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General discussion

installing new hard drive, winxp will not install from cd

Sep 4, 2004 5:33AM PDT

I have a old IBM aptiva and the old hard drive went out. I bought a couple new hard drives off e-bay and installed one thinking that I could just put in my winxp cd and start it up and it would automatically install the operating system, no such luck. I get: insert system diskette and press enter key to reboot.
I have another compaq that is about the same age (350 to 400 mhz) and I was getting the same message on that one trying to do the same thing and I formatted a 3.5 floppy and put the system files on that disk and now when I start that one I get a message that it is starting win 98 and then it gives me an A prompt. I would like to get either one of these compters going. Any help would be appreciated

Discussion is locked

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Try a clean install.
Sep 4, 2004 5:41AM PDT
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Re: Try a clean install.
Sep 6, 2004 3:21PM PDT

I do not believe that I did anything to prepare the hard disk in advance. I do not know how to remove the partitions. I downloaded a fdisk program on the internet but I not sure how I run the program on the hard drive since I can not get the operating system on the hard drive. I went to the link that you left and it told me to go to a microsoft sight and download some bootable winxp installation disks (6 in all). I did that and when I tried to boot from the first disk I got an error message that reads: disk 1/0 error, I got this error on both of the computers that I am trying to put an operating system on, so I know that it is not something wrong with my drive. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Billy

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If the BIOS in either system
Sep 4, 2004 5:42AM PDT

supports booting from the CD go into the BIOS and make that the first item in the boot sequence.

OR

If you used a Win98 boot floppy you should have been given the option to boot with CD support, simply select that. You really didn't want to put the Win98 system [DOS] files on the drive. You can let the WinXP CD delete what's on the drive and then letXP format it.

When you get the A prompt simply type in the letter for the CD [it'll be one letter higher than you think because Windows used the next letter to made a RAM drive. After installation the drive letter will go back to normal.

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Re: If the BIOS in either system
Sep 6, 2004 1:40PM PDT

Almost all new hard drives arrive without a partition on the drive. You need to fdisk the drive and create a partition on the drive, then WindowsXP can find and format the drive prior to installing WindowsXP. Have fun.

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BAD IDEA!
Sep 6, 2004 10:46PM PDT

"You need to fdisk the drive and create a partition on the drive, then WindowsXP can find and format the drive prior to installing WindowsXP."

This doesn't always work and is a bad idea. Here's why. If the owner has XP and I take a new 160GB drive, partition it and format it, the XP will not install. The stock XP doesn't do past 127GB drives (or more accurately partitions) until SP1.

To avoid all this confusion, I boot the XP CD and USE THE NATIVE TOOLS and menus to create (or delete and create) the partition and begin the install.

Such advice is causing some to flail about on install and as nice as I can put it, PLEASE don't do that!

Bob

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Re: If the BIOS in either system
Sep 6, 2004 3:34PM PDT

The boot sequence is set 3.5 floppy first, cd rom second, and hard drive last. When I start up both computers the cd rom reads the disks it just does not start the installation process. When I use the disk that gives me the a promp I am not given the option to boot with cd support. Also when I get the A prompt and type in the cd rom drive letter I get the message: bad command or file name. Please let me know what else I can try. Thanks, Billy

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Re: If the BIOS in either system
Sep 6, 2004 10:47PM PDT

If you can't boot the XP CD, then I'd swap out the CDROM drive and try again.

Bob

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Re: If the BIOS in either system
Sep 7, 2004 1:22AM PDT

I do not think it is anything wrong with the cd rom drive because I am trying to do the same thing on two separate computers and the chances that both cd rom drives went bad at exactly the same time seems a little remote. Let me know what you think.
Thanks, Billy

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IF CD doesn't boot, then you fix!
Sep 7, 2004 3:28AM PDT

I offered a simple answer, but its time to not go into a denial mode that some hardware has failed. IF your machine supports booting from CD, and doesn't, then you find out why.

With Windows 2000/XP/2003 this MUST WORK!!!

Here's why. OS repairs and recovery are from the CD boot. You can try the 6 diskette XP boot set, but given today's issues with diskettes and how much work it is for owners to make 6 good diskettes, I fix the CDROM boot problem.

It's a simple issue. Try one CDROM drive as master at a time. You may fix it.

Bob

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Re: can we start over
Sep 7, 2004 2:11AM PDT

1. when booting does the BIOS recognize the drive?
If not, and the jumpers/data cables are correct, then you have a bad drive (E-Bay)

2. legal copy XP?
all posts indicate that if proceedures where
followed O/S should install.

3. boot w/98 disk. See if you can read cd from DOS.
if not then cd is dead.
if so then type "CD I386" at next prompt type "winnt"
XP should start install if H/D is not dead and devices are installed correctly.

anyone... what did I miss?
Bill

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Re: installing new hard drive, winxp will not install from c
Sep 10, 2004 1:34AM PDT

Everyone seems to be missing the point that some PCs do not have BIOS that boot from CD, and the CD is supported via an installed driver which is no longer recognized as you are trying to install a new O/S!

In trying to take an IBM 560X with Win98 and an aftermarket CD and upgrade it to Win2k for my daughter, the W2k installation CD would start to read and then get to a point where it would no longer find the CD to continue reading. Using a W2k install floppy set was no help either, as eventually it would look for the W2K CD and not find it. I finally gave up and left it at Win98. Neither IBM nor Microsoft could provide a solution for me. If anyone can offer a solution for us both, that would be great!

Posted by: Wilt Posted on: 09/10/2004 8:30 AM