A7N8X problems installing Windows XP Pro

[Jannik Ebbe Brich]

It has never been bootable.

And yes u have 2 prepare the disk prior 2 installing WIN98.

Jannik

Is that because the CD is faulty or is the Win98SE installation CD never
bootable? If the second is the case how do we install it?

K

The problem is quite simpel

win98Se CD-Rom is not bootable !!! So the BIOS can't find any OS

Jannik

but

if to
the

zap

I

worried

to has
to on
this

do

i

use
it?

Kath

in
message
Nope !

Fdisk will look at the current MBR and work from that.

The problem is that when something went wrong with the
MBR
Fdisk
can't
delete it all.

If u ask an IBM or seagate Tech they will tell u 2

use

a
tool
like
Zap.

It will tottaly erase MBR and u will start from scratch.

I use it all the time, because NTFS and Fdisk normally
don't
get
along
that
wel.

Jannik

message
zap.exe(?) the very name of it sounds a bit drastic!
Would
FDISK
do
the
same
job? I've used that before.

Kath

"Jannik Ebbe Brich"

wrote
in
message
Hi !

Don't waste time on trying 2 get it working.

Download zap.exe (contains 2 fils, zap.com and
zap.txt)
from
IBM.
create
a
bootdisk and throw the little bugger on it.

Run zap.com "zap 0" if this is the first HDD

in
the

 

[MrDancer]

let

Actually Dad did try FDISK. After the low level format and a couple of
attempts at installing Win98. He booted using a Win98 startup diskette. This
gets to the A: prompt just fine. But it no good trying to get to C:, theres
nothing on it, its not formatted. He tried running FDISK from the diskette
but it didn't recognise the hard disk.

Unless the "write zeroes to entire drive" process failed, FDISK should have
recognized the HDD. If the BIOS recognizes the HDD, and FDISK doesn't, then
you probably have a corrupted FDISK file. Try another Win98 floppy (you can
make one on a Win98 machine by going to Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs
| Startup Disk tab). You could also try the command FDISK /MBR prior to
just using FDISK.

After doing the FDISK, you will have

Well we didn't do the FDISK bit but we did try the XP install as described
in my post it got to just after the welcome screen and then said it couldn't
find the hard disk, this despite the fact it had formatted it and copied
files to it

XP shouldn't require FDISK when installing from a bootable XP CD. It should
recognize the disk and give you the option of formatting during the install.

Do you mean the floppy with WD disgnostics on it? I don;t think there is a
choice to Format from there. Surely the disk is fine if the WD tests ran
without finding errors. Dad ran both the quick and full tests.

Yes, assuming it is the full installation disk that came with the WD HDD.
When it boots up, you should get a flash screen asking whether you want to
"Install Hard Drive" or "Diagnostics". Click on "Install Hard Drive" and
follow the bouncing ball. It will ask you if you want to format to FAT or
FAT32 for installing an OS like Win9x, and will tell you that formatting is
not necessary if you install from a bootable XP CD.

If all else fails, try writing zeroes to the HDD again. That process takes
a while, usually upwards of several hours, possibly all night. If the
"writing zeroes" process failed the first time, it may not have eliminated
any or all of the format info, Master Boot Record info, partition info, etc.

I thought Win98SE installation did a HD format just like the XP one does?

No, Win98SE does not do any formatting. You will have to use the FDISK and
FORMAT commands from the Win98SE boot floppy, or use the WD installation
diskette to format the drive.

Win98SE requires FAT or FAT32 format, and won't run on NTFS format. XP can
run on either format. NTFS is considered a more stable, secure format, and
works better when working with large files (say, over 4GB, like a DVD).

 

[Kath Stennett]

We have made significant progress! We still don't have a working
installation of Win XP but we have got a lot further and I suspect the
problems now are quite different.

I was searching Google yet again. Spotted a posting from someone using the
same mobo and a WD hard disk with the same problem. After going down some of
the same road as us he had tried setting the jumper on the hard disk to
cable select. And that solved his problems like magic!!

So I got Dad to do the same. The Windows XP installation then amazingly
proceeded.

This is a bit of a suprise as documentation we had found mostly suggested
"master" as appropriate. The WD web site seems to advise against CS giving
special jumper settings for single drives. We had tried "master" and the
"neutral" jumper positions but not CS.

Well anyway. The installation did then proceed to its end however along the
way it failed to copy a few files. When it eventually came to time to boot
from the hard disk WinXP failed to load. I think this is an entirely
different problem. We are going to try starting again now that the HD seems
to be recognised properly. I'll start a new post if we need more help.

Thanks to all for help given so far.

Kath

OK. I just found the How to FAQ on the Microsoft site. So the HD has to be
partitionsed and formatted prior to running setup for win98.

But Dad siad FDISK failed! I'll get him to try that again.

Kath

The problem is quite simpel

win98Se CD-Rom is not bootable !!! So the BIOS can't find any OS

Jannik

but

if to
the

zap

I

worried

to has
to on
this

do

i

use
it?

Kath

in
message
Nope !

Fdisk will look at the current MBR and work from that.

The problem is that when something went wrong with the
MBR
Fdisk
can't
delete it all.

If u ask an IBM or seagate Tech they will tell u 2

use

a
tool
like
Zap.

It will tottaly erase MBR and u will start from scratch.

I use it all the time, because NTFS and Fdisk normally
don't
get
along
that
wel.

Jannik

message
zap.exe(?) the very name of it sounds a bit drastic!
Would
FDISK
do
the
same
job? I've used that before.

Kath

"Jannik Ebbe Brich"

wrote
in
message
Hi !

Don't waste time on trying 2 get it working.

Download zap.exe (contains 2 fils, zap.com and
zap.txt)
from
IBM.
create
a
bootdisk and throw the little bugger on it.

Run zap.com "zap 0" if this is the first HDD

in
the

 

[MrDancer]

This is a bit of a suprise as documentation we had found mostly suggested
"master" as appropriate. The WD web site seems to advise against CS giving
special jumper settings for single drives. We had tried "master" and the
"neutral" jumper positions but not CS.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. If it's a single drive, you should have
the jumper either in "neutral" or not on the drive at all (the installation
documentation should've mentioned that). "Neutral" should've worked for
you. CS requires your Master (boot) disk to be on the end of the cable.
Only set it on Master if you have a Slave drive attached also. Other hard
drives are different, e.g. - IBM drives would allow you to jumper a Master
regardless of whether you have a Slave or not.