Re: Trouble running trial version setup
Hi, Jay.
I was hoping someone would jump in, but...
> The floppies I have do not have any kind of boot information on them that
> the system will recognize, so exactly how do I install them before the OS?
Correct. This floppy (not plural - just one - but it may have multiple
drivers on it for multiple models of hard drives) is NOT used to boot the
computer. You put in the WinXP CD, with your BIOS set to boot from CD, and
let Setup begin. Very early in the Setup process, while it is detecting
your computer's configuration, you should see a message to "Press F6 if you
need to install drivers for a mass storage device" (or similar language; it
has been a while since I had to do this). Press F6 quickly; the message
will disappear in a few seconds and you'll have to reboot to get another
chance. Setup will continue for a long time as though nothing happened,
loading all those hundreds of files. Finally, it will halt with a message
telling you how to use the floppy to install the drivers. Then it will
continue, and will soon reboot. This time, it will boot from the hard
drive, not from the CD.
Here is where a foul-up can occur if you have more than one hard drive.
Setup wants to write the startup files to create the System Partition on the
HD identified in the BIOS as the current boot device. If you have a newer
BIOS, you can designate Disk 2 (for example) as the boot device, but then
use the Esc key (that's the one MY BIOS uses; yours may be different) to
boot from CD just this once, to run Setup. Then, after Setup finishes this
first phase, including writing the startup files AND the special drivers to
the boot device (Disk 2), it will then reboot from that same boot device
(Disk 2) and everything is fine. But if you are not able to manage your
boot device in the BIOS, Setup might write the files to Disk 2 and then try
to reboot from Disk 0! If you have an older BIOS, you'll have to use some
other method - perhaps physically pulling cables - to be sure that Setup
writes the files to the disk you've chosen and then reboots from that same
disk.
> (Silicon Image Sil 3114 SATA Raid)
That's the same one I was using with WinXP and Vista on my earlier system
(EPoX 8KDA3+/AMD Athlon x64 3200+) and it worked well, once I got those
drivers incorporated by using F6 during Setup.
> 3rd IDE Device: Western Digital 120 GB SATA drive (120 GB)
Your SATA drive is an IDE device? Maybe. Depends on how your BIOS
identifies everything. MY BIOS does not show the SATA drives under IDE on
the initial screen, since they are plugged into my SATA connectors, not the
IDE connectors. That screen shows my 2 DVD drives under IDE, then the 2
standalone SATA drives. (The 3rd and 4th SATA drives are covered by the
next screen, from the RAID controller.) There's a lot of variety here in
how motherboards, chipsets and BIOSes show these details, and I have only
this one to look at, so I'm not sure what your configuration would show.
Another point that confuses me is that various parts of my computer identify
the drives differently. My BIOS says my first boot device is the 200 GB
Maxtor on SATA "Ch.4"; the second is the 120 GB Maxtor on SATA "Ch.2"; the
third is the Raid Array (I've forgotten the exact phrase and I don't want to
go through the cycle of saving this draft, rebooting into BIOS setup, then
rebooting into Vista again just to look). But Disk Management says that the
120 is Disk 0, the 200 is Disk 1 and the 300 GB is Disk 2. The System
Partition is the first partition on Disk 1 and the current (Vista) boot
volume is the second volume (the first logical drive in the extended
partition) on Disk 1 - just as I planned. The first partitions on Disk 0
and Disk 2 are also Active primary partitions and I've installed Vista at
least once with each of those temporarily as the boot device, so I can boot
from either of them by changing the BIOS setting - or by using Esc during
POST.
Some of all this I understand, Jay. Much of it I just half-understand and
manage to get it working by trial and error. ;^}
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail beta 2 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 beta v.275)
"Jay Wagner" <JayWagner@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news
439A747-3949-4A82-97D7-DA10174A35BE@microsoft.com...
> I appreciate everyone's input here.
>
> The floppies I have do not have any kind of boot information on them that
> the system will recognize, so exactly how do I install them before the OS?
> From what I understand from what the manufacturer has on their site
> (Silicon
> Image Sil 3114 SATA Raid) that the driver on the floppy is to be utilized
> during Windows setup. Anyway, if I leave the disk in the drive by itself,
> I
> get a message from the system to "remove all disks and press any key to
> reboot." nor is there a DOS executable, either.
>
> But anyway - this time I tried unplugging the cable to my SATA drive, AND
> reconfiguring the hard disk configuration & boot priority. Beforehand -
> this
> is how I had the drives configured
>
> Primary IDE Device: My DVD drive (16x R+-/RW+-/DL)
> Primary Slave: None
> Secondary IDE Device: Quantum Fireball IDE drive (6 GB)
> Secondary Slave: None
> 3rd IDE Device: Western Digital 120 GB SATA drive (120 GB)
>
> I was thinking maybe the setup was getting confused here, so I swapped the
> Primary and Secondaary and left the SATA unplugged (from the disk - I left
> it
> plugged in the board). Also set in the BIOS to have the IDE disk
> (Quantum)
> as the first boot drive, too. Then I tried running setup again with a
> newer
> copy of the downlaoded ISO burned at 1X on a different media that I knew
> was
> good (haven't used and in the original packing since I got it for my
> birthday
> last July), but nope - I still have the same problem - setup reboots after
> "loading Windows NT File System" (or similar - don't recall the exact
> wording).
