Cannot Get XP Installation CD to Run on New Box

[JB]

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot from CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it tells me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike

 

[philo]

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set to
boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from CD,
the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same process
starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts the
same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot from CD,
churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto the
xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it tells me
that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Thank you.

Mike

Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

However to load XP that way you'd want to copy the setup files to your HD
then it's also important to load smartdrv first or your install will take
forever (if it completes at all)

A better alternative would be download a set of boot floppies for XP
from Microsoft

 

[JB]

Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt<

I logged onto the CD after booting from the floppy, changed the directory to
I386 and tried to run winnt but it generates an error.

However to load XP that way you'd want to copy the setup files to your HD
then it's also important to load smartdrv first or your install will take
forever (if it completes at all)

A better alternative would be download a set of boot floppies for XP
from Microsoft<

I'd sure like to avoid that. Microsoft's instructions say to insert the CD,
reboot and hit the space bar when it invites me to boot from the CD. But,
as I said, that causes the machine to reboot.

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am running
PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The timing and
speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V at it's
rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Thanks for your input.

 

[Brett Kline]

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master,
the hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a
floppy drive.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot
from CD, the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the
same process starts anew.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994



The other way would be to copy every file and folder on the CD to C:\xp.
If this works without errors you can add a 2KB boot track then create
a bootable ISO with MagicISO or similar.

 

[Plato]

Correct...you cannot run setup from dos...
the correct dos command to install XP would be: winnt

http://www.bootdisk.com/txtfiles/xpboot1.txt
Depends on the version of XP.

 

[Plato]

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

Grin... Sounds like the "tech" support questions I get..

ie I got a RT456 but cant get it to work with me cyfix 23E. How do I fix
this?

 

[philo]

I logged onto the CD after booting from the floppy, changed the directory to
I386 and tried to run winnt but it generates an error.


I'd sure like to avoid that. Microsoft's instructions say to insert the CD,
reboot and hit the space bar when it invites me to boot from the CD. But,
as I said, that causes the machine to reboot.

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am running
PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The timing and
speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V at it's
rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Thanks for your input.

Aha! I'd guess the problem then is with the incorrect RAM voltage...
I'd be sure to get compatable RAM first!

BTW: The boot disk method works fine. There are 4 disks required but it's
asy to do.
All you have to do is macke sure that "boot from floppy" is the first option
in the bios.

Finally...if you do the setup from dos (by running winnt) you *do* have to
load smartdrv first.
but even if you didn't, it should not have crashed...so again...it's prob.
due to the RAM

 

[Brian Cryer]

I just assembled an ECS 945GCT-M rev 1 motherboard with a E2180 processor.

This board has one IDE channel. The CD drive is detected as master, the
hard drive is detected as "third IDE slave". It also supports a floppy
drive.

Whilst I don't think it will make any difference I suggest changing it
around so the hard drive is the primary master.

I want to install XP pro on the hard drive from CD and have the bios set
to boot from the CD drive. I get the message to hit any key to boot from
CD, the CD spins for awhile and then the system reboots and the same
process starts anew.

When the pc reboots as part of the installation process (assuming it gets
that far) it probably expects to reboot from the disk rather that the cd.
While you are trying to set it up why not change the boot order to HD then
CD, you can always change it again in the BIOS after its up.

I have changed out the CD drive with the same result.

I put the xp CD in a vista machine and tried to boot from it but it acts
the same as with the ECS machine....it asks me to press any key to boot
from CD, churns for awhile, then reboots.

Going back to the ECS board, using a Win 98 boot floppy, I can log onto
the xp CD and read it's directory. But when I try to run setup.exe, it
tells me that it cannot be run from a dos environment.

The hard drive is was formatted FAT 32 and marked "active" on a Vista
machine.

How large is the disk (or at least the active partition)? I could be wrong
here but I think XP may have problems if its a large drive (over 4GB I
think) formatted fat32, I suggest allowing the setup (assuming it gets that
far) to reformat it.

Maybe I am overlooking something, maybe the the XP CD is bad (there is no
visible damage to my eyes).

How can I get the new box running? Can a run something other than "setup"
on the XP CD and perhaps bypass this problem?

