Windows XP Professional on K8N Neo Platinum...HELP!!!

[fat D deltree]

hey guys, i'm building a system (or at least trying to) and i'm having a problem installing windows xp pro on my k8n neo platinum. i have found solutions for installing windows xp when using SATA drives but this, however, does not help me. i am using a 20GB IDE hard drive and when windows installation starts everything goes ok at first. i format the hard drive, the install loads the setup files, and then prompts me saying that windows will complete the installation after it restarts in 15 seconds. this is where the problem starts... after it reboots, it repeats the first step all over again. this has happened over and over again, and i don't want to put up with having to send the board back. is there any information or help you guys can give me regarding this problem? thank you.

 

[mechBgon]

Refer to page 3-8 of your manual and ensure that it has the hard drive as one of its boot devices in the Advanced BIOS Features part of the BIOS, and go into Hard Disk Boot Priority if necessary.

Since it sounds like you're new to this stuff, can I suggest you also follow the worm-prevention and security suggestions here: link Welcome to the Forums

 

[JRez]

In addition to mech's advice, be sure nothing is touching the keyboard after the system reboots. The only way XP should be reaching the text-based portion of the installation following the initial file copy and reboot would be if the system receives input from the keyboard. Do you have a different keyboard that you could hook up to the PC to test with in order to rule it out as the problem?

 

[fat D deltree]

alright, i tried both of you suggestions but still, no luck. is there anything else you can suggest? could there just be something wrong with the motherboard itself? help me out :/

 

[mechBgon]

What boot-device order are you using right now? And in Hard Disk Boot Priority, what's it say there?

 

[fat D deltree]

my boot device order is:
1. CD-ROM
2. Hard Drive
3. Hard Drive (don't have my floppy drive hooked up right now so i set it as hard drive as well).

and just to be exact, this is what is says in Hard Disk Boot Priority:

1. Ch0 M. : WDC WD200BB-00DEA0
2. Ch0 S. : ST380013A
3. Bootable Add-in Cards

there ya go

 

[imported_jzimo]

When I install windows I have the cd-rom as the only bootable device. I would give that a shot.

 

[topslop1]

I'm having the same problem as your fat D. I'm trying to figure it out but I'm near clueless. I'm going to give jzimo's advice a shot and I'll let you know if it works for me.

Do you get an error of NTLDR Missing.. CTL+ALT+Delete to try again?

 

[imported_jzimo]

I hope it works because I'm about to be replacing my mobo and processor. Wouldn't you know but I bought the exact same mobo, hopefully I won't have to reinstall windows because I'll be using same harddrive.

 

[topslop1]

Setting no other boots didn't work - I think it has something to do with the Windows XP install cd. Maybe it's too scratched up and it's a missing file on the cd? Who knows. I'll have to try a friend's cd to see if that's the case.

 

[imported_jzimo]

Have you tried a diffrent harddrive to make sure it is the mobo?

 

[topslop1]

I'll slap in my 80 gig IDE drive and see what I can do with that - I'll give you an update in about 15 minutes.

 

[imported_jzimo]

I guess there could somehow be some file on the harddrive left over that could be causing it to hang and restart. I'm having a weird problem myself and I think my hardrive may be going. Somtimes when I boot my computer up it won't recognize my harddrive and tells me to restart and then it will load windows. Why can't computers ever work 100%?:|

 

[topslop1]

Becuase if they worked 100% alot of people would be out of jobs...

Back to business - I didn't completley format my 300 gig - by that I mean I just selected the quick format option. Now that I think about it I had tried to copy the entire old harddrive onto that one using a program so that I could just go about my business. Well the first harddrive crashed half way through that and then neither of them would boot up into windows completley. I may try doing a complete format of the 300 gig and then installing Windows.

... On an update - I'll be damned.. the 80 gig IDE drive worked just fine. Sonvuabitch. No Idea what I should be doing now.

I suppose I'll go for the 300 gig format and then try installing windows and hoping for the best.. Wish me luck with this.

 

[montag451]

GL

 

[fat D deltree]

topslop, are you saying that you successfully installed windows xp on the 80 gig? or that you successfuly formatted it?

 

[topslop1]

I successfully installed windows onto the 80 gig.

 

[imported_jzimo]

I thought that might have been the case. I remember how I had my problem it was because of the quick format option that I chose. When I had the windows restart problem I did a full reformat and it worked fine. So I would go ahead and format that 300gb ide drive even thought it will take a year.

 

[fat D deltree]

alright, i'm going to go ahead and put my hard drive in my other computer and see if i can install windows on it. i'll let you know what happens in a bit.

 

[topslop1]

I fully formatted the 300 gig and it's to no avail. I also put in a jumper on the only two prongs I could find on it and I didn't notice that it changed anything.

 

[fat D deltree]

alright alright, so i just put the hard drive in a different computer, and the same thing happened......so i'm assuming it could be a hard drive problem as well. i have an 80 gig hard drive that i have a lot of stuff that i like on it, maybe i'll just make a partition on it and install windows and see what happens..

let me know what you guys think on this

 

[topslop1]

Alright fat D. - After reading some on the Maxtor's website they told me that I need to use their software ( Maxblast 3 ) To install Windows. It'll set up everything that I'm having problems with so that I can install Windows without a hitch.

Who makes your harddrive? If it's Maxtor then go to the site and check out Maxblast 3 .ISO

I'm sure your manufacturer will have something written up on how to get the drive going.

 

[imported_jzimo]

Okay, so windows installed and worked on your 80gb but doesn't work on your 300gb ? Has the 300gb ever worked on another machine?

Edit: didn't realize there was a second page. I have a maxtor drive but it is only an 80gb thats probably why I didn't have to use the maxblast 3

 

[fat D deltree]

no, i think the 80 gig hard drive that i'm going to try and install windows on right now is a Seagate i'm pretty sure. my dad is about to use this computer (this one is his) so maybe you could help me out by looking some stuff up on the seagate website that might be of some value incase this installation doesn't work.

oh and by the way, my 20 gig that windows wasn't installing on originally is a Western Digital. maybe you could look that up to (only if you want to. you don't have to).

i'll update you in a bit on how the installation went with the 80 gig... :/

 

[imported_jzimo]

Can you give me the model number of the seagate drive? What exactly would I be looking for you and did the maxblast 3 work at all for you?