Built my first computer, it will not boot up though?

[David Mills]

Hello, I recently built a brand new computer using Gigabyte's GA-K8NF-9
motherboard. I have everything installed correctly, but when I turn it on
it says "Boot From CD". So I put in my XP cd and/or my driver cd that came
with the motherboard and it doesn't work. I then try booting with that
express recovery utility and it comes up and says "No HPA Enabled Drive,
Press Any Key To Boot". Do you have any ideas what could be the problem?
Everyone is telling me that I need to install my Sata Drivers for my new
harddrive, but I can't install them because I can't get to the cd. I did
not install a floppy drive in this computer because I was told by numerous
people that I would not need one. I have a DVD-ROM drive as my only IDE
device and it is set to master. I then have my SATA harddrive installed.
Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem?

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Dee]

Hello, I recently built a brand new computer using Gigabyte's GA-K8NF-9
motherboard. I have everything installed correctly, but when I turn it on
it says "Boot From CD". So I put in my XP cd and/or my driver cd that came
with the motherboard and it doesn't work. I then try booting with that
express recovery utility and it comes up and says "No HPA Enabled Drive,
Press Any Key To Boot". Do you have any ideas what could be the problem?
Everyone is telling me that I need to install my Sata Drivers for my new
harddrive, but I can't install them because I can't get to the cd. I did
not install a floppy drive in this computer because I was told by numerous
people that I would not need one. I have a DVD-ROM drive as my only IDE
device and it is set to master. I then have my SATA harddrive installed.
Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem?

Thanks for any ideas.

You need the SATA drivers on a floppy disk. Perhaps someday Microsoft
will change this, but for now, it's the only way.

 

[Richard Dower]

I'd also say you have the boot order wrong and the BIOS configured
incorectly. There are numerous options for the IDE and SATA drives, RAID and
non RAID, the Sil3114 controller etc.

Most problems arise from user error and people not knowing what they are
doing, thus i suggest you read and research and play with every BIOS option
until you learn what each one does and how to set things up correctly +
creating a floppy disc for the F6 option to install Windows.

It's shocking to me just how many people don't know about this or how to do
it, soemtimes it is good DELL build PC's.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Hello, I recently built a brand new computer using Gigabyte's GA-K8NF-9
motherboard. I have everything installed correctly, but when I turn it on
it says "Boot From CD". So I put in my XP cd and/or my driver cd that came
with the motherboard and it doesn't work. I then try booting with that
express recovery utility and it comes up and says "No HPA Enabled Drive,
Press Any Key To Boot". Do you have any ideas what could be the problem?

Go into Setup/BIOS and set your PC to boot to the CD first.
Reboot with the XP CD in place.

 

[BillL]

Go into Setup/BIOS and set your PC to boot to the CD first.
Reboot with the XP CD in place.

I'm really just butting in here but if a floppy is required will a USB FDD
work? I only ask because I tried updating the BIOS of my mobo and because
the BIOS doesn't give an option to boot from a USB FDD I was stuck.

TIA

BillL

 

[Richard Dower]

I'm really just butting in here but if a floppy is required will a USB FDD
work? I only ask because I tried updating the BIOS of my mobo and because
the BIOS doesn't give an option to boot from a USB FDD I was stuck.

So get a floppy, they only cost £8...despite what people may have heard
floppy's do have alot of life left in them and are nesscary.

 

[doS]

more shocking that you cant read, he needs sata drivers

 

[doS]

this will load the sata drivers from the floppy?

problem?

Go into Setup/BIOS and set your PC to boot to the CD first.
Reboot with the XP CD in place.

 

[Dan B]

It's shocking to me just how many people don't know about this or how to do
it, soemtimes it is good DELL build PC's.

I say 10/10 for giving it a try and wanting to learn. We all had to
learn somewhere and surely even you don't know EVERYTHING there is to
know about building a PC.

Dan

 

[JAD]

how old is the DVD rom? Many older format DVD-Roms did not support HPA

 

[David Mills]

how old is the DVD rom? Many older format DVD-Roms did not support HPA

The DVD-ROM is about a year and a half old..............what is HPA?

 

[JAD]

host protected area

HPA is defined as a reserved area for data storage outside the normal
operating file system. This area is hidden from the operating system
and the file system, and is normally used for specialized
applications. Systems may wish to store configuration data or to save
memory to the hard disk drive device in a location that the operating
systems cannot change.

I believe this is the area of the disk that holds emulation or the
recognized area for performing a boot(source)

 

[Apollo]

The DVD-ROM is about a year and a half old..............what is
HPA?

Forget the HPA for now.
All you need to do is;
1) set the bios order to CDROM first
2) install a floppy drive temporarily
3) boot from the cd and press F6 when prompted to install drivers
4) put the sata driver floppy in and wait until it asks which
driver to load, this can take up to 5 minutes after you press F6,
so be prepared for the wait.
5) choose the correct driver / OS combination and that's it.
6) remove the floppy drive at your leisure.

For the moment you DO need a floppy to install WinXP onto sata, M$
will fix this annoying installation bug someday probably.

HTH

 

[David Mills]

Forget the HPA for now.
All you need to do is;
1) set the bios order to CDROM first
2) install a floppy drive temporarily
3) boot from the cd and press F6 when prompted to install drivers
4) put the sata driver floppy in and wait until it asks which driver to
load, this can take up to 5 minutes after you press F6, so be prepared for
the wait.
5) choose the correct driver / OS combination and that's it.
6) remove the floppy drive at your leisure.

For the moment you DO need a floppy to install WinXP onto sata, M$ will
fix this annoying installation bug someday probably.

Cool, thanks for the step by step info.

 

[David Mills]

Apollo, it is not letting me boot from the CD, so I'm not sure if that is
going to work????

 

[JAD]

thus the reason NOT to IGNORE hpa...............I can say with as much
certainty as I can, without putting my hands on the rig, that your DVD
does not support booting.............common compatibility problem.

 

[Ginchy]

When you set the bios to boot from cd rom you ARE saving this change to
cmos?

Some bios need to be set to CD ROM and NOT to the drive letter of the cd
rom!

 

[ToolPackinMama]

So get a floppy, they only cost £8...despite what people may have heard
floppy's do have alot of life left in them and are nesscary.

I agree, FDDs are stil important. On the rare occasion when you need
one, nothing else wll do - plus, they are cheap. IMHO there is no
excuse to exclude them.

But that's a separate issue.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

All you need to do is;
1) set the bios order to CDROM first
2) install a floppy drive temporarily
3) boot from the cd and press F6 when prompted to install drivers
4) put the sata driver floppy in and wait until it asks which
driver to load, this can take up to 5 minutes after you press F6,
so be prepared for the wait.
5) choose the correct driver / OS combination and that's it.
6) remove the floppy drive at your leisure.

For the moment you DO need a floppy to install WinXP onto sata, M$
will fix this annoying installation bug someday probably.

I concur

 

[ToolPackinMama]

If the CD-ROM or equivalent won't allow itself to be used as a boot
device, then you are in a tough spot. You have to use a different one
to load XP.

This is a naughty thing to do, but you can buy a CD-ROM, use it to load
the OS, then return it to the store for your money back.

Better yet, if it works, keep it, cos you might need it again one day.