CRAIGFIN

I’m ready to throw my fecking PC build through the window as it won’t boot. I’ve just built a Micro ATX system with an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. I’ve connected two hard drives to IDE 1, one as a Master and the second as a Slave. My DVD RW Drive is attached to IDE 2 as a Master. I also have a USB floppy drive. All these drives are happily recognised by the BIOS during bootup with no problems at all.

I have performed an fdisk and format but I can’t get the XP CD ROM to boot from the start, it won’t boot from the command prompt in DOS either. I’ve installed Win 98 SE to use it as a platform from which to install XP (I’ve done this before so know it works). The problem is that for some reason the DVD drive icon was missing in My Computer which meant that the XP CD ROM wouldn’t boot. This is despite the fact that the same drive was used to install Win 98 SE in the first place!! Why would Win 98 not recognise a drive it’s just finished using to install itself? My USB floppy also wouldn’t work. As noted earlier, these aforementioned drives are all happily recognised by the BIOS. The BIOS is also happy with the RAM of which I have over a Gig.

I’m now at a point where I have exhausted all my PC knowledge and need guidance. Nothing I do seems to work. Can anybody suggest any other pearls of wisdom for me as I’m stumped.

Cheers,

Craig

1018509

Your Bios is set to boot from the secondary IDE is it?

Why do you need to launch XP from 98. If your XP disk is an upgrade you can still clean install XP. During the installation you will be asked to insert the disk for the windows version you are upgrading from.

CRAIGFIN

I currently have a formatted drive and the DVD drive didn't work when 98 was installed. I can't perform any kind of install be it clean or dirty as it won't recognise the DVD drive. I keep getting BOOT DISC FAILURE. The XP CD ROM is not recognised at all. I've reformatted and installed before so I know the CD ROM is good.

KeithRS

If you've got the floppy drive working, them get onto microsofts site and download the xp setup boot disks. Program that writes to about 6 floopy disks. You can load the core files of the setup from these and it'll load all the most common drivers for dvd/cd/ide, just make sure to change the boot order in the bios, and leave the cd in the drive and it will automatically swap from floppy to cd, if that makes sense.

CRAIGFIN

Keith,

I've already tried that. When the 6th disc finishes it goes to the blue screen of death telling me to perform a CHKDSK (checkdisc).

Craig.

KeithRS

In that case and in reading your first post, i would do the following:

IDE 1 Master -> install the HD you had on IDE 2 Master (could be HD errors)
IDE 1 Slave -> connect your dvd drive here

IDE 2 Master -> connect your current IDE 1 Master here.
IDE 2 Slave -> Spare

Always worth double checking the jumper settings for master/slave. Another tip that may be usefull is to check the web for latest ide controller drivers for your motherboard. most vendors will offer these to be saved onto a floppy disk. When using the xp utility setup disks, it will ask you to hit F8 (i think) to install third party drivers, at which stage you should insert this disk. This method is particulary important to users that have sata hard disks, as without doing this step, nowt will work.

This might help, or it might not, but at least its something else to try. Let us know how you get on and we will take it from there.

CRAIGFIN

Problem sorted.

I installed XP from DOS using the cd\i386 and winnt folders / commands.

Many thanks for the help and advice. Feel free to look at my Teething problems!! thread.

Cheers,

Craig.