KJatl
09-01-2006, 06:54 AM
I appologize for the long post but I'm trying to be as thorough and accurate in the re-telling of events as possible.
Specs in sig.
HD's: 2x WD SATA and 1 Seagate 320gb SATA II / 16mb
Install #1: Put Windows XP Pro (No SPs) cd in drive, booted from cd, inserted Serial ATA driver floppy when needed, made 2 partitions on the 320gb, a 30GB for windows and a 200gb to serve as the "Program Files" folder/drive. Left the remaining space unformated for the time being. Proceeded to install windows on the 30gb partition. Setup constantly couldn't find files on the CD, I had to clean it, re-insert it, windows would proceed for a few seconds, then be unable to find another needed file. After about 5 times, I gave up. The XP CD was badly scratched and I think it had run its course.
Install #2: Attained a XP Pro SP2 cd. Did not need to use SATA driver floppy. Proceeded to install windows, everything works fine. I install motherboard drivers, nvidia drivers, games, benchmarking apps, etc, etc. All is good. Then I put in my samsung widescreen lcd driver cd and (!?!). My dvd-rw drive dissappears from 'My Computer'. I check hardware manager device list, nothing. No unknown devices either. I go to manually install it and I don't even have the option of installing any optical drives. After rebooting and a few more trouble-shooting steps, I decide it was a freak occurance and re-isntall.
Install #3: Re-format the 30gb partition and re-install windows with the SP2 cd. Everything is fine. Re-install motherboard and display drivers, reboot, put in the Samsung driver cd, double-click My Computer and NO DVD-RW DRIVE. I *know* this drive works because I just installed windows with it! I turn off the computer. Check IDE cable connection. Everything is plugged in fine, but just to be sure I swap out the IDE cable. Reboot. Still no DVD-RW drive in windows NOR is there even any CD-ROM/DVD-ROM option in the list of hardware to manually install. No unknown devices in the control panel. No sign of the drive at all.
Later I find this while researching the issue:
From the MS Support site: "CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive appears to be missing after you install Windows XP or Windows Vista Beta 2"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553
When I get home from work, I turn on the computer and get 'HAL.dll file missing' after POST. I reboot, same thing. I insert the XP SP2 cd and set cdrom as primary boot device, and this time I get NTLDR missing. Sweet. :banana:
Install #4: Again using XP SP2 cd, I go to re-install windows. When I get to the format/partition options I go to delete the 30GB partition. Then, I try to install windows on that same partition and it says Windows will need to setup some files/settings on one of my WD SATA drives to continue installing on the
30gb partition of my Seagate drive. WHAT!? I quit the installation, unplug my
2 WD SATA drives, and once again install windows. Now on the format/partition screen there is an 8mb partition before the 30gb partition. I install windows on the 30gb, and when setup is complete and I login to windows this is the outcome: the main windows partition is labeled as D:, the 200gb partition (which still has programs and games installed being carried over through these various installations) is labeled as C:, AND it has the boot.ini, NTLDR, etc. on it.
When I do Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc, I cannot change the letters of the C: or D: partitions; as they both seem to be recognized as boot/system partitions.
The 30gb windows D: drive does NOT have boot.ini or the other system files normally found on the windows drive. I also ran chckdsk and another HD diagnosis tool that checked each 'block' of the HD and both came up fine. I ran prime 95 stable overnight as well. Just covering the bases...
I'm confused and utterly frustrated. I'm currently at work with the computer still running back at the house; I'm afraid to reboot. I've resorted to getting a 'Student Version' of XP SP2 and will try that when I get home. But seriously...wtf? :cussing:
Specs in sig.
HD's: 2x WD SATA and 1 Seagate 320gb SATA II / 16mb
Install #1: Put Windows XP Pro (No SPs) cd in drive, booted from cd, inserted Serial ATA driver floppy when needed, made 2 partitions on the 320gb, a 30GB for windows and a 200gb to serve as the "Program Files" folder/drive. Left the remaining space unformated for the time being. Proceeded to install windows on the 30gb partition. Setup constantly couldn't find files on the CD, I had to clean it, re-insert it, windows would proceed for a few seconds, then be unable to find another needed file. After about 5 times, I gave up. The XP CD was badly scratched and I think it had run its course.
Install #2: Attained a XP Pro SP2 cd. Did not need to use SATA driver floppy. Proceeded to install windows, everything works fine. I install motherboard drivers, nvidia drivers, games, benchmarking apps, etc, etc. All is good. Then I put in my samsung widescreen lcd driver cd and (!?!). My dvd-rw drive dissappears from 'My Computer'. I check hardware manager device list, nothing. No unknown devices either. I go to manually install it and I don't even have the option of installing any optical drives. After rebooting and a few more trouble-shooting steps, I decide it was a freak occurance and re-isntall.
Install #3: Re-format the 30gb partition and re-install windows with the SP2 cd. Everything is fine. Re-install motherboard and display drivers, reboot, put in the Samsung driver cd, double-click My Computer and NO DVD-RW DRIVE. I *know* this drive works because I just installed windows with it! I turn off the computer. Check IDE cable connection. Everything is plugged in fine, but just to be sure I swap out the IDE cable. Reboot. Still no DVD-RW drive in windows NOR is there even any CD-ROM/DVD-ROM option in the list of hardware to manually install. No unknown devices in the control panel. No sign of the drive at all.
Later I find this while researching the issue:
From the MS Support site: "CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive appears to be missing after you install Windows XP or Windows Vista Beta 2"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553
When I get home from work, I turn on the computer and get 'HAL.dll file missing' after POST. I reboot, same thing. I insert the XP SP2 cd and set cdrom as primary boot device, and this time I get NTLDR missing. Sweet. :banana:
Install #4: Again using XP SP2 cd, I go to re-install windows. When I get to the format/partition options I go to delete the 30GB partition. Then, I try to install windows on that same partition and it says Windows will need to setup some files/settings on one of my WD SATA drives to continue installing on the
30gb partition of my Seagate drive. WHAT!? I quit the installation, unplug my
2 WD SATA drives, and once again install windows. Now on the format/partition screen there is an 8mb partition before the 30gb partition. I install windows on the 30gb, and when setup is complete and I login to windows this is the outcome: the main windows partition is labeled as D:, the 200gb partition (which still has programs and games installed being carried over through these various installations) is labeled as C:, AND it has the boot.ini, NTLDR, etc. on it.
When I do Start, Run, diskmgmt.msc, I cannot change the letters of the C: or D: partitions; as they both seem to be recognized as boot/system partitions.
The 30gb windows D: drive does NOT have boot.ini or the other system files normally found on the windows drive. I also ran chckdsk and another HD diagnosis tool that checked each 'block' of the HD and both came up fine. I ran prime 95 stable overnight as well. Just covering the bases...
I'm confused and utterly frustrated. I'm currently at work with the computer still running back at the house; I'm afraid to reboot. I've resorted to getting a 'Student Version' of XP SP2 and will try that when I get home. But seriously...wtf? :cussing: