Help - Cannot get Windows XP to install

[Duncan Chapman]

Folks,

Having just bought a new barebones system for my first
system build I am having great difficulty installing
Windows XP.

The System is as follows:
Biostar IDEQ 200P barebones
Athlon 64 3000
WD Raptor 74GB (SATA)
1024 MB Mushkin 2-2-2 special
Brand New Win XP Home OEM install disk

Problem:

After inserting the XP disk and hitting F6 to load the
relevant S-ATA driver for the HD the first stage of the
Win XP installation completes with no problems. I can
partition and format the HD and then it copies across all
of the files required for installation. It then states
it will reboot and the installation will continue.

However after a reboot my system apparently does not
recognise the SATA drive and will not boot from it.
Instead it prompts to see if I want to boot from CD.
Whether I hit a key or do not touch the keyboard the
initial stage of Win XP installation is repeated whereby
I install the S-ATA driver, format the drives etc. I can
find no way to successfully continue the installation.

I have checked on a number of forums and I have found at
least one other person with an identical problem who is
using a different processor and mboard (Nforce 2 based).
The key strand appears to be that he is also using a SATA
Hard disk.

I have tried all combinations of changing the boot order
in BIOS with no success. I cannot seem to get my sytem
to boot from the HD and continue the windows setup -
despite the fact that SATA driver loads correctly and the
drive is found and can be formatted successfully and
files copied to it during the first stage of installation.

I am almost at the stage of tearing my hair out so would
appreciate any and all advice and help.

Also I wanted to raise an online support request with
Microsoft but there system will not allow me to continue
without a product ID code. As I have not been able to
install windows yet I have no Product ID to use as I only
have the Product Key code. Anyone have any idea of a
phone / email contact or any other mechanism of raising
this issue with Microsoft? (I'm UK based btw)

Thanks,

Duncan

 

[Rich]

Hi,
Hate to see a question without some response.
Did you check Western Digital's web site for possible
answer or newer drivers and setup utilities?
Rich

 

[Alex Nichol]

After inserting the XP disk and hitting F6 to load the
relevant S-ATA driver for the HD the first stage of the
Win XP installation completes with no problems. I can
partition and format the HD and then it copies across all
of the files required for installation. It then states
it will reboot and the installation will continue.

However after a reboot my system apparently does not
recognise the SATA drive and will not boot from it.
Instead it prompts to see if I want to boot from CD.
Whether I hit a key or do not touch the keyboard the
initial stage of Win XP installation is repeated whereby
I install the S-ATA driver, format the drives etc. I can
find no way to successfully continue the installation.

It *ought* at that first reboot to again give the black screen to again
load the drivers from floppy. It might be a good idea at the reboot to
go straight into BIOS setup and put it firmly back to HD first - it may
be that the BIOS is not set up to boot the SATA drive and unless it does
then there is no access to the drive to load the second stage of setup
from it