XP Installation help?

[Rass]

ok, i'll try and keep this short.

I have just moved a few bits of hardware about and decided to just do a fresh install of xp.

So, put the xp disc in, reboot. It loads up the setup window, i go for install windows, delete the partition, format the drive, it copies all the install files across and reboots.

Now, i did this the other day with my laptop and when rebooting it gave the option to bypass boot from cd and takes you to the installation process. But my pc will not bypass the CD boot, and when i take the disc out it refuses to load until you put the cd in. So everytime it takes you back to the blue setup screen with no option to move forward.

I'm at the peak of my knowledge on this matter, and none of the online help guides mention anything of this happening.

Any of you more tech savvy folks have any advice?

Cheers!

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Rass

ok, i'll try and keep this short.

I have just moved a few bits of hardware about and decided to just do a fresh install of xp.

So, put the xp disc in, reboot. It loads up the setup window, i go for install windows, delete the partition, format the drive, it copies all the install files across and reboots.

Now, i did this the other day with my laptop and when rebooting it gave the option to bypass boot from cd and takes you to the installation process. But my pc will not bypass the CD boot, and when i take the disc out it refuses to load until you put the cd in. So everytime it takes you back to the blue setup screen with no option to move forward.

I'm at the peak of my knowledge on this matter, and none of the online help guides mention anything of this happening.

Any of you more tech savvy folks have any advice?

Cheers!

hit DEL at the bios screen before it boots and change the boot sequence to C first.

[Rass]

Originally Posted by Stripey

hit DEL at the bios screen before it boots and change the boot sequence to C first.

Hm, i went into bios and it said:

First Boot - Hard Disk
Secondary Boot - CDROM

didnt mention C: specifically at any point.

had a wee fiddle with that but didnt wanna mess with it too much in the fear of completely screwing it up

[Stripey]

try booting it without the CD in see if it gives you an error message like invalid parition...change secondary boot to None if you can in the bios.

[Neutral]

If it boots into windows recovery console with or without the cd type "fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0" and press enter then type "fixboot c:" and press enter

remove the cd and reboot

[Rass]

Originally Posted by Stripey

try booting it without the CD in see if it gives you an error message like invalid parition...change secondary boot to None if you can in the bios.

when i do that it just stops and says boot cd error, please insert system cd (or something to that effect)

ok quick question, in cmos, where it lists all the ide connections, am i right in thinking my hard drives should be in that list somewhere?

[Neutral]

Originally Posted by Rass

when i do that it just stops and says boot cd error, please insert system cd (or something to that effect)

ok quick question, in cmos, where it lists all the ide connections, am i right in thinking my hard drives should be in that list somewhere?

your cd might be corrupt,

and yes they should be unless you have a sata hard disk, how old is your computer?>

[Rass]

Originally Posted by MerryChristmas

your cd might be corrupt,

and yes they should be unless you have a sata hard disk, how old is your computer?>

the cd's brand new (lost me old one), as for the parts, it's kinda a frankenstein of a couple of old pc's one HD is mine (western digital 120Gb bought in 2005) the one on the slave i honestly couldnt tell you, tho i think its maybe a year or 2 older.

It did say something in advanced bios about "-bootable add-in device: Onchip SATA RAID"

dunno if that's relevant but the word sata just rang a bell.

i'm gunna have a quick look n make sure i didnt knock any cables out when i put the side of the case on too, that would prolly explain the problem booting to HD if it wasnt in right?

[Neutral]

Originally Posted by Rass

the cd's brand new (lost me old one), as for the parts, it's kinda a frankenstein of a couple of old pc's one HD is mine (western digital 120Gb bought in 2005) the one on the slave i honestly couldnt tell you, tho i think its maybe a year or 2 older.

It did say something in advanced bios about "-bootable add-in device: Onchip SATA RAID"

dunno if that's relevant but the word sata just rang a bell.

i'm gunna have a quick look n make sure i didnt knock any cables out when i put the side of the case on too, that would prolly explain the problem booting to HD if it wasnt in right?

What did you remove the case for?

[Rass]

It's all good, i had a look inside and i had the wee chip on the back of the hdd in the wrong place. As if by magic it just worked after that. Now the uphill struggle to get the wireless and various other hardware to function properly.

Cheers for your help!