# Windows XP Installation Problems (120GB Sata Hitachi HD - Gigabyte BX2000 MB)



## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

Hello,

I am having problems installing Windows XP on my current system. I have a 120GB HDS722512VLAT80 SATA hard disk and a Gigabyte BX2000 BIOS F9 - (LATEST RELEASE). The problem appears to be that the hard drive is not recognised by the system upon reboot of the windows installation. I receive the error message “missing operating system” and the system hangs. I have tried using fdisk to partition and repairing the mbr. I have also checked for errors on the hard drive although none appear to be found. The bios reports the correct size of the hard drive, but I am unable to see the hard drive from within DOS. Can you please help me fix this problem?


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## charliep1 (Jun 30, 2004)

Did XP load? If so you need to go into BIOS and change the boot order to reflect the drive the OS is on.

With my Asus having a nVIDA Nforce chipset I had to set first boot option as SCSI.
Charlie


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

Windows xp installation does not start after formating and specifying the windows installation location/partitioning. Instead, it reboots and says "missing operating system". If I try and load a DOS prompt and look for my hard drive, it is not seen. If I try and change the startup drive order from cdrom to c: there is no difference.


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## charliep1 (Jun 30, 2004)

Did XP load? If it did, did you try SCSI as boot device?

What chipset do you have?
Charlie


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

The blue windows xp installation screen starts from the cdrom and windows xp sees the hard disk and allows me to partition however I wish. The installation continues by copying the windows files to my computer and then says it needs to reboot to continue the installation. When the computer restarts, the message "error loading operating system" appears and the windows installation does not continue. The chipset is an intel 440bx with award bios running a pIII 500mhz with 384MB memory.


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## charliep1 (Jun 30, 2004)

XP can be picky about RAM. Since you have 384 you have multiple sticks. Try with one and then the other. Many times if it is a RAM issue once you get XP loaded you can put your original configuration back in with no problem.

So try starting over with one stick. If that fails start over with the other stick.
Charlie


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

Cheers Charliep1. I will try that although I thought this may be an obvious problem. Thanks anyway.


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## jptex (Feb 19, 2005)

*Gigabyte MDs choosy about hard drives*

I don't have much to offer in direct help other than I am trying to install a new Gigabyte MB and am having problems accessing all my HDs (4 ATAs). I have learned with my board (GA-8I915P Duo Pro) I am supposed to put optical drive(s) only on IDE1 and HDs on IDE2 and IDE3. Doing so and specifying in BIOS my C: drive as boot drive, I can boot XP Pro and use the CDR drive normally, but I can't see any of the other 3 HDs. 

This is only a little of what I've tried, but if anything sounds like it might be of help, post back and I'll provide more.






Kennedy1006 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am having problems installing Windows XP on my current system. I have a 120GB HDS722512VLAT80 SATA hard disk and a Gigabyte BX2000 BIOS F9 - (LATEST RELEASE). The problem appears to be that the hard drive is not recognised by the system upon reboot of the windows installation. I receive the error message “missing operating system” and the system hangs. I have tried using fdisk to partition and repairing the mbr. I have also checked for errors on the hard drive although none appear to be found. The bios reports the correct size of the hard drive, but I am unable to see the hard drive from within DOS. Can you please help me fix this problem?


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

Thanks for the help jptex. Any help is useful at the moment. I have tried changing memeory about and only running 128mb at a time with different modules but have had no luck. I have also tried changing cables and different IDE slots but again no luck.

I have tried running another small hard drive booting xp and the large hard drive is seen by windows xp and is working fine. I just cannot set this one up as the boot hd!


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## jptex (Feb 19, 2005)

*extraneous thought*

Kennedy, a thought out of the blue. Have you had the SATA drive in use previously? If so, did you happen to put an overlay on it? That's a program HD manufacturers include to "make installation easier." What it does is build a wall around the data area, and I don't think your OS can see the drive if the overlay is there. That happened to me years ago with two HDs - the system didn't recognize them until I reformatted them to eliminate the overlay.


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

The SATA drive was in use previously but I got a lot of worm/trojan horses etc and decided to format the hard disk and start fresh. Wish I hadn't started it now! The hard disk has been formated many times in the last couple of days using different menthods e.g. a dos startup disk, windows xp format from the blue xp setup prompt (which seems to see the hard drive but upon reboot the computer doesn't seem to see it). I have found various links to the same problem as other users, but none of them seem to be able to solve it either!

