bobengel
asked on
Cannot Access HD & Floppy in Newly Built Desktop
I just completed building a new computer using an ASUS A7N8X MB, a new Westerd Digital HD, a stock floppy drive and a CD reader/writer. The POST operation is successful with the HD, floppy and CD drives being recognized in the BIOS. Altough BIOS is set to boot from Floppy> CD> HD order, it immediatelty goes to boot from CD drive.
I'm able to boot from the CD drive using a MS Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit disk that provides a DOS prompt from D; however, if I type A:, it responds with "device not ready" or if I type C:, it responds with "no such drive" which means the HD and floppy drives cannot be accessed. The MS disk has many tools including the Format command which I would use to format the new HD but it cannot find the HD.
I also tried booting from a WIN XP Professional CD but it halts after the initial setup and cannot continue. The error messages does not provide details.
Since POST finds and recognizes both the floppy and HD, why can't I access them?
I'm able to boot from the CD drive using a MS Windows XP OEM Preinstallation Kit disk that provides a DOS prompt from D; however, if I type A:, it responds with "device not ready" or if I type C:, it responds with "no such drive" which means the HD and floppy drives cannot be accessed. The MS disk has many tools including the Format command which I would use to format the new HD but it cannot find the HD.
I also tried booting from a WIN XP Professional CD but it halts after the initial setup and cannot continue. The error messages does not provide details.
Since POST finds and recognizes both the floppy and HD, why can't I access them?
ASKER
Problem is that the XP installation CD quits before it gets to that point. The message says that it can not proceed further. I still think the problem is that I can't access the HD even though it's recognized in the BIOS. The MS Windows Preinstallation CD has a format command but when I type "Format C", it says that the HD cannot be found. This CD provides a prompt that beings with "D" meaning that the system is recognizing A as the floppy and C as the HD. It just cannot be accessed for some reason.
Don't use the "pre-installation" CD, use the INSTALLATION CD.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Well, I rechecked connections and used the XP Installation CD again. This time, it did not stop and went on to complete the installation. When it failed the first time, I should have tried it again instead of assuming something was wrong.
Thanks all for the help. Sorry, I see that I should have split the points as I didn't notice that two persons responded before I pressed Submit. If there is a way to go back and split, I will do so.
Bob
Thanks all for the help. Sorry, I see that I should have split the points as I didn't notice that two persons responded before I pressed Submit. If there is a way to go back and split, I will do so.
Bob
1) Boot the XP installation CD.
2) Once you get into the installer it will ask you WHERE you want to install it. Tell it to CREATE and FORMAT a partition on the C: drive in the installer.
3) Continue and it should work
You need NOT boot from the floppy to installed XP.