Need Help Installing XP (Hard Drive Issue)

[Ranana_type]

I have a hard drive that I can not install Windows XP on. Windows 98 installs fine but XP will not. What the hell could be the issue?

[tim]

I have a hard drive that I can not install Windows XP on. Windows 98 installs fine but XP will not. What the hell could be the issue?

No idea. Delete the partitions, create new ones, and format them NTFS and try again.

[tim]

The issue could be more to do with the windows installer than the hard drive, perhaps. How old is your PC? What is it?

[Tdragone]

I have a hard drive that I can not install Windows XP on. Windows 98 installs fine but XP will not. What the hell could be the issue?


Without knowing exactly what the problem is (do you get ANY error messages at ANY time?)

Is it a SATA or IDE hard drive?
If it's IDE.. make sure you use a 40 connector cable to load windows. Once it's loaded you can switch to an 80 pin. I've had issues with this a few times on motherboards in the past.
If it's SATA.. Check the SATA port 'type' in BIOS. If it's AHCI change it to COmpatibility mode.

[stsva]

As a follow-up to Tdragone's questions, if you have an SATA drive installing XP can really be a pain. After trying all the suggestions I could find through Google, none of which worked to get XP installed, I finally gave up and re-built my computer for a Vista install.

[tim]

I installed XP on a SATA drive. I just had to go into the bios and configure it to show drives as IDE instead of as ACHI. ACHI is theoretically faster, but from what I read IDE is only very slightly slower but it's more compatible.

[gcogger]

I've installed XP on numerous machines using SATA drives, and never had a problem. As others have said, just make sure you use compatibility mode in the BIOS and not AHCI.

[I26]

I have overcome this many ways. You could try installing the harddrive into a spare pc, loading the windows install files to the drive and then putting it into the new machine and run setup straight from the harddrive, bypassing the need for a cd.
I have also had alot of luck installing windows XP over a network. The trick is to find drivers for your NICs that will load/run in DOS so you can make the connection. Pretty easy to do but can take a good bit of time based on the connections capabilities.

[NinetyEight]

If you have an SATA drive you will probably need to have an XP disc with integrated Service Pack one, or install the SATA drivers at the beginning of the install (press F6 at some stage when prompted if I remember correctly??)

[tim]

If you have an SATA drive you will probably need to have an XP disc with integrated Service Pack one, or install the SATA drivers at the beginning of the install (press F6 at some stage when prompted if I remember correctly??)

The solution is this...

I've installed XP on numerous machines using SATA drives, and never had a problem. As others have said, just make sure you use compatibility mode in the BIOS and not AHCI.


But once you've done that you can't go back to AHCI. Fortunately you don't need to.