Used HDD and CDROM in new build

[Wrnchhead76]

Hey everyone, this is probably painfully obvious to the experts, but it has me stumped. Ok, my build is done except for the cd rom and hdd. I bought a used hdd from a friend for $10 (hey, it might get my comp running, and it's only $10, it's a cavair 33200) and i have a used 4x cd rom out of a family members old comp. The harddrive, i don't know about what's on it, was used for extra file storage i guess, and to my knowledge, was working for him. I put them in my computer hoping that i might get to taste some of this 2.4ghz pentium i have, im dying to try it out! Well, i also have an XP pro disk, and an old 98se disk. Ok, now what i have that's new an Intel D845gebv2 (http://intel.com/design/motherbd/bv/index.htm?iid=ipp_browse+motherbd_d845gbv&) MB, a 2.4bghz pIV, 512mb kingston value ram. I connected everything to the primary ide controller integral to the MB, and the secondary, with a new 80 conductor, and an old one, and the bios recognizes everything perfectly. But after the POST or the BIOS when i save and exit, i get the -reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device- message. I have quadruple checked the boot order and still nothing past the error message. I believe that there is no actual OS on the hdd, and it's possible that the cd rom is bad but im not really for sure that either one is good, but the bios recognizes them. i have the hdd as master and the rom to slave. i have tried cable select and jumpering them master and slave, and in any case, the bios properly recognizes them. Ok, and probably due to my noobieness, i don't understand why i never get a dos prompt? I could fdisk that way couldn't i? I was thinking about going to my moms and using her cd rom as a tester and see if that helps. I have also unplugged the hdd and the rom, and tried booting from a floppy boot disk that i got from bootdisk.com, and THAT gets me -invalid system disk- Thank you if you are still with me, and your thoughts would be appreciated

[mike breck]

If this is just a temporary setup until you get a new HD, then forget installing XP on that old HD (3Gb?) - it's not big enough. Just install Win98SE in the meantime.

The Win98SE should boot off the CD and allow you to partition and format. So, assuming you have set the Boot sequence right in the BIOS, I would suspect the CD-Rom drive.

Try another CD-Rom drive.

You could also double-check you have downloaded a Win98 Bootdisk. after changing the Boot sequence to "A" first, that should get you to the A\> prompt to partition and format. However, not much good if you still can't access the CD-Rom drive to install Windows.

Not knowing what is on the old HD, I would advise downloading the Lifeguard Tools from Western Digital and Zero Wiping (Low Level Format) the HD. That will clean the drive entirely before you partition, format, and install Windows.

You never know what nasties might be lurking on the HD.

HTH

[glc]

1. Install the hard drive and the CD drive on separate IDE channels. Use the 80 wire cable that came with the motherboard on the primary, plug the blue end into the motherboard, plug the hard drive into the black end, and remove the jumper from the hard drive or set it to the "CS" position. Jumper the CD drive as master and install it on the secondary with the 40 wire cable.

2. Go to a Windows 98 machine and make a startup disk. The odds of an old 4x CD drive being bootable are slim to none. Boot with the startup disk and choose start the computer with CD support. If the boot process does not detect a CD drive, then the CD drive is too old to work with the generic Win98 bootdisk CD driver.

3. If you can get the CD driver loaded, you can use the procedures found on this site for partitioning and formatting the drive with FDISK from the floppy, and installing Win98 from the CD.

[Wrnchhead76]

OK everyone, FINALLY my new computer is up and running! And it's everything i want it to be and more! And XP rules. GLC, you were right on every count, as usual. I used my moms cd rom on the secondary ide channel, and it worked like a charm. I got my usb card installed, and now i can use my external cd rom until i get the new one. Thanks everyone for all your help!!!