Trouble installing Windows XP

[GJameson]

So after a few weeks of frustration, I found out I needed a new XP Pro disc.
I ordered one and received it today. Before I found out the old cd was
screwed up, I went into my hard drives RAID utility on startup and performed
a low level format, wish I hadnt. So now I have my new disc and windows setup
will finally start without giving me a blue screen stop error. But now a new
problem has popped up. Windows setup cannot find any hard drives to install
to. The hard drive is connected properly just like it has always been. I even
can see it in my raid utility. But according to windows setup, it says theres
no hard drive there. So if anyone has ANY idea as to why windows setup will
not find a hard drive to install to, please Im open to anything. Also,
windows did manage to find my portable usb drive and listed that as a
partition to install to.

Here are my specs

AMD 3200+xp
Asus motherboard A7N8X Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 7200 120gb SATA hdd
Nvidia Geforce 6800GS
2gb of pc3200 corsair ram

 

[sgopus]

You must hit F6 during loading windows while installing, to load the sata
drivers off floppy disk, it will not look anywhere else for the drivers.

 

[GJameson]

Thanks sgopus, I went to the asus website and downloaded both the IDE and
RAID drivers for my motherboard "A7N8X Deluxe". I tried them both on the
floppy disk and did as it said, hit f6 during the begining of windows setup
and hit S when it prompted me to. I then inserted the floppy and hit enter
and it spent a couple seconds attempting to find the files. Then it just went
back to asking me to insert the disk labeled Manufacturer support files disk.
So either the drivers Ive downloaded from ASUS dont work or something else is
going wrong. As I said, I tried using the RAID drivers first, then I tried
the IDE drivers. Then I tried the GLOBAL version of both of those. Same
thing, it just acts like theres no drivers on the disk. Any suggestions or
idea on what Im doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Anna]

So after a few weeks of frustration, I found out I needed a new XP Pro
disc.
I ordered one and received it today. Before I found out the old cd was
screwed up, I went into my hard drives RAID utility on startup and
performed
a low level format, wish I hadnt. So now I have my new disc and windows
setup
will finally start without giving me a blue screen stop error. But now a
new
problem has popped up. Windows setup cannot find any hard drives to
install
to. The hard drive is connected properly just like it has always been. I
even
can see it in my raid utility. But according to windows setup, it says
theres
no hard drive there. So if anyone has ANY idea as to why windows setup
will
not find a hard drive to install to, please Im open to anything. Also,
windows did manage to find my portable usb drive and listed that as a
partition to install to.

Here are my specs

AMD 3200+xp
Asus motherboard A7N8X Deluxe
Seagate Barracuda 7200 120gb SATA hdd
Nvidia Geforce 6800GS
2gb of pc3200 corsair ram

Thanks sgopus, I went to the asus website and downloaded both the IDE and
RAID drivers for my motherboard "A7N8X Deluxe". I tried them both on the
floppy disk and did as it said, hit f6 during the begining of windows
setup
and hit S when it prompted me to. I then inserted the floppy and hit enter
and it spent a couple seconds attempting to find the files. Then it just
went
back to asking me to insert the disk labeled Manufacturer support files
disk.
So either the drivers Ive downloaded from ASUS dont work or something else
is
going wrong. As I said, I tried using the RAID drivers first, then I tried
the IDE drivers. Then I tried the GLOBAL version of both of those. Same
thing, it just acts like theres no drivers on the disk. Any suggestions or
idea on what Im doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

GJameson:
Try this...

1. Download the Silicon Image SATA driver v1.0.0.22 from the ASUS site.
It's a ZIP file so extract its contents.

2. Copy (or move) *only* the four SI files to a floppy disk. Also the
TxtSetup.oem file. So you'll have only those five files on the floppy. Do
*not* copy or move to the floppy any of the other files that were extracted
including any folder.

3. Now boot up with your XP OS installation CD ensuring that you press the
F6 key at the beginning of the boot process when you get the prompt to do so
at the bottom of the screen.

