HDD/install question about XPSP1

[-ha-]

Hi everybody!

Have a new Maxtor 160GB ATA-133 HDD, and would like to install a Windows XP
SP1 (HUN) onto it. Inserted it to my present Windows XP install (on a 30 GB
Diamondmax), it is no problem, the HDD works perfectly. Now I want to sell
my 30GB HDD, and use only the 160GB one, but!
Setup of Windows(XP) always fails after the first restart. It does not seems
to be booting from the HDD. Tried to format in each filestystems, but the
result is cca. negative. It doesn't finishes the setup. It fails always
after the first restart/continuous first booting process which doesn't seems
to be starting at all. Is it possible that my motherboard need a firmware
upgrade to solve this problem (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe 2.0)? Or is it some
problems with the partitions (15GB-FAT32/75GB-NTFS/75GB-NTFS)? Honestly, I
don't know what to do.

Any help would be appreciated;
-ha-

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

What are you using to setup the drive for installation? If using Maxtor's
drive setup utility (Maxblast) - don't. Boot the WinXP CD, start setup.
Delete any existing partitions, then create a new one using WinXP's drive
tools. Format, then let setup begin.

WinXP's setup frequently has problems with drives prepped and formatted with
the drive overlays commonly supplied by many drive manufacturers.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Windows
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, -ha-.

Setup of Windows(XP) always fails after the first restart. It does not
seems
to be booting from the HDD.

You probably need to do an "in-place upgrade" of WinXP so that Setup can
re-customize YOUR copy of WinXP to boot from your new HD. Adding the drive
as a secondary was no big deal; WinXP could just add the drivers like it
adds drivers for a printer or a digital camera. But, making the new drive
the BOOT DEVICE requires that the drivers be integrated into WinXP during
Setup. In other words, there's a big difference between USING a new HD
versus BOOTING FROM that new HD.

If drivers for your new HD are not on your WinXP CD-ROM, you will have to
let Setup add the drivers from a floppy during the reinstallation. Have the
drivers on a floppy before you run Setup. Early in the Setup process, you
should briefly see a message to Press F6 if you need to install drivers for
SCSI or other mass storage devices. Press F6 and wait while a lot of files
are copied; when Setup finally halts, there will be instructions for how to
use that floppy to install the drivers. After this, Setup will be able to
reboot from your new HD to continue the GUI phase of WinXP installation.

Microsoft's instructions for an in-place upgrade are in this KB article:
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341

This will take as long as a clean installation of WinXP itself, but it
should preserve your installed applications and data - and most of your
tweaks. As soon as you get your firewall and antivirus working again, go
online to Windows Update and get the latest Service Pack and later updates.
Even with broadband, you probably will need half a day for the whole
project.

One more thing: be sure the old drive is disconnected (or disabled in the
CMOS) when running Setup. Otherwise, Setup will detect the existing Active
partition on the old HD, assign the letter C: to it, and assign the next
letter (D:? E:? X:?) to your new "system partition" on your new HD. WinXP
will be just as happy booting from X:, but that confuses many users and
programs, and it's very difficult to change it back to C: without taking
another half-day to run Setup yet again.

RC

 

[-ha-]

Thank you all. The problem was the 2*75GB sized partition. When I had
reduced it to 3*49 GB, it worked fine. So I can not use large partition
(larger than 50 GB) under the setup of windows xp sp1? What a nonsense...
Hopefully they will solve this problem in the near future (SP2 / Reloaded
XP) or in "Longhorn".

Thanks for everything;
-ha-

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

Thank you all. The problem was the 2*75GB sized partition.

Since you didn't quote anything of what went before in the
thread, I don't know what your problem was, but glad to hear you
got it solved.

When I had
reduced it to 3*49 GB, it worked fine. So I can not use large
partition (larger than 50 GB) under the setup of windows xp

sp1?


No, that's not at all true. You can use partitions much larger
than the largest hard drive you can currently buy, if your
motherboard/BIOS support it.

What
a nonsense... Hopefully they will solve this problem in the near
future (SP2 / Reloaded XP) or in "Longhorn".

There is no such problem to solve.