First Build... Problem #2

[~Mel~]

Ok, so I have everything together and the computer powers on and I can get into the BIOS. When I try to install Windows XP, it seems to hang up at the formating part. I select NTFS on the only partition listed and the progress meter never moves from 0% (waited maybe 10 min.). So, any ideas?

Thanks again for all the help,
Mel

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BTW... Here's a list of my parts:

Antec Performance I P160 Silver 1.2mm anodized aluminum ATX Mid Tower Case with Swiveling Front Control Panel features LED Display - Retail

COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W Aluminum ATX v2.01 APFC Power Supply w/ "SLI" - Retail - Retail

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

ASUS X-Mars Heat Pipes CPU Light Cooler for Socket 754/939/940 - OEM

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model KVR400X64C3AK2/2G - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JS 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

ASUS EN7800GT/2DHTV/256M Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro 70SB036000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

ASUS Black IDE DVD Burner 2X DVD-RAM Read Model DRW-1608P2 BK - Retail

ASUS Black ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive Model E616A - OEM

SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - OEM

[Dark Nova]

did you do a quick format? or a long one
quick format is way quicker, long format check if you have errors on the HD itself

[Cricket]

Check the motherboard manual to see which SATA port is the primary master port and move the cable if necessary.

If that doesn't work you might to run the manufacturer's diagnostic on that hard drive.

You might want to try doing the install with only 1 stick of RAM installed too.

Cricket

[~Mel~]

Pretty sure I've got the cable in SATA primary 1 (or something like that). I got the drive OEM, so it didn't come with any CD's or anything. And, why with only one stick of RAM?

[Cricket]

Go to the hard drive manufacturer's web site and download the diagnostics.

You remove 1 stick of RAM to see if the problem goes away or not. If the problem is still there, switch the sticks of RAM and try it again. It's a standard troubleshooting technique.

Cricket

[~Mel~]

So, I went to try and install Windows XP again and now it says Windows can't find a hard drive installed on the system.

[Cricket]

Is the hard drive recognized by the BIOS?

Try another SATA cable.

Cricket

[nicolaus corelius]

try another HDD.

[~Mel~]

Still no luck...

The hard drive (Western Digital Caviar SE 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb) is recognized as the primary SATA drive in the BIOS. Motherboard is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard.

So, I went to http://www.westerndigital.com/ and downloaded Data Lifeguard Tools 11 for DOS and made myself a bootable floppy using the program on another computer. First of all, the program doesn't always load on the new build. Sometimes, I get a message to remove the floppy and CD's and restart. When it does load, all it seems to see are my two DVD ROM/RW drives. It doesn't even see the hard drive at all.

I also tried putting the motherboard's SATA drivers on a floppy and loading those (by pressing F6) during the Windows XP install. That doesn't work either, it still doesn't see the hard drive.

The only two things I haven't tried yet are to switch out the SATA cable and
remove one of the sticks of RAM (have 2 now).

I'm starting to wonder if I got a bad hard drive. Think that's possible?

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144416

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131517

[bobbuttcake]

Mel, I have a very similar system, same mobo, similar parts and Im having the exact same problem. the difference being that I have a 80gb maxtor HDD. Cant seem to get past the formatting stage and Ive been at it for 2 days now.
Any help would be appreciated guys.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by bobbuttcake Mel, I have a very similar system, same mobo, similar parts and Im having the exact same problem. the difference being that I have a 80gb maxtor HDD. Cant seem to get past the formatting stage and Ive been at it for 2 days now. Any help would be appreciated guys.

Please start your own thread regarding this matter. Thank you.

Cricket

[1asimovfan]

Don't know if you have solved your problem yet, but I heard that some Asus boards have Bios/driver issues when it comes to installing XP on a SATA drive. Although my personal opinion is that it is a microsux problem, the apparrent cure is to download and flash the lastest bios for your board and / or the latest sata drivers. I'm not really all that well versed on this, but it is what I saw on another forum. LOL