Trouble with Install on 500GB Drive

[Lew Blackman]

I purchased a Western Digital (WD) SATA 500gb drive to install on my Acer
computer replacing a dead 250 GB drive. I spoke to WD and they had me
partition and format the drive using their supplied CD. I was told not to
partition or format the drive during the windows install. I did not have the
install disks from Acer but own 5 copies of XP Professional which are
currently unused. They are all service pack 1 versions and I can't get past
the partitioning or format section without exiting the install. I have 5
good serial numbers but no software to install. I asked Microsoft for a
newer version of the install CD which I can skip this problem area and got
nowhere. Their solution is to purchase a copie of Vista...un-acceptable. How
can I either skip partitioning or formating or get a burnable copy of a CD
that will skip this process. I already have the serial numbers. Please
help!!!
(e-mail address removed)

 

[glee]

Just partition and format the drive during the Windows installation. There is no
reason to *have* to use the Western Digital software to prepare the disk unless your
BIOS cannot handle large drives without an overlay, and if that was the case it
would not have handled the 250GB drive originally.

I don't know exactly how you set up the drive with the WD utility, but just wipe off
the partition or partitions you created there, reverting back to a clean empty
drive. Then during Windows setup create the partitions you want (preferably NTFS),
format, and install Windows, following the prompts.

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348

Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a "clean"
installation of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302686

Using the XP Installation CD to Format Drives
http://www.theeldergeek.com/formatting_drives_using_xp_cd.htm

I am not sure why you cannot use Windows setup to install on the partition you
already have made with the WD utility. I have not seen this behaviour. From what I
can recall (and it's been a while since I did a clean XP install), you should be
able to select the partition to which you wish to install XP, and then choose to
retain the current file system, and install.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I purchased a Western Digital (WD) SATA 500gb drive to install on my Acer
computer replacing a dead 250 GB drive. I spoke to WD and they had me
partition and format the drive using their supplied CD. I was told not to
partition or format the drive during the windows install. I did not have
the install disks from Acer but own 5 copies of XP Professional which are
currently unused. They are all service pack 1 versions

Slipstream one, with SP2. Try again. Download AutoStreamer and the full
SP2 file, and you'll be done in no time.

You may need to provide a driver disk for SATA support (that's the F6
message asking for diskette), depending on your motherboard, during install.

If XP can't detect the drive or see the partition, you probably don't have
SATA support properly enabled.

HTH
-pk