General Question - You heard of this? (XP installation related)

Associate
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Heya, I aint gonna go into specifics just yet - I wanna just outline the problem and see if this rings any bells or provokes any thoughts.....

Games rig gives up the ghost, it boots and asks for bootable media so assume that the hard disk is fubar'd and buy a replacement. I thus hook up the replacement SATA drive and change the boot priority in BIOS so that it reads from the DVD-RW first and I can then install XP again. This is where it gets interesting.... It now takes approx 20-30 mins of booting up to actually get to the windows installation screen whereupon it says "hey I can't find any hard disks attached to install to - go away." I have checked and the new hard disk is seen in BIOS so not sure what to do.

Basically has anyone else come across the actual boot up sequence slowing down to the point it takes 20-30 mins to even get to the initial XP installation screen (which previously and usually only takes a couple of mins to get to after all the applicable drivers are installed and setup examines your hardware configuration)???

Also even tho I now have a new hard disk attached to the mobo and is recognised in BIOS, XP installation won't acknowledge it thus not allowing me to create a fresh install.

Further specifics available upon request.
 
Associate
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I've not had the slow down problem however windows not recognising a sata hdd is one i have to deal with every time i reinstal (about once every two months!) most motherboards come with a disk with the sata drivers on them and i believe that on the windows install boot you press f8 (don't quote me on the exact f key it says it at the bottom) to install additional scsi drivers etc. this should solve the problem of windows not recognising sata. if you don't have a disk some motherboard instilation cd's have their own bootable section with a facility to copy the relevent files to a floppy.
Hope this helps.
 
Soldato
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Sounds like the RAM is shot. Classic symptons of nasty boot times & suddenly loosing a drive.
Download & use the Memtest 86 CD, and see what happens.

-Leezer-
 
Soldato
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Its potentially either RAM or posibly a bios battery dieing - thats if you are using XP SP2 CD (or slipstream there of) as this has STA drivers built in so no mobo drivers required for SATA ports.

Also try using a different sata cable just incase.
 
Associate
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Do you have S.M.A.R.T scan running at the begining?

That will let you know if theres anything wrong with your hdd. My hdd was getting picked up in BIOS as well but when i tried installing windows would take ages and would eventually fail. Took it over a friends house and turned out the hdd was damaged (burnt from too much heat :) ).

But its probably not that as yours is new, but you never know...
 
Associate
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Its a Win XP SP2 DVD that I am using and a Asus A8R-MVP mobo which I have not had problems with installing to SATA drives before.

I genuinely dont think its the RAM as the LEDs on the RAM banks do not appear to be showing any difference from normal.

Its jus really bizarre how it takes forever to POST :confused:
 
Associate
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might be completely unrelated but i had a laptop that took 4hrs to install xp pro !! :eek:
it was a setting in the bios for the cpu ... cant remember what it was but
when i changed it a reinstall took 30min

also the sata problem.... with my 939dual sata2 the sata drivers on xp cd
and from asrock web site does not work i have to use the drivers on the
motherboard cd ... bootable with make floppy option .... glad i didnt throw it
like the other motherboardboard cd's i had
 
Associate
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I presume you have bought a SATA2 drive & your motherboard only supports SATA1. You probably need to find the tiny jumper on the hard drive and move it so SATA1 mode is enabled. Give that a try dude, that did it for me! :p
 
Associate
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I had similar problem recently. HDD detected in bios fine but OS couldn't see it.

Turns out it wasn't formatted! :rolleyes:

First hdd I ever bought that wasn't pre formatted. Bloke in shop said about 80% of those he sold were brought back as "faulty" for the same reason.

LOL
 
Associate
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just to update you all - I turned off the SATA Boot ROM from BIOS and selected "Emulated PATA" whereupon rebooting it loaded up super fast (as normal) and proceeded to install windows no probs :)
 
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