Major problems installing WindowsXP on Western Digital drive

[ConLog]

First of all, I'd like to think I'm quite experienced setting up hard drives and Windows XP etc on PC's but this one has totally got me stumped!

I've installed a Western Digital 40GB (WD400EB) hard drive into a 1999ish Patriot AMD 500MHz PC (since the old Seagate hard drive in it died) and set the jumpers on it accordingly.

Formatting it, setting it up as an NTFS drive and going through the WindowsXP setup procedure seems a breeze but when Windows installs the basic files and reboots I simply get the line "Error loading operating system".

Take a look at the picture provided to get an idea the problems I'm having:

http://www.imagecabin.com/imageuploa...c.php?pic=9206

I tried another hard drive (a Maxtor 15GB which is about to die) and Windows XP installed fine so the problem does not lie elsewhere within the PC.

The Western Digital 40GB hard drive works fine.

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated.

TIA.

Colin.

[tempus]

Originally Posted by ConLog First of all, I'd like to think I'm quite experienced setting up hard drives and Windows XP etc on PC's but this one has totally got me stumped! I've installed a Western Digital 40GB (WD400EB) hard drive into a 1999ish Patriot AMD 500MHz PC (since the old Seagate hard drive in it died) and set the jumpers on it accordingly. Formatting it, setting it up as an NTFS drive and going through the WindowsXP setup procedure seems a breeze but when Windows installs the basic files and reboots I simply get the line "Error loading operating system". Take a look at the picture provided to get an idea the problems I'm having: http://www.imagecabin.com/imageuploa...c.php?pic=9206 I tried another hard drive (a Maxtor 15GB which is about to die) and Windows XP installed fine so the problem does not lie elsewhere within the PC. The Western Digital 40GB hard drive works fine. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. TIA. Colin.

is it possible that a bios update for the motherboard is needed so the drive will be properly recognized? you said this is an older computer so there may be a 32gig size limitation.

[Cricket]

Are you using a 40 wire or 80 wire IDE cable? If you're using a 40 wire IDE cable then you shouldn't have the jumper shunt installed on the WD HDD...master on a WD HDD is no jumper shunt.

Cricket

[glc]

I think Cricket meant remove the jumper for *single* operation - master *is* used when there is a slave present. However, a WD usually won't even be seen by the XP setup if it's misjumpered.

If that's a Socket 7 board, the 32gb bios limitation is very possible - you can prove/disprove this by booting with a Win98 startup floppy and running FDISK and seeing what it identifies the drive capacity as. If you have full bios support, it should read out as somewhere around 37 or 38 gigs. If it shows as 8 gigs or 32 gigs, you have a bios issue. You can either look for a bios update or use a PCI controller card - or install a smaller hard drive. If you use Data Lifeguard Tools 11 to set up the drive first, you CAN limit the drive size to 32gb, it has a "set hard drive size" option in the Utilities menu. Do NOT use the alternate jumper settings with 2000/XP.

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by glc I think Cricket meant remove the jumper for *single* operation - master *is* used when there is a slave present. However, a WD usually won't even be seen by the XP setup if it's misjumpered. If that's a Socket 7 board, the 32gb bios limitation is very possible - you can prove/disprove this by booting with a Win98 startup floppy and running FDISK and seeing what it identifies the drive capacity as. If you have full bios support, it should read out as somewhere around 37 or 38 gigs. If it shows as 8 gigs or 32 gigs, you have a bios issue. You can either look for a bios update or use a PCI controller card - or install a smaller hard drive. If you use Data Lifeguard Tools 11 to set up the drive first, you CAN limit the drive size to 32gb, it has a "set hard drive size" option in the Utilities menu. Do NOT use the alternate jumper settings with 2000/XP.

Thanks for the reply guys. The hard drive has NO jumpers on it as per the WD web page (I have the 10 pin drive)...

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....ted=1037285638

I booted up the PC using a Windows 98 boot disk and it reports the following...

Partition: 1
Status: A
Type: NTFS
Volume Label:
Mbytes: 38154
System:
Usage: 100%

It is indeed a Socket 7 board but it seems to be seeing the full 40GB.

Oh I forgot, it's an 80 pin IDE cable.

[glc]

Make sure the bios antivirus is disabled - this would prevent writing to the boot sector. Then boot with the XP cd, use the repair console and do a FIXMBR and FIXBOOT.

If it's an 80 wire cable and you are using the no jumper option, the drive must be at the master end of the cable.

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by glc Make sure the bios antivirus is disabled - this would prevent writing to the boot sector. Then boot with the XP cd, use the repair console and do a FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. If it's an 80 wire cable and you are using the no jumper option, the drive must be at the master end of the cable.

Tried all those things GLC. I'm in the process of seeing if I have more success installing Windows 98SE.

It's a weird problem, one that I've not came across before.

[glc]

I've heard of certain bioses appearing to have >32gb support, but with problems just like this - specifically some Phoenixes on Intel boards. It's something to do with a nonstandard LBA interpretation I believe.

[ConLog]

Originally Posted by glc I've heard of certain bioses appearing to have >32gb support, but with problems just like this - specifically some Phoenixes on Intel boards. It's something to do with a nonstandard LBA interpretation I believe.

Mmm, yep, you might be onto something there GLC.

Anyway, I've installed Windows98SE and it boots fine with the 40GB hard drive. I'm going to leave this OS on the drive, I've spent too much time on it already.

Thanks for all your suggestions.