Please Help Me!

[Stewby]

I'm using WinXP and want to start over fresh... reformat SATA HD and reinstall WinXP.
In the BIOS, I've changed bootup sequence to 1. Floppy, 2. CD-ROM, 3. Hard Drive. I've also tried 1. CD-ROM, 2. Floppy, 3. Disabled and the HD. After saving the changes and rebooting, I'm prompted to press any key to boot from CD.... I press "enter" yet nothing happens. The CD doesn't load and WinXP continues to load as normal. My computer seems to disregard my BIOS settings.

The "CD-ROM" that I'm using is actually a DVD burner. With it being a newer drive, I'm sure it's bootable. The DVD burner is also master and the only drive on the IDE channel.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Odd. Why not just create a boot floppy disk and simply load the files from there.
I beleive the XP installation is located in:

E:/I386/WINNT.exe
or
E:/I386/WINNT32.exe

One of those.

 

[Stewby]

Well, I downloaded the WinXP floppy disk boot program, which requires 6 floppies, from microsoft.com. I just tried that but the program requires to me to push the "enter" key to continue and my usb keyboard isn't responsive in the boot program.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Are you sure you need the WinXP Floppy disk thing? I think I did it last time with a single floppy.. just a boot disk and ran the 2 files I mentioned above.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: Stewby
Well, I downloaded the WinXP floppy disk boot program, which requires 6 floppies, from microsoft.com. I just tried that but the program requires to me to push the "enter" key to continue and my usb keyboard isn't responsive in the boot program .

I wonder if that's why you can't boot from CD -- when you set the CD boot order first and the Enter key press is ignored it goes on to the SATA drive.

Do you have any PS2 keyboards around?

 

[Tripleshot]

Your lucky day. I just went through same problem. You need a floppy with the sata raid driver on it and in thr floppy drive. Boot XP from CD and be ready to hit f6 when it calls for raid drivers. It will get tothe screen and ask you to press "s" to install drivers. Hit "s" and let it do its thing. You will nered the same disk later in the os installation so let it stay around. The Sata drivers should be on your motherboard resource disc . Copy then to the floppy and then your install should work fine. I judt did this to an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo. I'm installing office software on it now.

Good luck, I hope this helps.

 

[Stewby]

Well, I can't boot from the WinXP CD but I can boot from other CDs. Is it possible that my WinXP CD isn't bootable? It's a legal copy of WinXP Professional, I obtained it thru Microsoft Academic Alliance.