Problems with Windows install, SATA after "F6"

[ibsnoozin]

I'm having problems getting Winders to recognize my new SATA drive after loading drivers. During install I hit "F6" to load Via SATA drivers for VIAKT600 chipset. Now it finds the HDD. I've deleted and created (many times) partition yet when I attempt to install Windows tells me the disk does not contain a Windows XP-compatible partition. If Windows had not found partition to Create/Delete I would think I had wrong drivers but, it finds and identifies drive so now I'm at a loss.
System is
Asus A7V600-S
Athlon XP-M 2400
Corsair XMS 512
WD SATA 200GB
ATI 9800SE

Any ideas O Gurus of Cyberspace?
Stu

[weebroonieuk]

did you format the drive after you created the partition ?

if not select ntfs filesystem and install it on the primary partition then it should be fine

[ibsnoozin]

"did you format the drive after you created the partition ?"
That's the problem. Windows finds the partition but won't give the option to Format in either NTFS or FAT and puts me into a loop, back to choosing Partition, Create/Delete Part.

[weebroonieuk]

hmm , do you use nlite or any os disc customisation tool , in other words is it a standard disc ?

have you installed xp before ? (not being cheeky!)

there is a few key presses you have to do maybe your missing one are you selecting the correct partion to install it on whne it asks you and not the one with a few megabyte lefts after creating the partition ?

if you have access to another xp disc go ahead and format it with that then let it copy the files for installation then when it reboots to start installing swap the discs see if that works although i think the licensce key might be invalid im not sure !

[ibsnoozin]

Update:
Was able to boot to old dying IDE drive, format SATA drive with NTFS.
Boot to CD, load VIA SATA drivers, get to partition screen where it finds "C: Partition1 (NTFS) 190722MB." I Choose drive and get:
"To install Win XP on the partition you selected, Setup must write some startup files to the following Disk:
Unknown Disk
However, this disk does not contain a Windows XP-compatable partition.
To continure installing WIN XP return to blah blah"
Same problem.
If an IDE I'd think possibly wrong jumpers but at a loss to what else could be.
Any ideas folks?

[ibsnoozin]

Weebroonieuk,
Thanks for the response. Yes, I have installed XP (many times tho only once on a SATA drive), not using any customizing tool and disk is standard WD SATA 8mb cache 7200rpm. I've gone to Asus and used their SATA drivers which Windows recognizes and even finds the disk but, for some reason won't let me continue past above screens. Are there any jumpers to configure?

[weebroonieuk]

no sata only allows you to connect 1 drive per channel unlike ide which has 2 channels (master/slave) so no need to worry about jumpers

if you can create a bootable cd use the ide drive and boot that up as normal with the sata drive connected then search trhe web for the method to save the cab files onto the disc and execute the installtion files directly from the hard drive its supposedly faster once you have the files on the disk

although im not sure that method will work with sata since you have to load drivers with the normal method of installing but a bit of searching could find out

failing that , and im sticking my neck out here and waiting for all the do gooders to have convullsions .... go to a torrent site and download a copy of xp and burn it and see if you can get that version to work

oh mayube try download seatools from the seagate website i used it on different drives works for me or maybe wd has its own version of a bootable iso cd to test the drive it might be knackered

thats about all i can think of at the mo

[kalniel]

I had a similar-ish problem that was caused by the partition I wanted to install to not being set to 'active'. I ended up having to use a boot floppy and setting the partition active manually.

[ibsnoozin]

Wellpers, was able to boot to old drive again, format and read SATA drive. My XP CD is XP Pro Corp edition and have used it to install on numerous systems. However still getting same problem. Will look around for an old copy of Partition Magic and see if "Active" as it's been a long time since I've used a boot floppy and don't remember fdisk commands.

[latrosicarius]

Boot from the CD... in Windows Setup (blue screen) where it asks you which partition you want to install WinXP, delete all the partitions until it only says "unpartitioned space". Install Windows there, and it will automatically create a partition for you. You usually don't create a parition first unless you plan to split your drive for dual boot.

[ibsnoozin]

Latrosicarius,
Yep, done that.... a few times. Deleted and redid partition numerous times. Booted from other disk, accessed disk then partitioned and formatted. Still get same results. Deleted part remade part... same results. I believe disk is good as I can read and write to it in another system. CD is good as has been used before. With older versions I would've copied CD to drive then installed onto itself. Dont' think I can with XP. I've run out of back doors to attempt. To create a new CD with SATA drivers I think would leave me at the same place as the drivers load. Trying without loading drivers with "F6" means XP doesn't find HDD. Tried Via's and Asus's drivers with same results.

[kalniel]

Boot from the CD... in Windows Setup (blue screen) where it asks you which partition you want to install WinXP, delete all the partitions until it only says "unpartitioned space". Install Windows there, and it will automatically create a partition for you. You usually don't create a parition first unless you plan to split your drive for dual boot.

This doesn't work.

I tried this for my problem as well with no sucess. It appears the winXP patition software cannot correctly create an active partition. Using a boot floppy to create a partition and set to active did work.

[directhex]

it's a long shot, but do you have two different drivers? it's common to have a "normal" driver and "RAID" driver, for most fakeraid controllers - you'd need the normal one.

[latrosicarius]

Run Fdisk on your drive(s). See if that helps.
http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/fdiskformat.html

[Nox]

You have a USB attached memory device ? (any storage, ie pendrive/card/HD)

If so remove it. I had very similar (if not the same) as you a few weeks ago, but can't remember what I did to sort it :/ would of been a bit wierd if windows had installed though, would of been loading off my monitor

Do you need to install drivers at F6?

Nox

[weebroonieuk]

he will need to because of the age of his board it wont hqve native sata like nforce 2 etc