The Joy & Agony of computing

[AndyM]

I'll try to make this brief. I've got a pIII 1000Mhz on an Abit BE6-II with a 40Gig IBM DeskStar. I installed WinXP Pro and upgraded to SP2 online here at home on our cable connection. I tried to do a file and settings transfer but ran into network probs because both old and new ones were named master. I never really got the network to work right so I decided to start over with a reinstallation of windows. After formatting the C: drive with the NTFS Quick option, the installation program would not recognize the drive, calling it "unknown", but reporting it's size. Then I chose to delete and reassign the partition, with result being a "NTLDR is missing" message. I have done a drive clean using IBM sofware, and re-installed the drive on a Promise controller card, after 2 to 3 hours of various attempts to get install to recognize the drive. Post now sees the drive, but installation stops on the "Setup is starting Windows Screen".
I assume I somehow screwed up the drive, but am afraid to put another drive in and fry it as well without some idea as to where I went wrong...does anybody have any advice for a logical step from here?

[AndyM]

Just an update...I bought another HD and installed it cable select on the Ultra 100 Controller card, with same results: Controller card sees the drive but Setup doesn't appear to. I am assuming in would not show up in BIOS detection as Primary Master, is that correct? I tried another XP CD and it also froze at the
"Setup is starting Windows" screen. Am I correct in assuming that Win XP should detect the drive on a PCI controller card? I'm beginning to think that there is a mobo problem...does anybody have a suggestion I might try?

[Mesaeus]

Doesn't the Promise controller need drivers ? In any case, try the hard disks on the primary built in ide, and if that doesn't work, the secondary. It used to be that hard disks could only be booted from the primary master, but modern mb's should also allow the secondary. The promise controller you installed is in fact the third (and fourth) ide channel, and might need drivers before setup can see it. Did you get a floppy with drivers with the Promise ? So try the new hd on the primary ide, and see if you still get the same problems. The IBM De(sk/ath)Stars are fameous for failing in large numbers, so maybe it was already on its way out...

[AndyM]

Thanks for your help Maesus,
I am formatting the new drive as we speak. I had installed the latest drivers from Maxtor for the controller and was doing the "f6 to install other" technique to get them installed but it just wasn't working. The configuration that is working right now has the ATA 100 cable on the IDE 3 channel. I went to Abit and got the latest XP Highpoint controller drivers, as well as the most recent BIOS flash, and installed both. So far it looks good, other than that Setup is only seeing 132Gig, but I will be able to use the rest of 160Gig drive as a partition D: anyway.
I don't know what the prob was with the controller card...possibly a conflict with
the onboard Highpoint controller?
The most aggravating thing is to have a known-working HDD configuration go belly-up just because you want to freshen up the OS. I shot about 10 hours trying to get this thing to work.
BTW, I ran IBM fitness test on the old drive (DeathStar...haha) and it finds no errors. I may unplug the new drive when all is setup and try the old once more for old times' sake. Thanks again for your reply.