Windows installation doesn't start

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Hello everyone. This is my first post here and I hope that someone can help me.

Long story short. Computer spec:
cpu: AMD X2 4400
mobo: Abit KN8 SLI
mem: 2 x 512MB Corsair value select
hd: 2 x Samsung spinpoint 200Gb SataII
os: Dual boot with GRUB WinXP Pro SP2 and Kubuntu Dapper

I've always had trouble running bittorrent software on this computer. It will always give a BSOD. Either BAD_POOL_HEADER or DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

The last thing I tried was to update the mobo BIOS (and that seemed to fix it). There are som other issues as well so I decided to do a reinstall of windows and Ubuntu.

But. When I try to boot from the windows xp cd the installation program doesn't start. It just hangs with a black screen before the installation program starts. I've tried the cd in another computer and it works fine. The computer will however boot from the kubuntu and ubuntu cd.

Before I updated the BIOS my harddrives was displayed as IDE ATA 133 during post. Now they are displayed as SATAII.

Please help me.
 
Hi

I think the answer to this is that you need to tell XP at setup you are using a SATA drive and load the drivers for it, there is a point in the install (blue screen) where it says press F6 to load....

Might be wrong though, never used SATA..

Regards
 
Hi again, sorry for the delay.

The strange thing is that I've managed to install XP on this computer twice without pressing F6 during the install. But that was before I updated the BIOS. However, the problem started before I had a chance to press F6, since the installation didn't start.

I've acctually solved the problem now and this is how I did it. It might be the solution for others experiencing the same problem. I did a reformat of C: but the installation still wouldn't start. So I wiped the disk completely and then tried to boot from the win xp CD. This acctually solved it so methinks the MBR had something to do with it.

The installation loaded all drivers and then it stopped claiming it could not find any hard drives in the computer. Thats weird. The only thing I've changed is the version of the BIOS. So if the BIOS "thinks" it has two IDE drives connected, which in reality are two SATA2 drives, it will tell the installation program this. Windows installation program will believe this and install windows fine. If the BIOS "says" it has tvo SATA2 drives connected windows installation program will halt claiming there are no drives in the computer and abort installation process.

Since I have no floppy drive I had to make a slipstreamed cd with integrated sata drivers. I used a program called nLite and it worked like a charm.

Now I hope this will help some one.
 
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