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Thread ID: 53878	2005-01-30 02:09:00	Help with XP installation please	nzsp (6931)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
319292	2005-01-30 02:09:00	I am building a new PC from scratch and am having trouble with the XP installation. I have only a DVD/CD rom drive (no floppy). I get through the first part of the installation OK i.e. partition & format hard drive and copy the installation files to the hard drive. Then, when the computer restarts (and you should enter the GUI part of the set up, I believe) the computer just reboots again from the CD drive and I am back at the beginning of the Windows set up! I shouldn't take the XP CD out before the restart should I? Anything specific I need to do with the BIOS settings at any stage? Any ideas, getting pretty frustrated by now!? Thanks	nzsp (6931)
319293	2005-01-30 02:32:00	Maybe not much help, but when I did mine I first set it to boot from CD drive and not floppy (although I've got a floppy). It went through the initial partition etc, restarted and finished copying files from the CD without a hitch. Don't know if it will help for you to select boot from CD drive, but you could try it. I did have a problem with another comp where XP would only install if you selected custom installation then chose all files that would be in a 'full' installation.	Shortcircuit (1666)
319294	2005-01-30 02:44:00	Yup boot from the cd to install XP (make the cd the bootdisk in BIOS), everytime it reboots DON'T press any key . Just let it do its thing . If u press a key on every reboot, it'll start all over again! Leave the cd in until XP finishes installing and you actually get into Windows . Then take the cd out, and make the hard drive the bootdisk in BIOS .	Speedy Gonzales (78)
319295	2005-01-30 02:53:00	Thanks guys, but I think the problem is that it is re-booting from the CD automatically, not giving me the option to "press any key to boot from CD" it just says "booting from CD". I have a SATA hard drive and I'm not sure how to see the properties of this in the BIOS. i.e maybe the BIOS is not recognising the hard drive and therfore it must always boot from the CD. If I take the CD out, it just hands at the "booting from CD" message. Ideas on how to check this in the BIOS? I have the Gigabyte K8-NF9 motherboard which seems to have a pretty plain BIOS in terms of options. Cheers	nzsp (6931)
319296	2005-01-30 03:13:00	to get into the bios press DEL when it boots up, have a look in the top let hand corner menu, i think, and it should tell you about your hdd i sort of had the same probem as you when i installed xp once, i ended up finding out that i had put un my ide cables the wrong way, (i slaved my master or something like that) after i got that right to was fine. did you plug in the sata and have the right cables pluged in the right places?	Prescott (11)
319297	2005-01-30 03:23:00	I think everythimg is working with the drive as windows set up is able to copy files to it from the CD. Now I am wondering if I need to try and install the SATA drivers when given the option to install SCSI/RAID drivers during set up?	nzsp (6931)
319298	2005-01-30 05:46:00	yip, sure do, i found this (cruftbox.com) it may be useful, but to make it easier you will need a floppy drive, borrow one off a mate :) [edit] this (greenmachine.msfnhosting.com) is better, you dont need a floppy but it involves slipstreaming windows with the SATA drivers.	Prescott (11)
319299	2005-01-30 05:58:00	Unless you're gonna run it in RAID and RAID is turned off in BIOS . Drivers arent needed for SATA . And yup you need to make the drivers floppy from somewhere else (within windows) . and the file to do this, maybe on the mobo cd somewhere . BUT not all motherboards are the same if not running RAID . Some systems MAY need SATA drivers, some dont .	Speedy Gonzales (78)
319300	2005-01-31 22:40:00	Thanks for all the help. Guided by your tips I did a bit more digging around online and found someone who had the exact same problem with this particular motherboard. It turns out you need to set up the drive in a bootable RAID0 array first. Then XP will then recognise it during set up and you don't need a floppy at all (which is pretty lucky because I installed a floppy drive ready to use and can't get the floppy drive working anyway!) So anyway I got there - chalk up another day of frustration to spectularly bad motherboard documentation	nzsp (6931)
319301	2005-01-31 22:47:00	chalk up another day of frustration to spectularly bad motherboard documentation Sheesh - even good motherboard manuals, such as Asus, are a minefield for the unwary. Good job you got it sorted :thumbs:	Greg (193)
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