New drive installation problems

[Guest]

I just purchased WD Caviar 320gb SATA2 SE16 drive and I'm having major
problems copying the contents of my old failing drive (a Maxtor) using both
Ghost and Data Lifeguard on a Dell Dimension 4700. The copy goes ahead well
however when I try to boot up with the drive I get the following message -
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration
problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and
hardware. Please check the documentation about hardware disk configuration
and hardware reference manuals for additional information" I have also tried
to do a fresh install on the new drive but Windows XP SP2 setup goes in a
continual loop. I am at my wits end, do you have any possible causes and
solutions for my problem? BTW, I do not have a floppy drive on the system
just a USB flash drive. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

This is almost certainly because XP doesn't have a driver for your mobo's
SATA chipset. To install this you DO need a floppy, there is NO workaround
for that.

You need to get the floppy version of the driver from the manufacturer's
website. When setting-up, after the first reboot press F6 to install the
driver.

The other issue you may meet is that it's very diffcult to do a
repair-install to an existing copy of Windows under these conditions.

If it were me, I'd go buy a PATA disk. You could use the SATA one for extra
storage, so it's not wasted. I've had to spend two solid days on a computer
in this situation, more than once.

 

[DL]

Another thing to look out for is that if your Dell is sata1, you have to
ensure that the WD is jumpered to force sata1.
Once you have cloned, after shutting down and disconnecting old drive,
reboot with winxp cd and choose repair option, then f6 early in the process
to install the sata drivers from floppy.

 

[HeyBub]

This is almost certainly because XP doesn't have a driver for your mobo's
SATA chipset. To install this you DO need a floppy, there is NO workaround
for that.

You need to get the floppy version of the driver from the manufacturer's
website. When setting-up, after the first reboot press F6 to install the
driver.

The other issue you may meet is that it's very diffcult to do a
repair-install to an existing copy of Windows under these conditions.

If it were me, I'd go buy a PATA disk. You could use the SATA one for
extra
storage, so it's not wasted. I've had to spend two solid days on a
computer
in this situation, more than once.

Do you know whether one can image/Ghost from a SATA drive to an IDE drive
and the IDE drive be bootable?

 

[Pop`]

I just purchased WD Caviar 320gb SATA2 SE16 drive and I'm having major
problems copying the contents of my old failing drive (a Maxtor)
using both Ghost and Data Lifeguard on a Dell Dimension 4700. The
copy goes ahead well however when I try to boot up with the drive I
get the following message - "Windows could not start because of a
computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the
selected boot disk.

Have you done the following? What are the results? You already have PART
of the answer; why not post your results?

... Please check the
documentation about hardware disk configuration and hardware
reference manuals for additional information"

I have also tried to do

a fresh install on the new drive but Windows XP SP2 setup goes in a
continual loop. I am at my wits end, do you have any possible causes
and solutions for my problem?

See above response: Do you even know you can run a SATA2 on that machine?
You may not be able to, you may need a BIOS update, all kinds of things.
RTFM first.

BTW, I do not have a floppy drive on

the system just a USB flash drive. Thanks.

If it turns out you really need a floppy, they're dirt cheap and easy to
install. But I think you need to do what you've been suggested above to
avoid a LOT of guessing!

Pop`

 

[Guest]

Have you done the following? What are the results? You already have PART
of the answer; why not post your results?


I have also tried to do

See above response: Do you even know you can run a SATA2 on that machine?
You may not be able to, you may need a BIOS update, all kinds of things.
RTFM first.

BTW, I do not have a floppy drive on

If it turns out you really need a floppy, they're dirt cheap and easy to
install. But I think you need to do what you've been suggested above to
avoid a LOT of guessing!

Pop`

I am able to run SATA2 in SATA1 mode on the machine, otherwise the system
(windows and the bios) wouldn't pick up the drive in the first place and I
wouldn't be able to do a Ghost partition copy. I am now aware of what the
problem is and instead of forking out more money to buy a PATA drive I'll see
if I can source or even borrow someone's floppy drive for all of five
minutes. You'd think in this day and age during an install a USB flash drive
could be used instead of ancient floppy drives.

 

[Anna]

I am able to run SATA2 in SATA1 mode on the machine, otherwise the system
(windows and the bios) wouldn't pick up the drive in the first place and I
wouldn't be able to do a Ghost partition copy. I am now aware of what the
problem is and instead of forking out more money to buy a PATA drive I'll
see
if I can source or even borrow someone's floppy drive for all of five
minutes. You'd think in this day and age during an install a USB flash
drive
could be used instead of ancient floppy drives.

Cletus:
I'm not at all convinced that your problem is due to a SATA driver
controller issue. I really don't think that's at the root of the problem
you're experiencing.

You mentioned that your old HDD - the drive that was being cloned - was a
"failing" drive. Might that have resulted in creating a corrupt clone
involving your SATA HDD and thus led to the problem you're experiencing?

Is there any possibility of making a fresh install of the XP OS onto that
SATA HDD to determine if a driver issue is involved?
Anna

 

[Guest]

Cletus:
I'm not at all convinced that your problem is due to a SATA driver
controller issue. I really don't think that's at the root of the problem
you're experiencing.

You mentioned that your old HDD - the drive that was being cloned - was a
"failing" drive. Might that have resulted in creating a corrupt clone
involving your SATA HDD and thus led to the problem you're experiencing?