>
> SO.....If I had unplugged the SATA drive, wouldn't setup just ignore this
> and nullify what R.C. White suggested (no offense to his suggestion)? Or
> would it make a difference if I unplugged the cable from the board as
> well?
> Also, I tested my memory and ran it for 10 cycles for 5 hours, but got no
> errors whatsoever, if that helps.
>
> My board is at least 2 years old, probably a bit more, but the BIOS I have
> is dated from May 2006. The manufacturer states they made a minor fix
> reguarding their Logo displaying at setup, but if there was any issue with
> 64-bit OS compatibility with Windows, they would've addressed that then or
> in
> an earlier release, right?
>
> Maybe I should contact Microsoft for an 'official' CD?
>
>
> "R. C. White" wrote:
>
>> Hi, Jay.
>>
>> > (remember, I want to install this on the 2nd drive, which is IDE, not
>> > SATA.
>>
>> Probably one of the most-misunderstood phrases in installing Windows.
>> :>(
>>
>> No matter where you install Windows or Vista, 32-bit or 64-bit, the
>> boot-up
>> will always start in the System Partition, then follow the instructions
>> in
>> WinXP's Boot.ini or Vista's BCD to find the Boot Volume for the operating
>> system. (The terms "system volume" and "boot volume" are
>> counterintuitive
>> and this causes most of the confusion. Remember that we boot from the
>> system partition (not the boot volume) and keep all our operating system
>> files in the boot volume (which may or may not be the same as the system
>> volume). See KB 314470, Definitions for system volume and boot volume,
>> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470/EN-US/)
>>
>> So, even if you install Windows on the IDE drive, if the SATA is
>> designated
>> in your BIOS as the boot device, then the SATA drivers must be used to
>> start
>> this session. After the POST and a few other opening procedures, the
>> main
>> action will switch from your SATA to your IDE drive. But those critical
>> first few steps depend on that SATA drive - and its drivers.
>>
>> To bypass the SATA drive entirely, you would need to designate your IDE
>> drive as the boot device, then run Setup in that configuration. And then
>> you would have to tell the BIOS to boot from IDE every time you want to
>> run
>> whatever you installed with that setup. This is not the kind of
>> "dual-boot"
>> system that MS had in mind, but many users do it this way. And, if you
>> are
>> trying to add WinXP x64 to an existing Vista installation, you might
>> prefer
>> to do it this way, although I wouldn't.
>>
>> I don't think you have a hardware problem, or a memory problem, or a CRC
>> problem. You just need to get the proper drivers installed for the HD
>> that
>> your boot-up actually starts from. In other words, install the SATA
>> drivers
>> so that the computer can find instructions there (in the System
>> Partition)
>> to find Windows on your IDE drive (in the WinXP x64 boot volume). Or set
>> your BIOS to boot from the IDE drive. Note that you don't need the SATA
>> drivers installed at boot time unless you are booting from the SATA
>> drive.
>> You don't need them to use the SATA as "just another data drive".
>>
>> In case you are wondering, after the 64-bit drivers are properly
>> installed,
>> you can easily dual-boot into 32-bit Windows from that drive, too.
>>
>> RC
>>
>> "Jay Wagner" <JayWagner@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:7A784F4E-37D6-4060-9BCF-C55ABF1CBF6F@microsoft.com...
>> > Thanks you guys for your input. I've downloaded a newer driver for my
>> > SATA
>> > drive that supports the 64-bit version and extracted the zip file to a
>> > blank
>> > floppy. Then I rebooted, ran setup, and pressed F6 when prompted.
>> > This
>> > time
>> > I got further than before, so I pressed enter to bypass setting up the
>> > SATA
>> > (remember, I want to install this on the 2nd drive, which is IDE, not
>> > SATA.
>> > ;-) ), and it continued to load the rest of the drivers. However, it
>> > still
>> > reboots - I just get a little further than before (If it makes it
>> > easier
>> > to
>> > describe, I don't get to the 'End User Liscence Agreement' screen.)
>> >
>> > Puzzled, I called the store where I got my system 2 years ago (nice
>> > place
>> > to
>> > buy hardware, btw - http://www.infotechnow.com) , and spoke to a
>> > technician
>> > on the phone. We verified that the hardware I got supports this OS,
>> > however
>> > he suggested bringing it in as it's hard to tell what's going w/o
>> > taking a
>> > look. He told me he doesn't think I have a hardware problem - of
>> > course
>> > the
>> > only surefire way to tell is to send it in, which I don't want to do,
>> > as I
>> > am
>> > constantly using this machine.
>> >
>> > I've been using this computer for 2 years with no hardware problems.
>> > Dominic - I appreciate your suggestion of testing the memory, but if it
>> > was a
>> > memory problem, wouldn't that manifest itself when I'm using the 32-bit
>> > version (like the system rebooting by itself or something)? I
>> > *never*
>> > had
>> > a "BSOD" or a "Windows STOP" error since the time I've used this
>> > machine.
>> >
>> > The only suggestion he had was to contact Microsoft to get a CD from
>> > them -
>> > that way I know for sure I am getting a good copy, unless you guys can
>> > show
>> > me exactly what I do with the checksum - in terms of what or where I
>> > can
>> > find
>> > the "official" checksum to compare to what I got. Here is the
>> > checksum -
>> >
>> > "c983b75bbda964336c87996dec8838ca *WS03SP1_RTM_1830_PX6_EN.iso" (w/o
>> > quotes,
>> > obviosly)