XP installation "non-system disk or disk error"

[TCMGO]

I made it to first base with installing XP on my Abit NF7-S V2 computer only to hit another wall at second. I was finally able to install the XP OS on a SATA drive, but when it went to boot up (to finish installation) it hit this error: “non-system disk or disk error.” Here are the steps I took:

1. Booted up with XP install CD, hit F6 and successfully loaded the SATA drivers, which this mobo needs to see SATA drives.
2. XP sees the SATA drive. Being a used drive (WD 800 – Serial ATA) and wanting a clean slate, I low-level formatted prior to installation, wherein I had XP format it in NTFS.
3. After formatting, it then proceeded to finish loading the Windows files with no errors and then hit the error above when it went into reboot.

I took the drive to another computer and it checks out as healthy and active. The Windows file with all its sub folders is accessible. Solutions I have tried:

In bios, I tried these boot order options to no avail: Boot CD first, SATA second . . . .
Boot CD first, SCSI second

Under Integrated peripherals, I tried both enabling and disabling the Serial ATA controller and X-SATA Raid Rom to no avail. I believe the drive and XP installation is good, but have no way to absolutely verify this. Somehow, in boot up when it comes to selecting the boot/system disk it doesn’t see the SATA drive, even though the mobo saw it during the XP installation. Any suggestions?

[Old_Biker]

Hi TCMGO,

The BIOS must be able to see the drive as it knows that it is a 'NON-SYSTEM DISK'.

If you have a floppy disk drive, boot your NF7 with an MSDOS floppy disk (created in Windows 98 or later with 'Format /S'). Can you change to your XP drive by entering 'C:' (if it's the first HDD) at the command prompt and then see the files on it with 'DIR, or DIR /W'?

If you can find it that way, it seems that the system files for booting the OS are missing from the HDD.

Microsoft has some suggestions for fixing non-booting system drives using their Windows Recovery Console from your Windows XP installation disc.

I hope some of their advice cures the problem for you.