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=73353.msg516915

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_21074124.html

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=383339#post383339


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## charliep1 (Jun 30, 2004)

I believe that is a Hitachi drive. Download the DFT (Drive fitness test) and run it to check drive. If it finds no errors run the zero fill and then give it another try.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

This will create a bootable floppy that you run. I had a IBM Deskstar that was causing problems and this fixed me up.
Charlie


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

I have tried this and have had no luck. It reports a deposition code 0x00 which i'm assuming means the drive is empty and has no errors. I am lost as to what to try next. I can install windows on a smaller hard drive which I have and when in windows, I can see the large SATA one. Is there anything I can do from within windows to help? The smaller hard drive is onlt 8GB and much older and slower therefore I really want to install windows on the faster hard drive.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

Do you have the Boot sequence configure correctly in the BIOS? If I'm correct you are using a PCI SATA controller. You may have to set the boot sequence to boot to a SCSI or "other PCI device" first. If you have HD listed as a boot device, it will try and boot to an IDE hard drive.

Another note. Try and zero fill the drive before you install the OS. I always do this on any drive that previously had any presence of a virus.


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

I have tried various boot sequences including scsi first or c: first or cdrom. Anyone?


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## 1stladytech (Feb 25, 2005)

That is a pretty old chipset for the sata drive, but you may get it to work. Make sure that you don't have any drives attatched to the first IDE bus - put your cd rom (s) on the second bus only. Set your cmos to autodetect all IDE bus devices, and boot order to other or SCSI first. If you are loading the driver for the controller card during the startup of the xp load (hit f6 at the first screen - the install will ask you for a driver floppy disc during the installation) the machine should be able to boot from the hdd. Just a question - are you formating it NTFS or Fat32? On a drive that large Fat32 is going to have problems. Let me know...


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## Kennedy1006 (Feb 23, 2005)

Thanks 1stladytech. I have tried many things including having the SATA hdd on IDE1 and my cd rom on IDE2. I have checked the jumpers also, trying both cable select and setting it to master device 0. I am fairly experienced with computers, but this one has me beat.

The disk was working previously and I can remember I had problems when I first set it up. I had to update my bios to the latest release, but this has not changed and I have tried reflashing it. I have tried reinstalling the mbr by using windows xp fixmbr, the hitachi dft program and software from within windows xp started using and older small hdd which boots fine with the motherboard and allows me to see the large hdd when in windows (note: i swapped the jumpers and ide cables around incase you think I've been trying in this setup each time).

I have also tried formatting using NTFS, FAT32 and FAT


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## 1stladytech (Feb 25, 2005)

One thing that does come to mind, is the controller card raid capable? I have had trouble in the past if the controller was set to raid function without multiple drives attatched. Try turning off the raid function, and installing just the card controller driver. Threw me for a loop the first time I hit it also. The drive will work fine as a secondary drive with the raid function enabled, because the driver compensates. Let me know if that works,

1stladytech


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## skullshot (Mar 3, 2005)

if you are attempting to install windows onto the sata drive on an extra controller, you must treat the controller as a SCSII boot device and install in the usual scsi manner.

you need to acquire or find the floppy disk with the drivers for your controller card, when you begin the windows installation, press F6 when it prompts you (right at the start) and then put your disk in so it will load the drivers for your card.

the problem you are experiencing is because windows is able to read the disk in legacy mode during initial install then once it switches to native mode it does not know how to access the controller and probably only looks to the standard IDE controller for the boot drive.


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## reign (Feb 24, 2005)

some motherboards have 4 sata controllers, you might wanna check which number of sata controller is the sata cable connected and make sure to it that it is properly configured in bios. for example you connected your hard drive to sata controller number 1, then you should make sure to it that sata 1 is turned "on" in bios.


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## crazijoe (Oct 19, 2004)

reign said:


> some motherboards have 4 sata controllers, you might wanna check which number of sata controller is the sata cable connected and make sure to it that it is properly configured in bios. for example you connected your hard drive to sata controller number 1, then you should make sure to it that sata 1 is turned "on" in bios.


This wouldn't be a problem on this MB because the person is using a legacy Slot 1 MB (no SATA connections). 

Kennedy1006,
I would try and zero fill the drive and clear anything off of it. I had an instance, simular to yours, that would let me format, copy all WinXP files and reboot. It would then post "missing operating system". The drive had RedHat Linux on it before. I zero filled the drive and WinXP installed fine after that.


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