At wits end!!!

[wjperry]

I will apologize now for the long post. Also, I’m not sure if this post belongs here, but this is a new build. Move it where ever you think is best. This is the “simplest” PC I have built but it is about to drive me crazy. Here are the main parts:

ASUS K8N Motherboard (Upgraded to latest BIOS)
AMD Sempron 64 2600+ Processor w/ stock HSF assembly
Corsair Value Select CL3 1 Gigabyte in a single stick.
Seagate SATA 120GB 7200RPM 8MB cache HDD
Sapphire Radeon 9250 AGP Card (128MB)
ASUS Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
Sony Floppy Drive
ANTEC Sonata II Case
Windows XP Professional OEM w/ SP2

Installing WinXP goes well up to the point where Setup is actually going to read the nVidia drivers diskette for installation. It goes well past the F6 and selection process, the formatting the HDD, actually begins the “Starting Windows” phase. Suddenly you get a relatively long message that is as below:

Setup cannot copy the file: nvatabus.sys
To retry press enter:
If installing from a CD, make sure the Windows XP CD is in the CD-ROM.

To Skip this file, press ESC.
Caution: If you skip his file, Setup may not complete & Windows XP may not work properly.

To quit Setup, press F3.

First, the nvatabus.sys file is located on the nVidia drivers floppy (still in the Floppy drive). The message would appear the Setup is attempting to read the file from the CD? If you attempt a retry by pressing enter you see the access of the Floppy followed by the access of the CD and then a repeat of the message. If you quit (F3), Setup goes away and you are left with a partially loaded C;/Windows directory.

If you select Skip -, the message changes to indicate that the file nvatabus.inf cannot be copied, that being the only change.

Aside from searching MS Knowledge Base, ASUS forums, Google, nVidia support and goodness knows what else, I find nothing of help. I have run Seagate’s Seatools against the HDD with totally positive results. Memtest86 has been run against the memory, 6 passes of full check with zero errors, and the floppy drive has been replaced with one know to be good. All the same results as described above.

I guess I need new ideas?

[Panama Red]

Are you sure you need to load the SATA drivers? Is the hard drive showing in the bios? If so, you may just need to make sure it is included in the boot sequence and load XP just like any other IDE load. Also make sure your don't have any USB devices plugged in. I'd even unplug the front panel usb connector.

[wjperry]

I'm sorry for taking so long to reply, but we just finished dinner. Durring dinner I got to thinking about that very question. I'm going to try that right now and see what happens. More later!!! Thanks Panama!!!

[wjperry]

Panama,
You were right. Don't need the d*** things. I have wrestled over that until I'm sick of it. Now I'm getting "cyclic redundancy errors" as there is either something wrong with the CD or the drive. It's late and I'm tired. More tomorrow. It's another day!!

Thanks!! Bill

[wjperry]

I have now attempted to read the Win XP CD on two other machines to no avail. The bad portion is in the i386 folder (of course) attempting to retreive 'EX50SP1'. One solution suggested by Setup is to use another copy, however, this is the only XP Pro version I have. I wonder if a XP Home CD would work? That would probably make a BIG Mess!!

[glc]

Contact Microsoft for a replacement CD.

[wjperry]

GLC,
Outstanding idea. I'll slook thru their Website this evening and get the particulars.
Thanks!!

[Floppy]

I have the same problem with my game PC setup:

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI Motherboard (Upgraded to latest BIOS)
AMD X2 4200+ Processor w/ VapoChill LS assembly
G-Skill 2x512Mb DDR600 @ 2.5-4-4-8 1 Gigabyte in 2 sticks.
WD Raptor SATA 2x36GB in RAID-0 10000RPM 8MB cache
and Hitachi SATA 2x160GB in RAID-0 7200RPM HDD's
BFG 2x7800GTX OC in SLI PCI-Express Cards (256MB)
NEC_3500A 16x DVD-/+RW & Some DVD-ROM drive
Some Black Floppy Drive
Raidmax 868 Scorpio case
Windows XP Professional OEM w/ SP2

I had a Gigabyte GF 6800Ultra PCI-Express Card that would not be detected again by windows after I ran a 7000series nvidia demo on it that is called Luna, so I reinstalled windows only I got this "cant find file error message" wich I did not get the first time I setup Windows on the machine (dont know what I was doing diffrently that time) but I managed somehow to setup Windows by skipping few files, only to find out I had no TCP/IP drivers a.k.a. no net connection though my GF 6800Ultra was now detected.

Luckely I have another computer that works so I just played some single player games on the gaming rig, well until I upgraded my videocard to a 7800GTX SLI then I thought lets give the setup another try and well currently Im stuck in the same spot, except my problem is a little more complicated that yours since I have a not only SATA but a SATA-RAID setup and also my mobo has two RAID devices one is a nVidia and the other is a Silicon Image Sil3114 and the total of diskettes are 3, one for the nvidia with 2 requered drivers on one diskette but the SI SATALink and a SATARAID drivers are on seperate disketts since they have some files with the same names on them btw the disks are RAIDed on the SI since the nVidia is for SATA2 and yes I've tryed just using the SI diskettes and then only one and then only the other and no go.

The problem is that windows is somehow too stupidly made to actually go and look for the drivers on a floppy and not the WinXP CD-ROM on its own, or atleast have the option to select from where to search for the files, eighter I can not use the disketts in wich case the setup cant find the RAIDed Harddrive, or I can use the disketts in wich case the setup finds the harddrive makes a partition and formats is then starts copying but then gives me a "cant find file message" and finally I can at that point choose to skip the files it cant find in wich case the result will be a blue screen in 3 seconds or at best a buggy windows in 30 minutes.

I've been changing the BIOS setting the default value deleating the raid and then create a new one, trying another OS disk, making new disketts with the latest bootdrivers from the manufactors site, and still nothing... wonder if my setup is just too extream for this crap of an OS, next step will probably be testing some customized versions of the OS like TinyXP at worst I'll not have to wait as long to get that wonderful "file not found message" :P

[Cricket]

Floppy: Please start your own thread concerning this problem. Thank you.

Cricket

[Floppy]

humm ok but its basically the same "problem" I just wondered if he has solved this problem or not, and if so it would be easyer to get that info from him by replaying to his post (this post) rather than creating a new thread about the same issue, atleast that sounds more logical to me :P

[Floppy]

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?...pic=51140&st=0

(Admin note - I removed the body of the post for 2 reasons - it was a HUGE copy/paste of the above link, and it triggered our spam filter)

(Admin note to floppy - please do not triple post, and please do not copy/paste from other forums, simply provide links)