Is it hard drive or dvd?

[eightwpm]

hello again, this time I know I missed something. Put together a new motherboard, proccessor fan , power supply and windows 7. Hard drive was previously installed in a xp home celeron proc. 478 skt. as a back up. I tried to format while still in machine, but could only delete partition. Hd is wd 250gb . Installed on biostar MCP6PB M2+ motherboard, athlon x2 proccessor. 2 gb crucial mem. and a lite-on dvd writer iHAS124. Power supply is antec 430 watt dual rail. Bios set to cd boot first, gives the post info, recognizes hd & dvd
.Screen shows "boot from cd" and then receive disk error please insert system disk and press enter. PLEASE HELP this old fool.

 

[captaincranky]

Your HDD is probably not set to the correct mode. Is this little vignette of ancient history IDE or SATA.....?

 

[Archean]

Ensure that your CD/DVD is working as it should; and the CD/DVD Media is not damaged or unreadable in anyway.

 

[killerjedininja]

So, do you have a CD/DVD in your drive?
If not, you might want to try putting your HDD as your first boot option, just to eliminate the step altogether.

 

[captaincranky]

OK. I'm mystified. Where is the OS supposed to come from or be?

 

[SNGX1275]

Sounds like bad dvd drive or bad media to me. Suppose it could also be that the SATA cable (to the dvd drive) isn't seated properly or is bad.

 

[eightwpm]

ok folks dvd was and is set to master. My hard drive is a 250 gb western digital. I have acquired this from a pc that is not in use. The drive was used as backup and storage. Before I removed the drive I tried to format to be able to install on new desktop. System did not let me format, but I did delete parttion. Old system was xp home. My intention was to provide an as clean as possible hd for the copy of windows 7 that is legal. Since my last post, I have checked the settings on dvd, which is the only hd drive, and Bios is set. I am now at the point where system loads files from dvd, gets to step 2. Then ask for device drivers. I insert cd that came with motherboard. thats as far as i get,
pulling my hair out!

 

[captaincranky]

The master boot record that still exists on the WD may be giving you the trouble. Usually after deleting a partition associated an OS, that OS will no longer boot or function.

You could try downloading "Darik's Boot and Nuke', wipe the HDD with it, and start over.

You could also try the WD in another computer..? Installing it in a second machine will likely enable you to reformat.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other,

Also, I keep asking if this is an IDE or SATA drive, it's not a secret is it, 'cause if it is I won't ask anymore.

 

[eightwpm]

sorry captain! huh, no secrets here. Ide hdd. my apologies for a lapse in my mind. Well I have been busy, took 250hd installed in my pc. for some reason device manager recognized, and disk management did not, I had planed to format in MC. So I used western digital tools. If writing zeros to hard drive is the same as format, I am putting it back in new pc to install windows 7.

 

[SNGX1275]

What is step 2?

Win 7 should have drivers for everything up through about a couple months ago, so you shouldn't be needing to load any 3rd party drivers during setup at all.

Win 7 (and pretty much all windows setup disks) will wipe the partitions and format the drive no matter what weird things the drive has had done to it.

 

[captaincranky]

OK, if this IDE drive was in a machine as a "backup" it is probably jumpered as a "slave". This means you should change it to master, before you try anything else. Then make sure you have it connected to the furthest plug from the motherboard on the IDE cable. (master position). Please make sure that the cables are plugged in all the way.

Your boot menu should be set with the DVD drive first, then the HDD in question as the second boot device.

Boot into the BIOS and look around to make certain the drive is detected. Actually you should be able to see that in the BIOS crawl, but savor the experience anyway.

 

[eightwpm]

sngx1275 & captain, first I was hoping that 7 was going to format, this was not the case. captain, all done as your advice. What I get now is dvd driver needs to be installed. I have gone to lite-on and my optical drive not listed. ihas124 y bought from newegg oem. I know the deal buying oem, just thought the driver would be on internet. Ok I was wrong. This is where I am at. I have searched techspot also.

 

[captaincranky]

sngx1275 & captain, first I was hoping that 7 was going to format, this was not the case. captain, all done as your advice. What I get now is dvd driver needs to be installed. I have gone to lite-on and my optical drive not listed. ihas124 y bought from newegg oem. I know the deal buying oem, just thought the driver would be on internet. Ok I was wrong. This is where I am at. I have searched techspot also.

The drivers for >>>IDE << optical drives are installed by the OS. Optical disc drivers are generic, and should be supplied by M$. I've never had to install a driver for an ODD, but I can't say it's never going to happen.

There is one thing, if this is a >>SATA <<< Optical drive, Win 7 may be asking for SATA drivers for that...! (These drivers would also run SATA HDDs in SATA mode) You can still go into BIOS and change the SATA setting to IDE, and the OS should move along happily after that.

If indeed the OS is asking for SATA drivers for the ODD, those drivers would be associated with the motherboard SATA controller, and therefore would be at the board manufacturers site, not the ODD maker.

If it turns out that you DVD drive is SATA, once you switch the board to IDE mode, all future SATA devices installed willo become plug and play.

For now, see if you can find the manual for your board on the web. You need to familiarize yourself with BIOS a bit, before we can communicate effectively. It can't hurt

 

[eightwpm]

Communicate, to impart knowledge of... thank you for your time captain, Your on to something here. went into bios, settings for cmos features. In IDE channel master(where hdd is connected), and second IDE master (where dvd is connected) . Now in the sub menu for the hdd, I press enter, and it is detected(shows on screen). when I do this for the dvd(second master setting) and press enter it does not show name of drive as it did for the first one. Also checked in sata configuration you mentioned and the there was no option for IDE.

 

[captaincranky]

Again, you have failed to tell me what type of ODD this drive is. Is it IDE (80 wire ribbon cable, (the same as your HDD), or is it SATA, a different, much smaller wire?

If it's IDE try jumpering the DVD drive as a slave, and hooking it onto the same cable as the HDD. Here again, can't hurt to give that a shot.

This would also check for a bad cable if you're currently using 2, one on each drive.

If your DVD is IDE, the SATA driver or SATA board mode is moot. That would only affect anything plugged into the board's SATA sockets. Different BIOSes call IDE mode for SATA different things. In some cases, there would be a setting called "auto" which would place the drives into the correct mode for the current configuration. That probably sounds like double talk, but it's not. When auto detect only finds one SATA HDD it will default run the drive in IDE mode. (Again this may be moot here, just FYI).

Just check the DVD drive's web site to find out the correct position for the jumper for master or slave.

The IDE "ribbon" cable plugs can be a b**** to seat, so try another one of those if you have a spare. I had to throw out a "brand new" one that came with a mobo recently