Unable to install XP or Windows 7

[Dalziel]

Hi

Have just reformatted my HD (Seagate) to do a fresh install of windows
7. This had been running on the HD for over a year then had major
problems with sound and display and a few more things so decided to
bite the bullet and reformat for a clean install. God help me now!)

After reformatting the HD win 7 installs up to the time it requests
the serial number. Then gives 'invalid serial' error. Obviously I have
checked the serial has been entered correctly. (BTW this is a genuine
copy of windows purchased through the Microsoft Teacher's Scheme).
Initially I had installed it whilst win xp was the os. But this is not
an upgrade. It is supposed to be the full version!
Anyway I decided to try re-installing XP and then win7. But, horror of
horros, XP starts installing but then comes up with 'unknown disk' and
'there is no disk in the drive'!
I tried reformatting with Linux before trying to re-install but same
error. I also tried doing it through DOS but no joy. Did fdisk and
deleted and created new partition but still no joy.
XP refuses to play.
Can anyone throw me a life line here? Why won't XP install or
recognise the drive? (It works fine on another computer).
Why wont windows 7 recognise the serial?
Can I install XP on this drive in another computer and then fit the
drive to this one? Or is that a no no?
Grateful for any help.

Dalziel

 

[philo]

Hi

Have just reformatted my HD (Seagate) to do a fresh install of windows
7. This had been running on the HD for over a year then had major
problems with sound and display and a few more things so decided to
bite the bullet and reformat for a clean install. God help me now!)

After reformatting the HD win 7 installs up to the time it requests
the serial number. Then gives 'invalid serial' error. Obviously I have
checked the serial has been entered correctly.

(BTW this is a genuine

copy of windows purchased through the Microsoft Teacher's Scheme).
Initially I had installed it whilst win xp was the os. But this is not
an upgrade. It is supposed to be the full version!
Anyway I decided to try re-installing XP and then win7. But, horror of
horros, XP starts installing but then comes up with 'unknown disk' and
'there is no disk in the drive'!

For XP , if the drive is SATA you will need to install the drivers from a
floppy
during the first part of the installation
or else create a slipstreamed XP-SP3 cd

as to the wrong serial no. message on win7
the problem is exacly that, you entered the sn wrong
or you are using the wrong sn for that DVD

 

[Dalziel]

(BTW this is a genuine


For XP , if the drive is SATA you will need to install the drivers from a
floppy
during the first part of the installation
or else create a slipstreamed XP-SP3 cd

as to the wrong serial no. message on win7
the problem is exacly that, you entered the sn wrong
or you are using the wrong sn for that DVD

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Ii am in the process of using nLite to create a
slip streamed XP-SP3 cd as not sure how to get the seagate hd drivers
on to floppy.
With regard to entering the wrong sn number afraid that is not the
case. The Sn number is correct as stated from the MS confirmation
email and in the text file they sent me. So guess that still remains
unresolved.
Again thanks. Your help is much appreciated.

Dalziel

 

[philo]

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Ii am in the process of using nLite to create a
slip streamed XP-SP3 cd as not sure how to get the seagate hd drivers
on to floppy.
With regard to entering the wrong sn number afraid that is not the
case. The Sn number is correct as stated from the MS confirmation
email and in the text file they sent me. So guess that still remains
unresolved.
Again thanks. Your help is much appreciated.

Dalziel

Then I really don't know what the problem is...
but hopefully once you get XP installed you will be able to get Win7
installed since you have done so before.

If you do get it working, I recommend buying another harddrive
and cloning your working version in case you have problems again

 

[Tester]

To reinstall WindowsXP, you need to boot from the original WindowsXP CD.
When you do this, you also need to watch the screen so that you don't
miss the instructions that says "Press any key to boot from the CD).
This instruction disappears very quickly so you need to pay very careful
attention to it!!!!.

Once you have pressed the key, the installation goes very smoothly.

If you can't boot from the CD and/or the installation is not progressing
at certain stage then clearly the CD is damaged and the only way is to
get replacement from Microsoft or to borrow a SIMILAR CD from a friend.
I say similar because if you had a retail version of XP (and therefore
serial number) you need to have a retail version of CD for the serial to
work. If you had OEM from DELL or HP then you need CDs from DELL or HP
and so forth.

When you say XP refuses to play, are you actually inserting the CD and
then switching off and switching on the machine so that it reboots from
the CD? Please let us know this fact.

 

[Dalziel]

To reinstall WindowsXP, you need to boot from the original WindowsXP CD.
  When you do this, you also need to watch the screen so that you don't
miss the instructions that says "Press any key to boot from the CD).
This instruction disappears very quickly so you need to pay very careful
attention to it!!!!.

Once you have pressed the key, the installation goes very smoothly.

If you can't boot from the CD and/or the installation is not progressing
at certain stage then clearly the CD is damaged and the only way is to
get replacement from Microsoft or to borrow a SIMILAR CD from a friend.
  I say similar because if you had a retail version of XP (and therefore
serial number) you need to have a retail version of CD for the serial to
work.  If you had OEM from DELL or HP then you need CDs from DELL or HP
and so forth.

When you say XP refuses to play, are you actually inserting the CD and
then switching off and switching on the machine so that it reboots from
the CD?  Please let us know this fact.

Hi

To clarify, the XP CD works fine. Boots from the CD then goes through
all the stuff about installing windows and accept licence agreesment
(F8). Press 'enter' to install windows. Here comes the problem. The
drive (Seagate Barracuda 120 Gb Sata) is not recognised. error shown
'unknown disk. there is no disk in this drive'. so cant go any
further.
Tried fdisk and repartitioning and formatting to NTFS. also tried
setting primary partition and letting the installation CD do the
formatting but same error.
If installing Linux the drive is recognised. If installing Windows 7
the drive is recognised. BUT Win 7 will not accept the serial so get
stuck at that stage. Will be phoning MS this morning but dont expect
much help there.
I am assuming it is something to do with the Win XP installation not
having sata driver support? I tried pressing F6 during setup but it
requires the driver to be on floppy!!
I have the drivers on CD for the Asus MoBo.
1. My cunning plan now is to force the BIOS to accept the sata as an
IDE ?!?
2. Try and get the Seagate driver on to floppy.
3. Slipstream the driver into XP with nLite
OR
Give up and install Linux. (Which would be a steep learning curve for
me!!)
BTW this is my wife's computer so I am in deep sh**t here. HELP!

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I tried reformatting with Linux before trying to re-install but same
error. I also tried doing it through DOS but no joy. Did fdisk and
deleted and created new partition but still no joy.
XP refuses to play.
Can anyone throw me a life line here? Why won't XP install or
recognise the drive? (It works fine on another computer).

It sounds like the drive is running in SATA mode (i.e. AHCI), XP had no
native drivers for AHCI mode, you will need to go into BIOS and reset
the the drive recognition method back to IDE mode. Since you didn't
mention what your computer is, then you will have to find out how to get
into its BIOS yourself, and find those settings.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Dalziel]

It sounds like the drive is running in SATA mode (i.e. AHCI), XP had no
native drivers for AHCI mode, you will need to go into BIOS and reset
the the drive recognition method back to IDE mode. Since you didn't
mention what your computer is, then you will have to find out how to get
into its BIOS yourself, and find those settings.

        Yousuf Khan

Success!!!
Slipstreamed XP with the sata driver and installed with no problems.
Thanks to all of you wonderful people out there.
Very grateful for your input.

Regards