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Jon Danniken]

In pondering why it crashes at that point, it occurs to me that I am
running PC6400 memory but the motherboard only supports PC5300. The
timing and speed should not be a problem but the faster memory requires 2V
at it's rated speed. The mobo can only supply 1.84v

Download memtest86 and make a boot disk from it. It will run from the cd or
floppy and test your RAM; should only take a few passes to tell you if
you're RAM is wonky from the lower voltage.

Jon

 

[JB]

Whilst I don't think it will make any difference I suggest changing it
around so the hard drive is the primary master.


When the pc reboots as part of the installation process (assuming it gets
that far) it probably expects to reboot from the disk rather that the cd.
While you are trying to set it up why not change the boot order to HD then
CD, you can always change it again in the BIOS after its up.


How large is the disk (or at least the active partition)? I could be wrong
here but I think XP may have problems if its a large drive (over 4GB I
think) formatted fat32, I suggest allowing the setup (assuming it gets
that far) to reformat it.


Hope you get it sorted.

Thanks to all of you who replied.

But so far nothing has worked and it looks like my XP CD is bad but I can't
prove it with Vista. Chkdsk does not work on RAW volumes and I can't find
another tool to check it. I tried to copy the i386 folder on two Vista
machines but the process failed on many files.

Prior to that, I did interchange the boot order of the CD and HDs as Brian
suggested although I did not shrink the primary partition.

I did load Win ME and it worked fine except I could not get it to recognize
the CD drive. I was unable to locate a driver for either of my CD drives
although firmware updates are available. I then tried to install XP using
the ME setup floppy to get access to the CD but ther original symptoms
remained..

Next I made XP floppy setup disks and thought I was in business. But the
setup program was unable to so many files I finally gave up.

But the verbiage indicates their could be a path confusion problem in the
installation code also or maybe the bios. The machine only has one IDE
channel and reports the CD and HD as third IDE master and slave,
respectively. But when I run the first xp setup floppy, the c: partition
information shows as "c: Partition (unknown) 131072 MB (131071 MB free) on
131070 MB Disk 0 at Id1 on bus 0 on ATAPI (MBR).

It also made me put in the ME CD to prove ownership because it could not
find a copy on the machine...and ME was installed! It thinks I am using
upgrade disks but all my OS disks are full versions. The XP pro disk is a
special version however...I've forgotten what they called it.

I wonder if interchanging the master/slave positions would fix this...I have
heard of such situations. The board supports several sata drives and I
also wonder if one of those would make any difference.

It's o'dark thirty and my head is spinning so I am going to give up for
awhile.

 

[philo]

Thanks to all of you who replied.

But so far nothing has worked and it looks like my XP CD is bad but I can't
prove it with Vista. Chkdsk does not work on RAW volumes and I can't find
another tool to check it. I tried to copy the i386 folder on two Vista
machines but the process failed on many files.

Prior to that, I did interchange the boot order of the CD and HDs as Brian
suggested although I did not shrink the primary partition.

I did load Win ME and it worked fine except I could not get it to recognize
the CD drive. I was unable to locate a driver for either of my CD drives
although firmware updates are available. I then tried to install XP using
the ME setup floppy to get access to the CD but ther original symptoms
remained..

If you got winME installed but it did not recognize the DVD either...then
maybe there is a problem with it.
I'd put a different DVD in the machine and give that a try

 

[kony]

But so far nothing has worked and it looks like my XP CD is bad but I can't
prove it with Vista. Chkdsk does not work on RAW volumes and I can't find
another tool to check it. I tried to copy the i386 folder on two Vista
machines but the process failed on many files.

That failure to copy would indeed suggest either the CD is
bad and/or damaged, or the drive itself has trouble reading.

If nothing else works, borrow someone's (same version of) XP
CD and dupe it. The CD itself is just an installation
means, your license and unique CD key are what you need for
a valid installation.

Prior to that, I did interchange the boot order of the CD and HDs as Brian
suggested although I did not shrink the primary partition.

I did load Win ME and it worked fine except I could not get it to recognize
the CD drive. I was unable to locate a driver for either of my CD drives
although firmware updates are available. I then tried to install XP using
the ME setup floppy to get access to the CD but ther original symptoms
remained..

You should not need a driver for the CD drives under WinME,
it is odd they aren't working. Are you sure they're jumpred
correctly, and/or other devices on same cables are jumpered
correctly? When you wrote that it could not recognize, does
it mean it doesn't show up in Device Manager at all?

