need a storage driver to install.

would probably need more info on the hardware specs.
 
Mark said:
Not sure what point you are getting to, do you get to the partition / format part and then starts copying files after that will reboot at that point you don't want to boot from the cd again but from the hard drive so setup can continue

Maybe i have got the wrong end of the stick here :shrug:
Click to expand...
yes you are right there mate ...loads all the files , up to the point where i should enter key, reboots then starts all over again ??? its like if the hard-drive is not there, mark...

neil, ...does the mother board need drivers for hard-drive ,if so how do i install them?? mark..( I will have to download drivers from web)
 
As Mark says, it sounds like your system is booting from the disk, when it restarts, either eject the disk when it shuts down to reboot or go into the bios and make your hard drive the first boot option.

Pete
 
heidfirst said:
unless he's running RAID or AHCI or an addin SATA card it's unlikely that he need a storage driver to install.

would probably need more info on the hardware specs.
Click to expand...

buzzzz. wrong. had it loads of times with various drives/motherboards.. so much so we ended up slipstreaming the drivers into our XP disks at work ;)
 
no, I'm right.
but hardware specs would help to confirm either way.
 
Pete Allen said:
As Mark says, it sounds like your system is booting from the disk, when it restarts, either eject the disk when it shuts down to reboot or go into the bios and make your hard drive the first boot option.

Pete
Click to expand...

tried that, took disc out ...but it just says to insert disc and press a key.......then starts all over again. I managed to get the chipset drivers for motherboard & hard-drive , put them on flashdrive...when i tried to put them onto system f6 ,it shows me the files ,but wont open them....
 
mark richards said:
tried that, took disc out ...but it just says to insert disc and press a key.......then starts all over again. I managed to get the chipset drivers for motherboard & hard-drive , put them on flashdrive...when i tried to put them onto system f6 ,it shows me the files ,but wont open them....
Click to expand...

if its anything like server 2008 it wont take them off USB flash for some reason, we had to burn them to CD :cuckoo:
 
From recent experience, windows xp install cannot see a sata drive without external drivers. They need to be on either a cd/dvd a floppy or a usb floppy, flash drives will not do.
 
The computer is clearly booting from the DVD drive and reading/writing the HD drive. The boot drive is clearly the DVD as it boots the install disc then the OS setup files are copied.

What you need to do (after you have let it install the initial setup files) is - as the computer restarts hit DEL or F1 or whatever the key is to enter the BIOS setup and change the boot drive to the HD. It appears that it is just continuously rebooting the DVD.
 
Steep said:
From recent experience, windows xp install cannot see a sata drive without external drivers. They need to be on either a cd/dvd a floppy or a usb floppy, flash drives will not do.
Click to expand...

Yes it can, provided its been formatted, ive installed XP thousands of times onto brand new and used drives and not once have i had to install a driver from an external source, i did exactly this yesterday on a computer ive just shipped out.
 
don't know if it helps
but one of my PCs doesn't see the SATA drive after a reset
it only sees it after a power off power on cycle

it's not a driver issue as win xp is booting of another drive

so maybe when it goes for the reboot
get in there and switch it off, then back on again

leaving the CD in shouldn't matter as it's smart enough to realise it's part way through and actually boots of the hard drive

HTH :shrug:
 
Have also installed XP onto SATA drives without drivers etc.
But have also known a system to refuse to install to on similar setups-Seems to be certain combo's of controller/drive...
Also-"leaving the CD in shouldn't matter as it's smart enough to realise it's part way through and actually boots of the hard drive":-Only works if the BIOS is set to boot from HD first.. (On an empty drive it will boot from CD if no OS on HDD while set to HDD-But if its set to boot from CD,and it finds a bootable CD/DVD in drive-it will boot from the Cd every single time regardless of whats on the HDD)
 
neil_g said:
youll need to load your SATA controller driver.
Click to expand...

I had to do this with my SATA driven Stinkpad. It confused the heck out of
me as id never experienced this with IDE drives :thumbs:
 
cowasaki said:
The computer is clearly booting from the DVD drive and reading/writing the HD drive. The boot drive is clearly the DVD as it boots the install disc then the OS setup files are copied.

What you need to do (after you have let it install the initial setup files) is - as the computer restarts hit DEL or F1 or whatever the key is to enter the BIOS setup and change the boot drive to the HD. It appears that it is just continuously rebooting the DVD.
Click to expand...

it should prompt you to "press any key to boot from cd/dvd" though, as long as nothing is pressed it will boot from the next device.
 
As neil says above, it should boot from the next device, but its worth going in the bios to check if another device is setup, otherwise it will just load from CD drive anyway
 
I would think the problem is you have not formatted your new drive.

That means your computer cannot see it.

Stick in Partition Magic or such to format it or put the HD in another machine and format in with disc management.

Once formatted, it should instal fine and certainly there is no need to take the disc out.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
I would think the problem is you have not formatted your new drive.

