After ZIP Drive Install, Windows XP Disappeared

[chap_cat]

I have recently built a new computer:

Abit IS7 MB
INtel P4 2.8C
1GB PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9000Pro
Hitachi Deskstar SATA 80GB HDD
LiteOn CDRW Drive
Samsung FDD

All assembly, BIOS setup and software installation went
flawlessly. The computer ran perfectly since building it
a couple of weeks ago. Today, I installed a Iomega ZIP100
drive. No problem with install. I ensured the jumper was
properly set. I slaved the ZIP drive to the LiteOn on
Primary IDE 1. The HDD is on SATA 1. AFter ensuring
there was no loose wiring, I rebooted, and the BIOS
settings looked fine, with all drives detected.

However, after exiting BIOS, Windows XP Home would not
boot up. I got a boot disk error, and was asked to put in
the system setup disk. It asked whether I wanted to try
to recover a previous install, or install new. What could
I have done wrong?

I eventually tried to reinstall XP, but I am unable to do
do. I reformated the drive. When I run the Install CD
however, it says the drive has no disk, and is not
formatted properly to install Windows on it. Please help
me figure this out. Thanks.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

I sure hope you didn't manage to format your hard drive. It sounds like
your first boot device is the ZIP disk now instead of the hard disk. If
you left a disk in the ZIP drive, it tried to boot off this first. Go
into your BIOS and make sure the boot order is correct.

 

[*Vanguard*]

I have recently built a new computer:

Abit IS7 MB
INtel P4 2.8C
1GB PC3200 RAM
ATI Radeon 9000Pro
Hitachi Deskstar SATA 80GB HDD
LiteOn CDRW Drive
Samsung FDD

All assembly, BIOS setup and software installation went
flawlessly. The computer ran perfectly since building it
a couple of weeks ago. Today, I installed a Iomega ZIP100
drive. No problem with install. I ensured the jumper was
properly set. I slaved the ZIP drive to the LiteOn on
Primary IDE 1. The HDD is on SATA 1. AFter ensuring
there was no loose wiring, I rebooted, and the BIOS
settings looked fine, with all drives detected.

However, after exiting BIOS, Windows XP Home would not
boot up. I got a boot disk error, and was asked to put in
the system setup disk. It asked whether I wanted to try
to recover a previous install, or install new. What could
I have done wrong?

I eventually tried to reinstall XP, but I am unable to do
do. I reformated the drive. When I run the Install CD
however, it says the drive has no disk, and is not
formatted properly to install Windows on it. Please help
me figure this out. Thanks.

Check your BIOS to see if you can specify the SATA device as the primary
boot drive. Otherwise, the BIOS find the drive albeit removable on the
IDE port and tries to find the bootstrap program in the MBR (master boot
record) on that drive. It isn't there because you haven't formatted the
Zip disk for use as a bootable drive. This is much like leaving a
non-bootable floppy in the diskette drive and specifying in the BIOS to
search the floppy drive before the hard drive. Change your BIOS to
select the SATA drive as the boot device.

 

[chap_cat]

Boot order is correct. CD, then FDD, then HDD. I have
not even used the Zip Drive yet. The HDD is detected in
BIOS, as are the other drives. No settings in BIOS have
changed from before installing the ZIP. Formatting the
HDD is not a big problem, as I have all my important data
on another computer.

 

[Guest]

Try the following configuration / hardware setup

SATA1: Hitachi SATA Boot Disk
Primary Master, 0: Hard Drive
Primary Slave, 1: Additional Storage Drive Secondary Master, 0: CD-ROM/ZIP
Secondary Slave, 1: No Device

 

[Guest]

Hi,

It seemed that the zip drive is recognized as the C drive and windows tried
to boot from it.
I would suggest you to disconnect the zip drive from the primary IDE channel
first.
If you have already formatted the boot drive, rebuilt the OS as before.
After re-installed the OS and can be boot up. Boot into BIOs and change the
boot sequence in BIOS that the SATA is the first boot device. Pls refer to
the mobo user manual for how to set the BIOS in this way.
Connect the Zip drive as slave to the primary IDE channel.

Peter