Computer powers on, nothing detected?

[Mike Maloney]

Hi Everyone-

Well, I put together my computer that I discussed here. The machine powers on, everything seems to be powered up fine, but I guess something's not being detected. When I go into the BIOS Configuration, this is what is shown:

[Adapter] [Create] [Delete]
Adapter 1

Arrays Information:
No array is defined!

Disks Information:
No hard disk is detected!

And that's it. Nothing loads up, but everything's powered up. Is there something in particular that would cause this? I'm not sure what's wrong. Help!

[Mike Maloney]

Hmm, okay, I guess I should clarify a bit. I was able to get into the BIOS menu, and everything looked fine. However, once the computer starts up, I get a 'scanning controller' screen, and I get that error when it's scanning the Marvell RAID controller?? It won't get past that screen, and just reboots anytime I try and load Windows. I honestly have no idea what's causing the error.

I don't have any SATA devices plugged in, I have my two HDDs plugged into the IDE input.

[Mike Maloney]

Okay, I think I solved my RAID problem. I went into the BIOS and disabled the controller.

However, I am still unable to boot Windows. I get a screen telling me Windows did not shut down properly the last time, and if I choose the option to start Windows normally, a blue screen pops up for a moment, but it's too fast to read, and then the machine reboots. I tried putting my Windows XP CD in the drive in hopes that maybe I can reinstall Windows, but that doesn't seem to be working.

[Cricket]

Are you using a hard drive that already has Windows installed on it? Which Windows? Did it come out of the pre-built name brand computer?

Cricket

[Mike Maloney]

Yes, it has Windows XP installed on it. It did not come with the computer.

[Cricket]

Do you have the WinXP installation CD?

What kind of computer did that hard drive come out of?

Cricket

[Mike Maloney]

Hi Cricket, the hard drive was originally from a Sony VAIO, although I reformatted and installed WinXP Pro a couple years ago.

The reason the Install CD wasn't booting up is because my CD drives are plugged into an IDE Controller Card PCI slot, and I was not able to install the drivers for the card because they came on a floppy disk, so the CD didn't boot up like it should. I ended up just keeping the hard drive in the old machine, and used a different hard drive I had and reconfigured my IDE cable so I had a hard drive and CD drive connected to the IDE slot on the mobo. This allowed me to install Windows fresh on the new hard drive. I'm planning on using a program called 'Move Me' to transfer over as much of my application data as possible from the old matchine. Also, now that Windows is installed I can just go online and download the drivers for the IDE controller card so I can get the rest of my IDE devices connected.

Whew, hopefully that all made sense.

[Cricket]

Most PCI IDE controller cards aren't meant to work with ATAPI (optical) drives so you'll only want to connect hard drives to it.

Cricket

[Mike Maloney]

Good to know. Either way, I need to get the drivers installed, because when I had the hard drives plugged into it and the CD drives plugged into the mobo, the WinXP cd would boot up, but then it couldn't detect a hard drive to install onto.

[XenaWP]

You can connect your DVDRW to the MB IDE cable. I've set up mine as Cable Select with the DVDRW at the end and a HDD on the other connector. Works like a champ.

[Mike Maloney]

That's how I had to set mine up in order to get Windows installed. But I have 2 hard drives and 2 CD/DVD drives, and my mobo only has one IDE slot, which is why I have the controller card as well.