Next I made XP floppy setup disks and thought I was in business. But the
setup program was unable to so many files I finally gave up.

If your optical drive otherwise works in Vista but you can't
copy off the I386 folder from the XP CD, there isn't
anything else likely to work... so you mainly have one of
two options.

1) Examine the disc. If the top layer is gouged there
isn't likely anything you can do but if the bottom is
scratched then perhaps polishing it (with brasso, or fine
plastic polish) may help. Putting a very light coating of
oil on the bottom then briefly wiping it off (with a soft
lift-free cloth) might also temporarily improve readability
but you wouldn't want to leave a disc like that.

2) Get another disc from somebody, either dupe it and use
that with your installation key (if it'll work) or copy as
much of your CD as you can, isolating which files it won't
read and then reading all the rest, then copy off only those
missing files from someone else's CD. Sometimes you can
also find individual files on the 'net but take care to get
what seems the same version of the file when possible...
though if the file versions are different then a later
patching of the OS may reintroduce the corrected file
versions anyway, so long as it runs up to the point of being
able to apply patches.

But the verbiage indicates their could be a path confusion problem in the
installation code also or maybe the bios. The machine only has one IDE
channel and reports the CD and HD as third IDE master and slave,
respectively. But when I run the first xp setup floppy, the c: partition
information shows as "c: Partition (unknown) 131072 MB (131071 MB free) on
131070 MB Disk 0 at Id1 on bus 0 on ATAPI (MBR).

Till you can get your drive to read all the files needed on
the CD (in Vista, trying to copy them would suffice as a
test), it won't matter what a boot floppy does.

 

[JB]

That failure to copy would indeed suggest either the CD is
bad and/or damaged, or the drive itself has trouble reading.

If nothing else works, borrow someone's (same version of) XP
CD and dupe it. The CD itself is just an installation
means, your license and unique CD key are what you need for
a valid installation.




You should not need a driver for the CD drives under WinME,
it is odd they aren't working. Are you sure they're jumpred
correctly, and/or other devices on same cables are jumpered
correctly? When you wrote that it could not recognize, does
it mean it doesn't show up in Device Manager at all?



If your optical drive otherwise works in Vista but you can't
copy off the I386 folder from the XP CD, there isn't
anything else likely to work... so you mainly have one of
two options.

1) Examine the disc. If the top layer is gouged there
isn't likely anything you can do but if the bottom is
scratched then perhaps polishing it (with brasso, or fine
plastic polish) may help. Putting a very light coating of
oil on the bottom then briefly wiping it off (with a soft
lift-free cloth) might also temporarily improve readability
but you wouldn't want to leave a disc like that.

2) Get another disc from somebody, either dupe it and use
that with your installation key (if it'll work) or copy as
much of your CD as you can, isolating which files it won't
read and then reading all the rest, then copy off only those
missing files from someone else's CD. Sometimes you can
also find individual files on the 'net but take care to get
what seems the same version of the file when possible...
though if the file versions are different then a later
patching of the OS may reintroduce the corrected file
versions anyway, so long as it runs up to the point of being
able to apply patches.



Till you can get your drive to read all the files needed on
the CD (in Vista, trying to copy them would suffice as a
test), it won't matter what a boot floppy does.<

The problem was indeed a bad disk and I fixed it before I read your message
Kony.

The label side looked perfect but the other side has some small scratches
and, until I worked on it, had some kind of material on it. I wondere if
it's glue residue from the MS mailing envelope. Whatever it was, it was
very difficult to remove.

I spent a long time with isopropyl alcohol, kleenix and my thumbnail to get
some of it off and tried to copy I386 again. This time the errors were
different so I knew I had made some progress and cleaned and burnished some
more.

Eventually I could make a complete copy of the disk but the copy would not
run. The error message was " CDR103: CDROM not High Sierra or ISO-9660
format".

So I used the original XP disk and was able to load the OS. At this point
it's running fine with SP2 and a ton of updates. I won't install the ECS
drivers until I make an image because they might hose things.

As far as not being able to recognize the CD drive with win ME, I never did
figure out why. It did not show in device manager. But drivers are not
available for this board's circuits for an OS that old so it's moot.

Thank you and all the others that gave me inputs on this. I am back in
business now and will be benchmarking the board pretty soon to see how it
does with heavy lifting.