Windows install problem

Tusky

I seek your help once again.

I'm selling my old pc and wanted to wipe the hard drive and reinstall windows. I put the windows cd key in and followed the instructions, it then informed me that it was going to restart the pc. When it restarted it seems to start up normally and then...

"setup is inspecting your computers hardware config"

to

"WINDOWS SETUP" (Bluescreen)

to

"a problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage. IF this is the first time you have seen this error message, restart your pc. If you have seen this error message before - check for viruses, remove any recently installed drives or check your hard drive for errors"

not word for word but close enough. Im getting that message every time I restart the pc. Any idea whats causing it or how I can simply reinstall windows and wipe the hard drive ?

Help appreciated.

DirkVoodoo

Did you do a clean install or a repair type job?

stevenmu

It sounds like possibly a corrupted installation disc. I've had a few, they seem to be more prone to failure than any other discs. If you can get your hands on another disc give that a go.

Otherwise, if you have anything overclocked try setting it back to defaults, and maybe disconnect any peripherals not needed during the install, and switch off things in the BIOS like integrated sound and stuff. Remembering to turn them back on after the install of course

Tusky

stevenmu wrote:

It sounds like possibly a corrupted installation disc. I've had a few, they seem to be more prone to failure than any other discs. If you can get your hands on another disc give that a go.

Otherwise, if you have anything overclocked try setting it back to defaults, and maybe disconnect any peripherals not needed during the install, and switch off things in the BIOS like integrated sound and stuff. Remembering to turn them back on after the install of course

Yeah Ive got another disc but how do I go about installing it if I cant get into windows ? If I put it in the drive and turn on the pc will it automatically boot from disc and install it ?

The Randomer

1) Change bios settings to boot from hdd, then cd-rom, the floppy
2) Put in xp cd, restart, press f8 or whatever, select boot from cd
3) CD will boot, and load basic system files, then blue setup screen
4) Delete all partitions, and create 1 or 2 partitions, whatever you want. Make sure never to leave unallocated space(apart from the compulsor 8mb)
5) Select pertition to install on, and select format by NTFS (dont select quick), and it will format then install automatically.

Tusky

The Randomer wrote:

1) Change bios settings to boot from hdd, then cd-rom, the floppy
2) Put in xp cd, restart, press f8 or whatever, select boot from cd
3) CD will boot, and load basic system files, then blue setup screen
4) Delete all partitions, and create 1 or 2 partitions, whatever you want. Make sure never to leave unallocated space(apart from the compulsor 8mb)
5) Select pertition to install on, and select format by NTFS (dont select quick), and it will format then install automatically.

How do I change the bios settings ? Any idea what F key it is ? Will try this later tonight, hope it works. Thanks.

MrVestek

Tusky wrote:

How do I change the bios settings ? Any idea what F key it is ? Will try this later tonight, hope it works. Thanks.

This makes me wonder how people like you become a moderator :P

stevenmu

Tusky wrote:

How do I change the bios settings ? Any idea what F key it is ? Will try this later tonight, hope it works. Thanks.

It's usually either the Del key or F1 or F2, just keep pressing the three of them after you switch the PC onand one of them should do it (or keep an eye out at the start for a message that says 'Press X to enter setup' or similar. You might not even have to change it, try starting the PC up with the CD in the drive first and it might boot off the cd straight away.

Also, if you're going to be deleting partitions and reformatting make sure you have all you're data backed up somewhere

Tusky

stevenmu wrote:

It's usually either the Del key or F1 or F2, just keep pressing the three of them after you switch the PC onand one of them should do it (or keep an eye out at the start for a message that says 'Press X to enter setup' or similar. You might not even have to change it, try starting the PC up with the CD in the drive first and it might boot off the cd straight away.

Also, if you're going to be deleting partitions and reformatting make sure you have all you're data backed up somewhere

Cheers, will let you know how I get on.

Achilles wrote:

This makes me wonder how people like you become a moderator :P

Didnt realise knowledge of what F key needs to be pressed at start up to enter the bios screen was required to moderate a forum.

[personal insult] After a quick look at your bebo page I have come to the conclusion that you have a head that looks like a potato.[/personal insult]

Tusky

I got my hands on another windows xp pro cd. I entered the bios menu and changed the order of the boot devices. My options were

-Floppy
-DVD Drive
-FT TX ARY1 (what is this ? Surely not the hd ?)

I put dvd first and restarted the pc, when it started it began to install windows and all the different components were shown at the bottom of the screen, I then got this error message.

"setup did not find any hard disc drives installed on your computer. Make sure any hdd are properly connected, powered on and that any disc related hardware configuration is correct...etc"

Feck. Any Ideas ? I had been using this pc fine before I tried to install windows so the hdd is definitely connected correctly.

MrVestek

Yay... I'm a potatoe! I didn't mean it as an insult man I just find it surprising that a moderator with your kinda postcount doesn't know some of the basics of computers, that's all....

Relax.

Tusky

Achilles wrote:

Yay... I'm a potatoe! I didn't mean it as an insult man I just find it surprising that a moderator with your kinda postcount doesn't know some of the basics of computers, that's all....

Relax.

Was only asking what F key it was

When I say a new post on this thread I thought it was going to be a solution to my problem. Damn.

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

I got my hands on another windows xp pro cd. I entered the bios menu and changed the order of the boot devices. My options were

-Floppy
-DVD Drive
-FT TX ARY1 (what is this ? Surely not the hd ?)