4. Eventually during the Windows Setup process you'll get the message that
"Windows could not determine the type of ... mass storage devices installed
in your system...", etc., etc. Press the S key.

5. The next screen will prompt you to insert the "support disk" in your
floppy disk drive. Do so and press Enter.

6. The next screen will indicate that "you have chosen to configure a SCSI
adapter for use with Windows...". (Don't ask any questions why the reference
is to a "SCSI adapter" and no reference is made to a SATA controller
driver!).

In any event, the Silicon Image driver will be listed, so press Enter.

7. The next screen will be merely a confirmation message that the Silicon
Image SATARaid Controller will be installed. Press Enter.

8. The setup process will continue and you should be able to fresh install
the XP OS. (Disregard the SI SATARaid Controller " has not passed Windows
Logo testing..." cautionary message you'll get along the way.)

9. After the XP OS has been successfully installed and you arrive at your
Desktop, check Device Manager listing for "SCSI and RAID controllers".
Hopefully the Silicon Image SATA controller will be listed without any
exclamation mark or other indication of a possible problem.
Anna

 

[GJameson]

GJameson:
Try this...

1. Download the Silicon Image SATA driver v1.0.0.22 from the ASUS site.
It's a ZIP file so extract its contents.

2. Copy (or move) *only* the four SI files to a floppy disk. Also the
TxtSetup.oem file. So you'll have only those five files on the floppy. Do
*not* copy or move to the floppy any of the other files that were extracted
including any folder.

3. Now boot up with your XP OS installation CD ensuring that you press the
F6 key at the beginning of the boot process when you get the prompt to do so
at the bottom of the screen.

4. Eventually during the Windows Setup process you'll get the message that
"Windows could not determine the type of ... mass storage devices installed
in your system...", etc., etc. Press the S key.

5. The next screen will prompt you to insert the "support disk" in your
floppy disk drive. Do so and press Enter.

6. The next screen will indicate that "you have chosen to configure a SCSI
adapter for use with Windows...". (Don't ask any questions why the reference
is to a "SCSI adapter" and no reference is made to a SATA controller
driver!).

In any event, the Silicon Image driver will be listed, so press Enter.

7. The next screen will be merely a confirmation message that the Silicon
Image SATARaid Controller will be installed. Press Enter.

8. The setup process will continue and you should be able to fresh install
the XP OS. (Disregard the SI SATARaid Controller " has not passed Windows
Logo testing..." cautionary message you'll get along the way.)

9. After the XP OS has been successfully installed and you arrive at your
Desktop, check Device Manager listing for "SCSI and RAID controllers".
Hopefully the Silicon Image SATA controller will be listed without any
exclamation mark or other indication of a possible problem.
Anna

Thanks for the suggestion Anna, but still no luck. Like I said, I go through
the beginning of Windows setup, I hit f6 when prompted, hit S when prompted,
pop in the floppy when prompted. It says Please wait... for about 3 or 4
seconds then just goes back asking me to insert the support disk into Drive
A. I can see the A drive light coming on so I know SOME activity is happening
there. But it just acts like theres no drivers on the disk. Any idea as to
why windows will not detect the drivers on the floppy? Thanks in advance.

 

[Anna]

(OP is experiencing a problem installing SATA controller driver re his ASUS
A7N8X-E motherboard)...

Thanks for the suggestion Anna, but still no luck. Like I said, I go
through
the beginning of Windows setup, I hit f6 when prompted, hit S when
prompted,
pop in the floppy when prompted. It says Please wait... for about 3 or 4
seconds then just goes back asking me to insert the support disk into
Drive
A. I can see the A drive light coming on so I know SOME activity is
happening
there. But it just acts like theres no drivers on the disk. Any idea as to
why windows will not detect the drivers on the floppy? Thanks in advance.

GJameson:
I really don't know.

Have you've checked the files on your floppy disk to ensure that you've
extracted from the ASUS zip file the specific files I indicated in step. 2
above?

And are you certain that your floppy disk drive is properly working? You're
sure there's no problem with the disk drive itself? And naturally, you've
tried other floppy disks, right?
Anna