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General discussion

Installing XP from Vista on Gateway MT6821

Jul 17, 2007 1:41AM PDT

Hey everyone..

Here is my problem. The unit originally had Vista on the machine. It also has a 160gb SATA HD. I went to the Intel website and found the correct Mass Storage driver.

Heres the issue -

I setup Windows, pressed F6 to install driver and did so. I did a quick format (no fdisk)and Windows copied the files to the HD that it needed to install and informed me that a reboot was going to happen, and to remove the floppy from the disk (typical). After the initial reboot, I get "Disk Read Error" which leads me to believe that Windows is not able to see the drive again..

Any thoughts on what to do at this point without me having to slip stream a Windows install cd?

Discussion is locked

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How did you use F6?
Jul 17, 2007 1:44AM PDT

USB FLOPPY or other. Some details please.

Also sometimes you get choices after the F6 step. I'm finding I need to try all.

-> And finally I've failed too many times with the XP CD and the XP SP1 CD. Lesson. Only use the full retail XP SP2 CD.

Bob

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Answers
Jul 17, 2007 1:56AM PDT

Sorry - Yes USB floppy. I am using a full Xp Pro disc with SP2 - (From my MSDN account)

Once I press F6, the correct driver shows up which allows me to see the HD to format and install.. But after the Initial reboot to start the installation, I get the "Disk Read Error"..

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That MSDN XP CD.
Jul 17, 2007 2:13AM PDT

Sorry but I don't have that XP CD. Try it with any Retail XP SP2 CD to see if you have found another variant of this install issue.

If that works then you know. If not then you haven't found the right SATA driver.

Bob

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Cont...
Jul 17, 2007 4:08AM PDT

MSDN is just a site directly from MS that I can download stuff from. It is a full retail version. The driver should be the correct one, but then again, I could be wrong. Going from intel's site.. I am not able to locate the driver on there for an Intel 940GML Ultra ATA driver..

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Just sharing.
Jul 17, 2007 4:25AM PDT

I know what MSDN is. All I can do is share how I've succeeded on other machines (I don't have your gateway) and my lessons learned.

To wit, what's different? That's what I drill it down to and try to remove what's different in an effort to make it work.

Surely there is some full retail XP SP2 CD for a test install? We don't need to activate it but just press the install and see if that is it or it's the SATA drivers.

Bob

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ok
Jul 17, 2007 4:34AM PDT

I will attempt to locate one. I will post my results after.. thank you for the help Grin

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A suggestion and a note...
Jul 17, 2007 5:23AM PDT

Suggestion: Use DBAN to completely wipe the hard drive before performing the XP installation...too many times I've had previous installations corrupt the installation of another version or or the reinstallation/repair installation of the current version.

Note: Keep in mind that the MSDN licensing agreement limits you to using that copy of Windows for development, testing, and demonstration purposes. Since you aren't permitted to use it for watching DVDs, playing games, chatting with friends, etc. you may want to consider reinstalling Vista and then partitioning the hard drive to install XP in a dual-boot setup. Unless of course this is just an extra computer for testing purposes.

John

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Or use that copy inside Virtual PC...
Jul 17, 2007 6:57AM PDT

Which is free.