Hard drive and operating system not playing nice?

[triumphrider-1]

So I purchased a Western Digital hard drive (Cavier Black, 1TB, 32mb cache, etc.) and am installing my new Windows XP Pro 64bit operating system onto it, but they are not playing together.

I have formatted the drive and copied the files onto it (all the stuff that happens before the system restarts), but now when I try to continue the install (loading from the hard drive and leaving the cd in) it gives me the following error:

"error loading operating system"

I have reformatted and done the beginning process twice now, with the same error both times. Western Digital says it a Micrsoft issue, but I do not have the cash to spend talking with them, anybody have a suggestion?

Thanks

 

[rboyer]

Well if it's a 1 Terabyte drive there may be the possibility that your BIOS isn't properly supporting it. What brand/model motherboard are you using? Even if it's something older you still might be able to get a BIOS update to support the drive. If you can't get a BIOS update for it there are still ways around it, actually western digital makes and freely distributes software for such an incident and it surprises me that they'd blame it on Microsoft without even considering that your computer could be too old? There is also the possibility that it could be a partitioning issue. First make sure that your BIOS can support the drive (check the manual if you have it, if not then Google the model number and find the manual online) and then work your way out from there.

 

[Mark_88]

Did you try setting a primary partition to like 35 gigs before installing or are you installing on the entire drive? If you haven't, it might be worth a shot to start with that...

Also, have you installed from this CD previously? If it is a new install your CD may be corrupted...

Edit: Good point about the bios...didn't occur that this was an 'older' machine...checking the specs on the mobo would be helpful in that case too...

 

[CJREX]

Being a 1TB drive, it is likely SATA.

Not sure on XP64, but with XP Pro you can't load the OS onto a SATA drive without pressing F6 and loading the SATA drivers when prompted.

 

[Mark_88]

Hmmm...that could be too....SATA...

It's also needed to format the drive as NTFS...anything over 32 GB is not recognized by XP in FAT or FAT32 format...has to be NTFS over 32 GB...if you create a 32GB partition then it can be FAT or FAT32...but you loose compression, security, and encryption features...

One other thing that I thought of (I just happen to be starting a storage management module on XP, BTW)...do you have another drive in the mix? If you do, make sure you have it set as a slave if necessary and that you are running the SATA drive on the primary drive cable (if applicable)...and that you are booting from the new drive and not anything else...

 

[rboyer]

XP64 will do the same thing with the SATA drivers. The only catch is that if you didn't load the SATA drivers it won't even let you install the OS. Also i'm pretty sure that the lower end SATA controllers don't even require you to load drivers, for some reason i'm remembering an install I did not too long ago on a cheap MSI board that never required SATA drivers from the floppy. If it accessed the drive and copied files then drivers for the controller aren't an issue, the issue is that "error loading operating system" means that it's not seeing the boot sector on your drive for some reason and doesn't know where to go from there. More information is definitely needed on exactly what computer these problems are happening on because there are just too many variables. Whatever it is though it has to be simple.

 

[snake]

Damn, next time I have a computer issue I know where to come and ask...!

 

[MAKG]

Somethine else to check --- many BIOS chips protect writing the master boot record, because that's a convenient target for viruses. You can't make a new OS installation boot properly without writing the MBR. Check your BIOS to see if "virus protection" or MBR protection or somesuch is enabled. If it is, turn it off for the installation. Regardless, turn it on after you're done.

 

[triumphrider-1]

Here is the info on my computer:

Asus M2NPV-VM (micro ATX) motherboard
Nvidia nForce 430 media and communications processor:
2 x Ultra DMA 133/100/... interfaces for 4 hard disk drives
4 x S-ATA 3Gb/s hard disk drives supporting Raid 0, Raid 0+1, Raid 5, and JBOD config
Athlon 64 1.8Ghz processor (AM2 socket)
Patroit DDR2 1Gb x 800Mhz (2 sticks not hyperthreaded)
Thermaltake 600W or 700W power supply (can not remember which)
Cooler Master case (incase you were wondering)



The bios shows the HD in the main window...so I'm assuming that it is supporting it.

Have not tried partioning it off yet (thought about that while laying in bed last night) will probably try it tonight or tomorrow though.

The hard drive is a serial ATA.

Not sure on XP64, but with XP Pro you can't load the OS onto a SATA drive without pressing F6 and loading the SATA drivers when prompted.

Have not tried this either, but the Western Digital site says I should not have to. They say that the windows system will already have the drivers necessary for it.

I have always done my drives in NTFS.
I have another drive, but I disconnected it for installation purposes.


If you guys need anyother info for this, let me know.

THANKS!

 

[triumphrider-1]

Somethine else to check --- many BIOS chips protect writing the master boot record, because that's a convenient target for viruses. You can't make a new OS installation boot properly without writing the MBR. Check your BIOS to see if "virus protection" or MBR protection or somesuch is enabled. If it is, turn it off for the installation. Regardless, turn it on after you're done.

Checked around in the bios and the manual, not showig anything like this.

 

[maitee1]

The only drivers you would have to load are RAID drivers if of course you are running a RAID. I agree with rboyer in the fact that is a BIOS issue.

You would also definitley want to partiotion that HDD. Should format the C: drive to something like 38Gb. I don't know your intentions of this massive HDD but I would have a parition for the OS, one for APPS, one for media files, and possibly just a misc partition. This will keep seek speeds up.

If you know someone who has an XP Pro 64 bit, you can use their disk with your key and see if that alleviates the problem. If not, partition that bad boy.

 

[triumphrider-1]

Its reforamtting as I type this. I put a 50Gb partition on it and left the rest for my music, apps, videos, etc. Will let you know how it turns out.

I am checking the newegg reviews of my board (been a while since I've seen them..almost 2 years now) and see mention of it coming with an old Bios version...so that may need to be upgraded.

 

[triumphrider-1]

The only drivers you would have to load are RAID drivers. I agree with rboyer in the fact that is a BIOS issue.

You would also definitley want to partiotion that HDD. Should format the C: drive to something like 38Gb. I don't know your intentions of this massive HDD but I would have a parition for the OS, one for APPS, one for media files, and possibly just a misc partition. This will keep seek speeds up.

If you know someone who has an XP Pro 64 bit, you can use their disk with your key and see if that alleviates the problem. If not, partition that bad boy.

While I do not know anyone with 64bit Pro, I did try it with my Home edition and recieved the same error (Home edition is currently on the old HD and working fine).

 

[maitee1]

Its reforamtting as I type this. I put a 50Gb partition on it and left the rest for my music, apps, videos, etc. Will let you know how it turns out.

I am checking the newegg reviews of my board (been a while since I've seen them..almost 2 years now) and see mention of it coming with an old Bios version...so that may need to be upgraded.

Good luck. Keep us informed.

 

[rboyer]

All you need for your motherboard can be found here:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2NPV-VM

Although I don't see anything in the specs for the BIOS updates that talks about drive size it wouldn't hurt to install the latest one anyway. From what I understand you should be able to dump the update to it using a flash drive and there should be something in the manual about how to do it. All of your drivers for it and even RAID support for XP64 can also be found on that site if you needed it.