F said:
I'm trying to install Win XP Pro onto a new Maxtor 300GB hard drive using
my Win XP Pro Upgrade CD (with my Win 98 CD as 'evidence' of eligibility
for the upgrade).
I've used Maxblast 4 to partition the drive into 48GB and 251GB partitions
but the install fails every time. I once got Maxtor's blue DDO(?)banner
but pressing C to install XP from CD had no effect. Other times I've been
led straight into a normal install but after having to insert the 98 CD I
get a screen showing just one 131GB partition which I am invited to
format, with no option not to. This proceeds to failure.
Anyone got any suggestions or am I doomed to failure with trying to
install from an XP CD and not an XP+SP1 CD?
TIA
F:
First of all, take my advice and forget about using Maxtor's MaxBlast
program to partition or format your drive. The built-in
partitioning/formatting utility in the XP OS is a fine program and should be
used in lieu of any third-party program to perform partitioning/formatting
operations. These "drive overlay" types of programs such as the MaxBlast
program are unfortunate remnants of an earlier era (pre-XP) and because they
use proprietary, non-standard protocols that dramatically modify the OS,
they invariably cause trouble by & by as any computer technician will tell
you. Simply stated -- there is *no* place for these types of programs in an
XP environment.
You've apparently run up against the large-capacity disk "barrier" re the XP
OS. Unfortunately, the original version of XP, i.e., not including SP1/SP2,
would not recognize disks whose capacity was > 137 GB (roughly 128 GB
binary). So if you installed a 300 GB HD such as yours using the XP OS
installation CD that did not contain either SP1 or SP2, the full-capacity of
the drive would not be recognized - only up to that 137 GB (128 GB) figure.
Later, if the user installed SP1 or SP2 the full capacity of the disk would
be recognized, but the remaining disk space above the 137 GB (128 GB) would
be "unallocated space" which, of course, you could partition/format.
So do this...
You can create a XP-SP2 OS installation CD by the so-called "slipstreaming"
process. In effect, the slipstreaming process integrates SP2 into the
original OS (on a separate CD of course). There are various ways to
accomplish this. One of the easiest is to use the freebie AutoStreamer
program. Just do a Google search on that program's name and you'll be
directed to various sites where you can download the program and sites that
contain detailed step-by-step instructions. It's a worthwhile process that
you should surely undertake. It's not terribly difficult.
Once you create the slipstreamed installation CD you can install the OS and
partition & format your 300 GB drive to your heart's content. I should
mention that there is one more requirement for the system to recognize these
"large-capacity" drives. And that is that your motherboard's BIOS has this
capability. Virtually every motherboard manufactured during the past four
(approx.) years has this capability and many of the older motherboard's have
a BIOS upgrade that provides it. So we'll assume there's no problem for you
on that end.
Anna
