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Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows XP => Topic started by: Cityscape on December 28, 2009, 02:19:30 PM

Title: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: Cityscape on December 28, 2009, 02:19:30 PM

I have an Acer Aspire E500 computer (not mine but I'm working on it for a  friend) with 2 sata hard drives. The 250 Gb drive had a virus filled XP installation on it. The other HDD was a 500 GB drive. I wanted to install a fresh copy of XP Media on the 500GB drive using my Acer E500 Recovery CDs which puts the OS on the drive at factory state. I unplugged the 250 GB drive and ran the NortonGhost recovery from the Acer CD. It installed WindowsXP but it had errors after I started the OS and half the programs (IE...) did not work. So I reinstalled everything from the Acer CDs again and this time it told me that everything installed successfully.

My new problem is that I can't get it boot from the HDD. I always get the message "Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".

No matter what, I changed everything I thought could affect it in the BIOS but it did not seem to help. I've never really installed an OS on a computer using SATA drives before. Please help.  :-[

My current BIOS settings
> Standard CMOS Features <
Primary IDE Master - DVDRW16
Primary IDE Slave - DVD reader
Secondary IDE Master - Not Detected
Secondary IDE Slave - Not Detected
Third IDE Master - HDD
Third IDE Slave - Not Detected
Fourth IDE Master - Not Detected
Fourth IDE Slave - Not Detected
> Advanced BIOS Features <
First Boot device - HDD:3M-WDC WD5000A
Second Boot device - DVDRW16
Boot other device - Enabled

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: patio on December 28, 2009, 04:14:47 PM

What # SATA connector is this drive on ? ?

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: Geek-9pm on December 28, 2009, 04:41:26 PM

Quote

Third IDE Master - HDD

He has the 500 GB as  the first SATA
He has is set in the BIOS as the first boot device.
Where is the 250 GB drive?

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: patio on December 28, 2009, 04:44:18 PM

He unplugged it...

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: Computer_Commando on December 28, 2009, 05:08:21 PM

All I can think of is the new hard drive is missing the Recovery Partition, so I suspect the boot.ini file is incorrect because Windows is not installed in Partition 1.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000648.htm

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: Geek-9pm on December 28, 2009, 05:19:21 PM

The recovery cd is to be used for the original drive.
If the original drive has errors, fix them first.

Title: Re: XP install problems (with SATA drives)
Post by: Computer_Commando on December 28, 2009, 05:23:45 PM

Quote from: Geek-9pm on December 28, 2009, 05:19:21 PM

1.  The recovery cd is to be used for the original drive.
2.  If the original drive has errors, fix them first.

1.  Good point!
2.  The new drive had errors, he unplugged the original drive.