Windows XP installation problem

[Nazarielle]

This is my first time building my own PC, and the hardware part seems to have gone alright, but when I tried to actually turn it on and start to setup Windows XP, well, I've got a huge headache. This should be a list of everything inside my PC. The DVD-R drive isn't connected, because the cord that came with it wasn't long enough to reach the motherboard, but other than that.

Ok, so here's what happens. I boot it up, with the Windows XP installation CD in the CD-ROM, it goes through the usual stuff, now what first threw me off is that it comes up with this screen that says Marvell RAID BIOS and it tells me that I don't have any arrays defined and that no hard drive is detected and I can press CTRL+M to go into RAID BIOS or Space to continue. When I press Space, it continues on and goes into the Windows XP Setup. Now, here it seems to detect my hard drive which it couldn't detect before Now, the first time I went in, I went through the normal routine, format the hard drive, then Windows XP copied the files to a WINDOWS folder, then it restarts my computer. Here's where it gets really annoying. It reboots and then when it gets back into the Windows XP Setup, it does the same thing, it starts from the beginning. It asks me where I want to install Windows XP, do I want to format, etc. It doesn't ever pick up where it left off. And everything I've tried doesn't seem to work, because everytime it gets to the copying files from the CD to the hard drive, it has to reboot and the cycle starts over again. Anyway, I'm really getting frustrated here, because I can't get Windows XP installed on this brand new PC which should be working nicely >:| Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[ajd344]

When you reboot after it copies the files intially, take the CD out of your drive. What I think is happening is it is booting off the CD again, not the HDD to continue with the install.


Edit: Whoa, nice build! I'm jealous! Enjoy that rig, I have a feeling it will serve you well for many years to come!

[Nazarielle]

Gah, well, I got it past that and now it's asking for the file 'asms' on Windows XP Pro CD. The default root that it started on is GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386, however, hitting ok just does nothing. And hitting cancel cancels setup so that's no good. Any help is appreciated, I'm just banging my head against a wall here trying to get this thing set up >:|

Edit: And I left the CD in and got here, so the Cd is in there, just it can't find it for some reason

Edit again: Ugh, this looks like a huge pain. I did some searching and this was the solution given by Microsoft. I can't get regedit.exe to load and I can't get the CD to register. I don't have another CD-ROM drive to use, or another Windows XP CD (I went out and bought a new copy of Windows XP so I have a 'hologram' CD, it's the real deal). Would burning a copy of the real Windows XP CD on this PC and using that instead do any good?

Edit a third time: Well, I went ahead and burned a copy of the Window XP installation CD, but it didn't help at all. :|

[Nazarielle]

/bump

Does anyone have any other solutions for the 'asms' folder missing problem? I'm at my wit's end here >:|

[Panama Red]

Often times, a troublesome XP install can be traced to defectived or incompatible memory. Try the install with only one ram stick installed. Swap the sticks if the problem persists. You may want to run Memtest86+ just to verify that your ram is error free.