Windows XP SATA Installation Problem

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mbwilliams12

Posts: 22   +0
I’m doing a fresh install of Windows XP on a new computer. I do not have a bootable XP CD but I do have a licensed version.

In the past, I have used my Win 98 CD to boot, format a drive (FAT32), and manually kick off the WINNT.EXE from i386 on the XP CP to start the XP installation. This is SP0. The setup process then allows me to format a drive to NTFS.

The Problem:

I now have the following Motherboard and Hard Drive
Gigabyte GA-8I945GZME-RH
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

I can boot using the Win98 CD and get through the first part of the WinXP setup (where it copies the setup files to the HD). I can access the C Drive and see all of the WinXP setup files and the $WINNT$ directories. When the setup program asks to reboot from the HD – Setup starts then gives a blue screen with:

“Unmountable Boot Volume”

I’m not sure what to do next. Is this a problem with my SATA drive? Do I need to press F6 and load a SATA driver during the setup routine? If so, where do I attain this driver, because Gigabyte doesn’t seem to carry a non-RAID SATA driver? I’ve heard you can configure "native" Serial ATA controllers to emulate IDE for the Windows Setup – but I don’t know if I have “native” controllers or this option or how to proceed with doing it.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
 
During the early stages of the Windows XP setup, does it find your hard drive ?
 
After I execute WinNT.EXE the XP Setup Loads. It copies all of the Windows XP setup files to the HD. These are located in c:\$WIN_NT$.~LS and such. It then asks me to reboot and remove my boot floppy.

I do so.

This is where I expect the system to go through the finding the drive, formating, and asking me if I want NTFS. Instead I get the unmountable boot volume error.

I think this is because I need to load SATA drivers. But I don't know where they are on my MB CD or what to use.
 
Well - the problem is fixed. I had to slipstream SP2 into my XP SP0 installation CD - this also makes it bootable. Worked very well and IDed all of the new SATA drivers without the 132 GB limitation as well. Slipstreaming isn't easy - but it works.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back