Installing XP with problems...

[PHATMAN5050]

I tried to install Winxp Pro on my friends computer. He has a PIII 450mhz computer with 128mb of ram. Yes I know its not very good. I ran the 6 boot disks but when it restarted to install it came back with a BSOD with UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME. What is this about?

 

[iss]

I have installed XP on 400 mhz celerons with 128MB of ram with no problem. why are you using bootdisks? just boot from the CD. you may have to go into the bios and set the CD rom as first boot device but after that you should be able to boot from the CD once you do delete the partition you created with the bootdisks create a new partition and format it. all of it can be done off the CD.

 

[Rick]

UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME is an error commonly given with the installer not understanding how to properly mount a hard disk.

This can be because of a corrupted file system or bad IDE cable, but most likely caused by an integrated/add-on UDMA 66/100/133 controller.

I know the 400Mhz is a slot-1 and if it is a slot-1, that means the chipset for the motherboard is probably BX.

BX chipsets had no native support for UDMA.. Just regular IDE channels. So some board manufacturer's began installing integrated UDMA controllers. Windows XP does not properly recognize all of these and has the same problem as you mentioned.

A solution would be to make sure your primary disk drive is placed on the standard IDE channel, and not the integraded/add-on UDMA controller. Windows XP should have no problems with a standard IDE controller.

If this does not solve it, try switching cables.

If that does not help, then the last resort might be to change IDE channels (one may be damaged) or to try another hard disk in case yours has somehow failed. Also, you may want to freshly format the volume before installation (if you are presented with that option). Chances are, it is freezing on the "Starting up Windows XP installation" screen, right?

 

[PHATMAN5050]

iss- the boot from cd-rom did not work, hence the use of floppy disks.

rick-when you say 'add-on UDMA controller' what do you mean? He has 2 IDE ports on his motherboard. On the first one I have both of his hard drives and on his second I have both of his cdroms. It is setup like this because I cannot find a cable that will reach from one cdrom to one hard drive to keep them on different channels.

 

[Justin]

Originally posted by PHATMAN5050
I tried to install Winxp Pro on my friends computer. He has a PIII 450mhz computer with 128mb of ram. Yes I know its not very good. I ran the 6 boot disks but when it restarted to install it came back with a BSOD with UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME. What is this about?

Did he have an OS on it before? OR was the hdd blank?

 

[vassil3427]

Here's an idea if you really run out of other ones, just hook the HDD up to another computer, install Windows Xp, transfer the Hard Drive Back, and there ya go, it should work just fine....Windows XP seems to be very good about this, it removes all the drivers from the other hardware(previous pc) and installs new ones for the new system. I've had to do this once before when a friends computer refused to let us install, and its worked just fine for him:grinthumb

 

[Rick]

If he only has 2 channels, then they are probably both regular IDE.. Which means the problem I mentioned shouldn't apply.

Integrated UDMA channels are usually identified by a different color than the traditional black IDE channel... SO if one of your IDE channels is a different color, it is still possible - IDE usually comes in pairs though.

By add-on and integrated UDMA controllers, I mean ATA/66/100/133+ capable IDE channels.. The kind that show up as "mass storage device" in device manager. Add-on would mean PCI card, and integrated in this case would mean built into the motherboard.

 

[PHATMAN5050]

Nope, nothing like that. Both channels are black, which made it a little difficult deciphering between IDE1 and IDE2. The OS was put onto a brand new and newly formatted Western Digital 40gig hard drive (WD400) which is the same one I have in my computer. I don't quite understand why we had this problem.

 

[Didou]

Some old boards do not support HDDS above 8.4GB.

 

[PHATMAN5050]

The hd worked fine in 98 as a slave. Do you think the NTFS file system had something to do with it?

 

[Rick]

I don't see why NTFS would make a difference over FAT. The hardware itself has very little to do with the filesystem and Windows XP understands both, so there shouldn't be a problem.

Perhaps you should try running chkdsk (Recovery console) or scandisk (Windows 98) and check for errors on the volume.

 

[NyghtOwl]

hmmm DONT DO THE XP install on another box LMAO

hehe
this is the quickest way to an XP BSOD. The MoBo is one of the FEW PARTS that will force windows to re-activate. (ya know? one of the 3 times a year thingummys we were bullsh***ed about so much 'oooh no dont change yr gfx card! winXP will puke on ya).

DONT do that approach. It used to work in win98. but NOT with XP

btw. whoever posted the 'set the drive on the other controller' answer was pretty close to solving this on a box I'm workin on...TY DUDE!

What I actually did was put it on its OWN controller. and put the 2 optical drvs on the other ribbon.

*sigh* win2k better than xp? YOR AVVIN A LARF MY SAN!