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Thread ID: 66731 2006-03-05 21:14:00 OK.. I'm having a stupid day or something. qyiet (6730) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
435768 2006-03-06 00:07:00 New CD-ROM Drive, new WinXP Disc, Same problem.

Order of operations this time was:
1)Boot off winXP CD
2)Remove all partitions
3)allow windows to create a partition (all default)
4)Format with NTFS
5)Install on new partition Wait for install to ask for reboot
6)Remove CD (at the point it requests remove floppy so it won't boot off it)
7)Insert boot disc (at this point it should be booting off the HDD to start the GUI part of the windows install process)

This is weird.

-Qyiet
qyiet (6730)
435769 2006-03-06 00:19:00 Are you running it on an oldish computer & used to have ontrack or something to make it recognise the hard drive? Greven (91)
435770 2006-03-06 00:22:00 I had a somewhat similar problem in a way, a little while ago after installing a DVD writer. Computer was hanging at waiting to boot from CD instead of booting from HDD. Sometimes it would boot from HDD, other times it would hang.

It turned out to be a BIOS setting.

Problem is I can't remember now what the problem in the BIOS was exactly, ( :blush: ) but it was resolved by loading BIOS optimised defaults.
Terry Porritt (14)
435771 2006-03-06 00:24:00 Are you running it on an oldish computer & used to have ontrack or something to make it recognise the hard drive?Nope.... well depends on your definition of old.. but nothing that should have needed ontrack. It's a Pentium IV about 2GHz.. I might see if I can dig up an IDE controller.. see if I can get it to boot off that.

I'll double check that windows auto partitioning got it right too, and set it active.. there was data on the drive when I started.. so I guess it could be screwing up. (although I'm damned if I know how).

-Qyiet
qyiet (6730)
435772 2006-03-06 00:32:00 I had a somewhat similar problem in a way, a little while ago after installing a DVD writer. Computer was hanging at waiting to boot from CD instead of booting from HDD. Sometimes it would boot from HDD, other times it would hang.

It turned out to be a BIOS setting.

Problem is I can't remember now what the problem in the BIOS was exactly, ( :blush: ) but it was resolved by loading BIOS optimised defaults.Thanks Terry, it was worth a go, (there was nothing in the bios on this PC that needed to be optimisied) but still no luck.

Huge thanks again to everyone so far. (still have to try what I said I would do in the last post)

-Qyiet
qyiet (6730)
435773 2006-03-06 00:53:00 Oh.. further to greven's comment about ontrack.. the BIOS reports a matching HDD size to what I expected to be reported.. so we *should* be fine there.

Hmm.. FDISK reported "unable to access drive one" and the HDD light locks on.

I really want to try another IDE controller.. however the one I thought I had spare I can't find.. I'm going to try the HDD in another machine.

I'm suspecting the IDE controller more and more now.

-Qyiet
qyiet (6730)
435774 2006-03-06 00:57:00 I'm suspecting the IDE controller more and more now.

-Qyiet
IDE controller??? Its not plugged straight into the MB? If it is, try putting on the secondary IDE slot.
pctek (84)
435775 2006-03-06 01:05:00 It *is* plugged straight onto the motherboard.. sorry I was using IDE controller in the same way I would use graphics card when refering to the onboard video.

Thanks for the idea though.. I'll try it on the secondary IDE channel.

-Qyiet
qyiet (6730)
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