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General discussion

Help with building computer

Mar 28, 2005 10:31AM PST

Hey everybody. So I have been working on building my own computer. So far everything has gone well, until it came to installing the OS. So I have a Windows 2K disc, and tried using the method of 4 bootable floppies, and neither worked.

LAN Party UT 250Gb MOBO
Generic Floppy drive
Ben Q DVD RW
Maxtor 200 Gig HD
Windows 2000 SP4 Pro
AMD Athlon 3000+ 64 bit CPU

Under the bios, it only sometimes recognizes the DVD burner, and then if a floppy is in the drive, it goes through lines of text, and ultimately ends up with "IDE CD Driver Installed Successfully".

Under the bios, it does not show my Hard drive at all. It did once, but it has not since. I have tried auto detect HD, which didn't work. Also, I had to do Auto Detect HD for it to recognize my DVD burner, and I have to do it everytime. Also, I have tried several bootable CDs. I know that the HD works, because I used it in my old computer up until now, but unfortunately that computer has died, hence the new one. Also, the Hard Drive's Driver CD doesn't work. It makes me rather angry, so any help would be great. Thanks a lot.

~Eliot

Discussion is locked

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Did you do something odd?
Mar 28, 2005 10:50AM PST

Like partition the drive before booting Windows 2000?

Or did you expect Windows 2000 to see that 200GB drive during install? (Hint: it can't see more than 127/137GB)

This and more at http://48bitlba.com

Bob

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Reply: Something Odd
Mar 29, 2005 1:45AM PST

No. I formatted the drive. And I can't have Windows 2000 on it, because, I can't install Windows to a drive that it doesn't recognize. Also it CAN recognize a larger drive so long as it is professional with SP3 or 4. Mine is Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4, thus it is fine. It is not Windows that is not detecting the drive, it is the bios.

~Eliot

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Help with building computer
Mar 30, 2005 12:49AM PST

I'm assuming that the HD is IDE primary Master and the DVD burner is IDE secondary Master. Since this is a new MB it SHOULD be able to find both the HD and DVD. I have installed W2K PRO SP2 from a DVD burner with no problems.
Check the MB web site for a Bios update. John

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like the reply before me, did you set the jumpers right
Apr 28, 2005 7:14PM PDT

Sounds like the DVD and Harddrive are set with same jumpers settings, windows will only see one if the are set the same.