can't install winxp

trying to install winxp on an old intel motherboard with 256m of rdram.
i can boot from the cdrom and go through the first part of the installation but when it reboots and wants to boot into winxp for the rest of the install process, the computer just stops and never boots and the 'press any key to boot from cdrom' just sits there
i am just using a display card with no other boards.
the hard drive and cdrom are on different cables and the floppy is connected.
the hard drive works fine on another motherboard
using an enermax power supply

thanks

Old intel motherboard... I think it may be stuck trying to boot from cdrom. So try again, but this time when it reboots, remove the cd and put it back in after it has got past the boot.

It could be that it does not autmatically go from one boot device to another - or you have the bios set to only boot from cdrom so it doesn't look further.

Old motherboards usually require a bios update to get XP on them satisfactorily - so post the motherboard make, model and revision if you need help finding a new bios for it.

thanks for response

took out the cd but computer doesn't boot from hard drive at all.
tried another hard drive with same result
this hard drive is a hitachi/ibm and worked in another computer ok.

motherboard is an intel d850gb with a p12 bios.
i am checking now to see if there is a newer bios

thanks

It won't boot from hard drive unless there is an Operating system on it....

Did you boot from a 98 boot diskette and see what files were on the hard drive - if any?

Did you change the ide cable? Did you check to see if the hard drive is recognised in bios and is set as a bootable device?

upgraded to p18 bios
can get into setup ok and verify the bios change
can boot from cd
still cannot boot from hard drive with or without a cd in the drive

any other thoughts?

oops - just saw your reply to my 2nd message

i start the install for winxp and when it reboots after the first part of the install program, it just sits there and won't go into winxp to finish the install process. not frozen since keyboard is ok

if winxp installation writes to hard drive then the ide cable should be ok - correct?

no specific bios setting to make hard drive bootable

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by irv6744

oops - just saw your reply to my 2nd message

i start the install for winxp and when it reboots after the first part of the install program, it just sits there and won't go into winxp to finish the install process. not frozen since keyboard is ok

if winxp installation writes to hard drive then the ide cable should be ok - correct?

---

Nope - bad assumption.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by irv6744

no specific bios setting to make hard drive bootable

---

is it listed as a bootable device? Is it in the list of devices that the computer is allowed to boot from? Eg. 1st CDrom, 2nd Floppy 3rd HDD 4th LAN

the hard drive is listed as a bootable device and is recognized by the bios

i will try a different cable later and may try a brand new hard drive also

i read somewhere else that some of the intel boards do go bad
is it possible i just have a bad board

this all started on another drive that did boot but went to a blue screen too quickly to read and then rebooted.
i successfully reinstalled winxp on the drive while in an hp computer and it also wouldn't work with the intel board.
that drive has now found a home in the hp computer.

i am now trying to install winxp on another drive on the same computer and can't get any drive to boot

thanks for the help

It could be the ide port on the motherboard is bad - try hooking it to the secondary or if you have a pci ide card lying about...

the hard drive was originally on the secondary and i moved it to the primary

the cable is the correct 80 wire cable but i haven't changed it yet

it did boot from the original drive but it blue screened and rebooted
can't get it to boot when doing the winxp install

won't help to boot from a winme floppy since the drive is ntfs

could one of the rdram modules have gone bad
i will try swapping banks 0 and 1
can't just remove them because of the nature of rdram

have to give this one more thought before calling it a lost cause

You can easily test the ram using http://www.memtest86.com/ there is a download of a bootable cd iso for you to burn - boot and it goes straight into the tests - let it run at least 7 tests.

Hard drive jumpers... you set it to master?

the answer turned out to be somewhat simplistic. i have had the problem before and forgot how to deal with it

moving a drive to a new mb means a new ide controller looking for a different geometry or something like that on the hard drive. on my prior efforts with the two drives i did not do a new ntfs format since i was trying to preserve the data. on a brand new drive, i did a quick ntfs format and had no problems with the boot process.

in the old days we had sys.com to deal with this. i don't know how to do that on an ntfs winxp hard drive. is there a command we can use from the recovery console in the winxp installation.

thanks for all your help on this. i probably misled you a little into thinking i was doing some kind of format each time i ran the winxp install program.

fixboot and fixmbr

Or a repair install when you get the screen that offers you the partitions on which to install windows.

And there is a bootable diskette for NTFS - http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm

i am hot to try fixboot and fixmbr when i get home tonight
am i correct that i get to these through recovery console

unfortunately my winxp install cd is sp1 and when i need to install over sp2, i don't get the repair option

thinking aloud i guess in my present situation when i do the reboot, i should go into the install program on the cd and to the recovery console and run fixboot and fixmbr.

Slipstream SP2 onto your XP SP1 cd tutorial here Takes about 20 mins to do.

hi again

neither fixboot ot fixmbr worked for me
can seem to make the drive bootable without an actual ntfs format
any other ideas to save the data on the drive

i could always connect the drive as a 'd' drive and transfer the data to a new freshly formatted 'c' drive

thanks for the page on the slipstream.
i had done an xpsp1 custom one for my son's computer which uses a silicon image ide but that computer is no longer being used so i don't have to worry about it

thanks again

Your option to copy the data across is looking the safest... you will have to also take ownership of the files

i was able to make the slipstream sp2 disk.
tested it and it booted
thanks
breaking up with the girl whose rdram computer i was playing with so i will give it back to her for her son to play with
i put the old wd hard drive in another box so she has all her files and her son will have the rdram computer to play with if he wants to get a new hard drive.
all in a day's work......
she is having good luck with the wd drive.
it seems like every wd drive i have ever bought went bad in a year or two.
lower failure rate for me with seagate and maxtor.
thanks for all the hep in this thread.
i learned a lot from you

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by irv6744

..moving a drive to a new mb means a new ide controller looking for a different geometry or something like that on the hard drive..

---

For future reference, what you do is to add any new IDE controller drivers before you move the install, that's what stuffs it up, windows thinks its still got the old controller :thumbs:

Well I think you are saying problem solved? Or is the breakup part of the solution:confused: