Harddrives (Again)

see here for an explaination...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309044&sd=tech
i'd say do it it'll make things easier in the long run.
cheers


julian

 

Conerted and it says online in disk manager now. But still can't find it.

And still not sure what steps next. Perhaps I should have left this to a pro?

 

have formatted the drive yet?
cheers


julian

 

MO it's difficult for me to see what exactly is wrong here.
is the new drive marked as active ?
try http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm for more help

i would pursue installing XP from scratch on the new drive, with the old one physically removed from the pc. then reconnect it as a slave drive, and backup.

what's the set up exactly ? new sata drive on a pci sata controller card ?

 

The original set up was IDE only MOBO, with the 6GB HDD as the only HDD.

I've since bought the SATA drive and PCI controller card.

I copied the required drivers onto a floppy.

Turned off the computer and unplugged the old drive, and plugged the controller card in and connected it to the new SATA drive and connected the drive to the PSU.

I then started into bios and told it to stop looking for the IDE0 and changed it to SCSI.

Then started up with the XP CD in.

After a few seconds of the windows instalation starting it says something at the bottom like, "Press F6 to install 3rd party SCSI drivers". So I press F6 and a short while later I'm prompted to press F3 to quit, S to install specific drivers, or enter to continue without installing. So I press S and it asks for the floppy disk.

It then installs the drivers and continues for a while.

Then it tell me no mass storage device is detected and it can't continue.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I then turned off the power. Left the SATA controller and drive in place and also put the old drive back in.

Then turned power on and left bios settings as SCSI rather than IDE0.

Windows loaded and here I am.

When I tried starting up off the old drive with the new one connected yesterday (before installing the drivers - didn't have a floppy drive to do so), windows wouldn't load. So something seems to have changed.

This pic is from the link you gave



In the top section, only my old drive shows. But in the bottom they both show.

I want to know how to get windows xp onto that drive and have it as my main drive?

 

right click on the new drive in the bottom section and choose format. it should ask you a few questions about the name of the volume and / or drive letter you want to assign and then go off and format the drive. (choose ntfs as it gives you more facilities.) once this is done the drive should be useable.
cheers


julian

 

drive now formatted and shows up on my computer.

How do I get XP on there now though and set it as my main drive?

 

MO!, your best bet is a 'clean' install. So the way I'd go about it would be to restart the system and enter the BIOS setup. Once there make sure that under your BIOS options you have the CD-ROM drive as your first boot device. Exit the BIOS making sure you've saved the new configuration. Turn the system off and disconnect the old IDE drive but leave the new SATA unit connected. Turn the system on and put your XP CD-ROM in the drive. It should be detected and start the installation process. When prompted choose your new drive as the location to which you want to install XP to, you can partition the drive during the install process if you want or after the install using XP's drive tools or a third party application. After that it should just be case of leaving the system to install and then rebooting when prompted. Then you get the fun of re-installing all your software/data .

 

Or, try and get hold of Norton Ghost or PowerQuest Drive Copy or PowerQuest Drive Image. This will allow you to clone old 6GB drive to the new one.

 

I don't ****in believe this!!!

Started up with XP disk in and it started installing. Ended up having to delete the current partition (didn't know there was a partition on there ) then had to create a new one (the size of the whole disk) and then having to again format the drive!

Then windows carries on doing its thing. Twice however it mentioned software, not being guaranteed to work and that I should say no and contact the provider etc... So I said yes Not sure what the first software that it was reffering to was, but the second time was the sata driver (used the one in the link BL21DE3 provided).

All seemed ok. Then got down to 2 mins left of installation and stayed there for about 15 mins! Then the pc restarted. Then a screen saying setup restarting.....

It never restarted though! IT NEVER RESTARTED!!!!!!!

So i had to turn the power off, started it up and it goes to that same "setup restarting" screen. And that's it.

So, old drive back in!

WTF's going on now!!!

MO

 

mo,
go to bed. it's late. tackle it fresh in the morning - or better yet on sunday morning. i suggest you reformat the new drive and then just copy everything lock stock and hidden folders/ files over to your new drive as nsherin suggests. that way you keep all your installed software and setups.
cheers


julian

 

I'm full of alcohol and the night is young! I've an hour or so to kill till a few people come over! As good a time as any. I think I'll attempt a clean instal again. Might just have been a one off glitch!

Positive thoughts

 

and who says alchohol doesn't inflame your sense of optomism? may as well give it a go i guess. bon chance...
cheers


julian

 

On a mac you plug the harddrive in, then if you want it to be bootable install system software on it.

Seriously PCs seem to make it difficult on purpose.

 

If I'd have gone for another IDE drive, then that's all I'd have had to do here too.

The problems seem to be down to the SATA controller card.

I still can't get XP to install properly on the new drive.

Sometimes when installing the drivers from the floppy they cause problems and takes a second attempt. Then sometimes "no mass storage device detected". Then if I get past that and windows does start to install properly, I get warning that the drivers I installed don't meet some micro$oft logo testing or something and prompted to not install. Obviously (???) have to choose to install them anyhow and seems to continue fine. However, I then get down to about two minutes till instalation complete and nothing. Stops there.

Not really sure what to try next.

Might have to hope this drive lasts long enough till I can get a new (sata friendly) MObo.

 

Well I went for the BIOS update. OOPS!

Seemed it did cause problems with my display adaptor! All seemed fine till just as the desktop was about to apear and ....... nothing. The monitor seemed to turn itself off.

I was only able to boot in safe MOde (which took a hella lotta random button pushin to get into). Couldn't get online to try and find another BIOS so had to get someone else to sort that out. Luckily going to the older of the two updates seems to have sorted that.

Still no joy in getting XP onto the new drive though, and this old one has been playing up all day.

Might need to try and get my grubby mits on another copy of XP or other OS. Says can be used with anything from 98se onwards. I've only got 98, and an ME upgrade disk, and Linux Linspire.

Might try Linspire later, but feel this will be even MOre hassle!

MO

 

mo,
before your working boot drive dies. copy everything exactly as it is across from new to old. make sure you get everything (best to use one of the apps nsherin suggested). then try to boot from the new drive (unplug the old one and change the bios boot settings). your problem is probably to do with some drivers that are non standard or not included with the xp install disk which would be sorted by just copying your old install of xp and not trying to reinstall.
cheers


julian

 

and might one have any idea where one might be able to get ones self a copy of the named software?

Or any idea of a freeware program?

p2p doesn't seem to want to help me tonight.

 

MO! I found this bit of freeware which allows you to clone partitions between drives http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html you can download a completely free edition. Hope this helps.