That means your computer cannot see it.

Stick in Partition Magic or such to format it or put the HD in another machine and format in with disc management.

Once formatted, it should instal fine and certainly there is no need to take the disc out.
Click to expand...

shouldnt matter, windows setup will format the disk if there are no active partitions.
 
neil_g said:
next time youre passing come and try installing XP on some of our boxes without a controller driver and see how far you get if you want ;)
Click to expand...
what's the hardware spec. of your systems?
as I mentioned if you want AHCI/RAID you'll need to load a driver at install (there actually is a way around it for running AHCI after install but it's longwinded & easier to get right from the getgo) & similarly if it's an addon (i.e. not on chipset) controller.
Other than that as a rule you shouldn't but there are exceptions e.g. abit AX78s install XP no problems but don't seem to like Vista or Windows7 & again you need to employ a trick to install after which they run them fine.
 
is it an OEM version of Windows??
 
The original XP Home when first released did need SATA drivers from floppy when installed.

This was corrected in one of the SP releases. XP Pro was similar if i recall but fixed in SP1
 
I had a similar problem to this, duff HDD, replaced and wouldn't install. Turned out to be a faulty memory stick and the original HDD was good. Took months of head scratching till I found it on a google search.
 
PsiFox said:
The original XP Home when first released did need SATA drivers from floppy when installed.

This was corrected in one of the SP releases. XP Pro was similar if i recall but fixed in SP1
Click to expand...

depends on the device, obviously some newer hardware will still have issues. we have had to slipstream SATA drivers to XP SP3 disks..
 
hi all , I'm back ,still no luck..two days wasted on this blasted thing, seems that i need Hard Disk Controllers ??? is this the drivers for harddrive?...I tried to burn iso discs of these drivers ,for chipset motherboard & harddrive, I downloaded these from their sites...tried burning these to disc, but program that i use does'nt recognise the files? do these need converting first...thanks mark..
 
mark richards said:
hi all , I'm back ,still no luck..two days wasted on this blasted thing, seems that i need Hard Disk Controllers ??? is this the drivers for harddrive?...I tried to burn iso discs of these drivers ,for chipset motherboard & harddrive, I downloaded these from their sites...tried burning these to disc, but program that i use does'nt recognise the files? do these need converting first...thanks mark..
Click to expand...

what motherboard is it and what OS are you installing (you mentioned a couple before so just to check)?
 
neil_g said:
shouldnt matter, windows setup will format the disk if there are no active partitions.
Click to expand...

Agree if IDE but certainly not, in my experience, with SATA.
 
mark richards said:
hi neal, os is vista ultimate, its IDE harddrive not sata, the motherboard is asus p4r800-vm, the harddrive is samsung sp2514n/omd.....mark
Click to expand...

It does sound like the Boot sequence could be set wrongly.
If the CD/DVD drive is set as first device then it will always default to that and not even look for the HD.
I do not work with PC's any longer, so can't remember the keys to open up the BIOS to change the Boot sequence, however that does need to be changed so that the HD is the first boot device and the CD/DVD the 2nd.
Then when you boot up with the OS disc in the drive it will present an option for you to boot from CD, take this option (press any key to boot from CD), then when all the files are copied across and the system reboots, ignore the CD boot option and it will find the HD and continue to install and run everything. The disc needs to remain in the CD drive to supply any further files.
Hope that helps and you get it sorted. Its so frustrating.
Bill
 
tricky!
I would follow the advice looking at the memory, take out one stick and then the other alternately, (if you have two sticks)

I would also force the windows installation to wipe the existing partition and then reformat it.

only have one HDD connected when you do this.
also reset the bios back to failsafe defaults and modify only what you need to
with IDE this should work without any problems :(

as far as I know you should not need to supply any drivers for this installation...
 
xfile702 said:
It does sound like the Boot sequence could be set wrongly.
If the CD/DVD drive is set as first device then it will always default to that and not even look for the HD.
Click to expand...

sorry but thats not true.. if the first boot device is the CD/DVD with windows disks it asks to "press any key to boot from CD/DVD" then if nothing is pressed it rolls over onto the next boot device.

however if nothing (I.E. - hard drive) is set as a 2nd boot device then this is were you may fall over. i think (know knowing its an IDE drive and the mobo has no odd hardware) this is more likely.
 
old OS was xp, which i have still got, I dont mind if this goes back on...something i tried was to put a harddrive from the computer that i am using now, that did not work ,i had a blue screen with errors, saying that it would not boot from harddrive and was closeing the program down ,before it caused damage???
 
mark richards said:
old OS was xp, which i have still got, I dont mind if this goes back on...something i tried was to put a harddrive from the computer that i am using now, that did not work ,i had a blue screen with errors, saying that it would not boot from harddrive and was closeing the program down ,before it caused damage???
Click to expand...

yeah trouble is doing that windows will be trying to load all the drivers for the other computers hardware and it will be tying itself in a knot.
 
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