Is there any possibility of making a fresh install of the XP OS onto that
SATA HDD to determine if a driver issue is involved?
Anna

Anna,

I have tried a fresh install on the drive but Windows setup just keeps going
in a continual loop. I know the problem is to do with the SATA controller
but I am having problems locating the chipset drivers.

 

[Anna]

Anna,

I have tried a fresh install on the drive but Windows setup just keeps
going
in a continual loop. I know the problem is to do with the SATA controller
but I am having problems locating the chipset drivers.

Cletus:
When you say the XP setup (I assume you're referring to a fresh install of
the OS onto that SATA HDD, right?) "keeps going in a continual loop", what
exactly happens? The installation process aborts somewhere during the
install? It never finishes? Any error messages or indications of what might
be causing the problem?

I take it there's no problem with the system detecting the SATA HDD at the
beginning of the XP install process, right?

What makes you think that the problem is one of chipset drivers?

You're absolutely certain you've properly connected/configured the SATA HDD,
yes?

Have you been in touch with Dell? Can they shed any light on this?
Anna

 

[Guest]

Cletus:
When you say the XP setup (I assume you're referring to a fresh install of
the OS onto that SATA HDD, right?) "keeps going in a continual loop", what
exactly happens? The installation process aborts somewhere during the
install? It never finishes? Any error messages or indications of what might
be causing the problem?

I take it there's no problem with the system detecting the SATA HDD at the
beginning of the XP install process, right?

What makes you think that the problem is one of chipset drivers?

You're absolutely certain you've properly connected/configured the SATA HDD,
yes?

Have you been in touch with Dell? Can they shed any light on this?
Anna

Anna,

The windows installation process sees the drive then copies files over to it
and when the system restarts to continue the installation process, it simply
goes back to the start like nothing had happened before. I think it is the
chipset drivers because I have also done a ghost copy of the failing drive
(it still works as I am using it right now) and received the following
message when I've rebooted on the new drive - "Windows could not start
because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read
from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and hardware. Please check the
documentation about hardware disk configuration and hardware reference
manuals for additional information" from what I've researched this problem is
to do with the chipset.

If I hadn't connected the SATA2 drive properly I wouldn't be able to copy
files over to it in the first place. So I am certain that the drive is
configured properly.

I have been in contact with Dell and WD but both quite frankly are as
useless as tits on a bull, their customer service is shocking to say the
least.

 

[Anna]

Anna,

The windows installation process sees the drive then copies files over to
it
and when the system restarts to continue the installation process, it
simply
goes back to the start like nothing had happened before. I think it is the
chipset drivers because I have also done a ghost copy of the failing drive
(it still works as I am using it right now) and received the following
message when I've rebooted on the new drive - "Windows could not start
because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read
from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and hardware. Please check
the
documentation about hardware disk configuration and hardware reference
manuals for additional information" from what I've researched this problem
is
to do with the chipset.

If I hadn't connected the SATA2 drive properly I wouldn't be able to copy
files over to it in the first place. So I am certain that the drive is
configured properly.

I have been in contact with Dell and WD but both quite frankly are as
useless as tits on a bull, their customer service is shocking to say the
least.

Cletus:
Since you seem convinced the problem is one of chipset drivers, have you
accessed Intel's site to determine if such updated drivers are available?

You had previously mentioned that "I am able to run SATA2 in SATA1 mode on
the machine". Does that mean you changed the jumper configuration on that WD
SATA HDD to the SATA 1.5 Gb/s data transfer interface? If not, do so. If so,
also try it with the 3.0 Gb/s data transfer interface (jumperless) - (I
fully understand that your motherboard does not support the latter).

Assuming your motherboard has more than one SATA connector, have you tried
connecting the HDD to a different connector?

If you haven't done so already it might be a good idea to check out the disk
with the WD HDD diagnostic available from their site.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Cletus:
Since you seem convinced the problem is one of chipset drivers, have you
accessed Intel's site to determine if such updated drivers are available?

You had previously mentioned that "I am able to run SATA2 in SATA1 mode on
the machine". Does that mean you changed the jumper configuration on that WD
SATA HDD to the SATA 1.5 Gb/s data transfer interface? If not, do so. If so,
also try it with the 3.0 Gb/s data transfer interface (jumperless) - (I
fully understand that your motherboard does not support the latter).

Assuming your motherboard has more than one SATA connector, have you tried
connecting the HDD to a different connector?

If you haven't done so already it might be a good idea to check out the disk
with the WD HDD diagnostic available from their site.
Anna

Anna,

I have already tried all the things you have suggested, I have run the drive
in SATA1 and 2 modes and my motherboard has two SATA connections and I have
tried both, I have also run the WD diagnostic software and the new drive
passes all tests. I have been able to download the chipset drivers (Intel
915G Express) but I won't find out if this works until I can get my hands on
a floppy drive. I would prefer to do a Windows repair on the ghosted image
copied to the new drive rather than a fresh install but I do not know what
the admin password you are prompted for is. It is certainly not any of the
passwords for the accounts installed on the pc.

 

[Guest]

Problem solved, I found a floppy drive amongst some old computer stuff in our
spare room and simply installed the chipset drivers at the F6 prompt.