I put dvd first and restarted the pc, when it started it began to install windows and all the different components were shown at the bottom of the screen, I then got this error message.

"setup did not find any hard disc drives installed on your computer. Make sure any hdd are properly connected, powered on and that any disc related hardware configuration is correct...etc"

Feck. Any Ideas ? I had been using this pc fine before I tried to install windows so the hdd is definitely connected correctly.

Is the hard drive sata or ide ( does it have a small thin cable going to the mobo or a ribbon cable ) if it is sata then you might need to put the sata controller drivers on a floppy and press F6 when windows starts to install the sata drivers without them xp can not see your hard drive.

if it is an ide drive did you disable it in the bios just check that it is enabled so that your boot options are 1 DVD 2 HD

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

Is the hard drive sata or ide ( does it have a small thin cable going to the mobo or a ribbon cable ) if it is sata then you might need to put the sata controller drivers on a floppy and press F6 when windows starts to install the sata drivers without them xp can not see your hard drive.

if it is an ide drive did you disable it in the bios just check that it is enabled so that your boot options are 1 DVD 2 HD

Will check after work. Is it possible that I would need to reinstall the drivers even though the HD was working fine before I tried to install windows ? I dont have a floppy drive on the pc.

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

Will check after work. Is it possible that I would need to reinstall the drivers even though the HD was working fine before I tried to install windows ? I dont have a floppy drive on the pc.

Yeah if it is a sata drive it may need the sata drivers as they might be on the XP install disk

what was working before is irrelevant as you are doing a fresh install.

If you have no floppy there is a way around that you can slipstream the drivers with the current XP disk and create a new XP install disk which includes the drivers. Or easier if you can get a loan of a usb floppy drive.

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

Yeah if it is a sata drive it may need the sata drivers as they might be on the XP install disk

what was working before is irrelevant as you are doing a fresh install.

If you have no floppy there is a way around that you can slipstream the drivers with the current XP disk and create a new XP install disk which includes the drivers. Or easier if you can get a loan of a usb floppy drive.

ugh. Is there anyway to download a copy of windows with those drivers (and I would of course use a legit cd key to register)

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

ugh. Is there anyway to download a copy of windows with those drivers (and I would of course use a legit cd key to register)

Have you checked that it is a sata hard drive

Tusky

160gb Seagate Barracuda SATA150 HDD..so yes, its SATA.

(I appreciate all your help thus far!)

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

160gb Seagate Barracuda SATA150 HDD..so yes, its SATA.

(I appreciate all your help thus far!)

What is the PC (brand) or what is the motherboard

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

What is the PC (brand) or what is the motherboard

Its not branded, its home built.

Asus K8V Deluxe socket 754

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

Its not branded, its home built.

Asus K8V Deluxe socket 754

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us



looks like it it the promise raid driver that you might be looking for


If you have a floppy in another pc you could install it temporarily till the install is finished

BTW who installed windows originally

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us



looks like it it the promise raid driver that you might be looking for


If you have a floppy in another pc you could install it temporarily till the install is finished

BTW who installed windows originally

If I connect a floppy drive, will it work without drivers etc ? If thats the case I suppose I could take the floppy drive out of my new pc and stick it in the old one and try install the drivers. Are you fairly sure it will work ?

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

If I connect a floppy drive, will it work without drivers etc ? If thats the case I suppose I could take the floppy drive out of my new pc and stick it in the old one and try install the drivers. Are you fairly sure it will work ?

Yeah the floppy will work straight away

When you are installing XP you press F6 at the beginning and then direct it to the Floppy where you have the drivers when the XP installation gets to the part where it has stopped before then it will use the drivers on the floppy and continue

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

Yeah the floppy will work straight away

When you are installing XP you press F6 at the beginning and then direct it to the Floppy where you have the drivers when the XP installation gets to the part where it has stopped before then it will use the drivers on the floppy and continue

Is it fairly easy to disconnect and reconnect a floppy drive to a pc ? Cheers for all the help, will report back when I give it a go.

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

Is it fairly easy to disconnect and reconnect a floppy drive to a pc ? Cheers for all the help, will report back when I give it a go.

Yeah it is just a smaller ribbon cable from the mobo to the drive and a small power connector easy peasy

Voipjunkie

before you do all that are you sure you did not disable the hard drive when you were in the bios

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

before you do all that are you sure you did not disable the hard drive when you were in the bios

Pretty sure I didnt. All I did in the bios was select the order of the boot drives. The harddrive didnt show up as an option. Any idea where the option to disable/enable the HD would be and I'll have a check?

Voipjunkie

Tusky wrote:

Pretty sure I didnt. All I did in the bios was select the order of the boot drives. The harddrive didnt show up as an option. Any idea where the option to disable/enable the HD would be and I'll have a check?

it depends on the mobo

but if you can you should select CD as your first boot device and then the HD as your second and also enable other boot devices if that is an option

Auvers

its probably a dodgy memory stick, test your ram with memcheck86. I had the same problem on another rig and it came down to a dodgy module.

Tusky

Voipjunkie wrote:

it depends on the mobo

but if you can you should select CD as your first boot device and then the HD as your second and also enable other boot devices if that is an option

These were my three options.

-Floppy
-DVD Drive
-FT TX ARY1

Voipjunkie

Auvers wrote:

its probably a dodgy memory stick, test your ram with memcheck86. I had the same problem on another rig and it came down to a dodgy module.

it could be that either

You could try with one stick out then try the other ( presuming 2 sticks)