try creating multiple partitions and load xp into one of those partitions and see if it works. i wish i were what i wished i were before i wished i were what i am now...

0

Is your Bios set to default values? I would set it to default if you have already made numerous changes without recording what you changed.

0

"I linked the motherboard in the post above. Click it and it should answer most of your questions I think. I am fairly certain it does not support 64-bit. I saw that nowhere in the settings, and I was pretty thorough.' Wrong. Your mboard supports 48bit LBA (not 64) - all newer mboards do. The fact that the bios can see the the full size of the drive confirms that. "Hey guys. The CD I am using is XP Home SP1. During the partitioning it sees the full 250GB and formats it properly." I have never seen an XP CD that has SP1 on it - I have seen only the original ones with no SP, or newer ones with SP2 - I would have to take your word for that. "I am pretty sure it's a problem with the BIOS. But I have changed sooo many settings" It's very very unlikely that anything in the bios could cause your problem. Since you probably have lost track of what you changed, go should go into the bios Setup and load Defaults to set it as it was in the first place. Your bios Setup should default to be set to detect the hard drive by the Auto method, using the Auto or LBA method. CHKDSK cannot detect everything that can be wrong with a hard drive. Download a free diagnostics utility from the maker of the hard drive's web site, execute the download to make the bootable floppy disk (or floppies), boot with the floppy, and run the diagnostics on the hard drive. If something wrong is found, other than logical errors in your operating system files, you have a defective hard drive. If there are logical errors in your operating system files, run Setup from the CD again, wiping out the existing installation. If nothing wrong is found.... Do you have the hard drive jumpered as master (or jumpered as CS and on the end connector of the data cable) and connected to the data cable on the primary IDE header on the mboard? Do you have only the 250gb hard drive installed, other than any cd drives? Did you get any read errors from the CD drive you are using while installing XP, even if it read the file correctly when you re-tried? Did you skip installing any files during Setup?

0

Do you have the partition set active ? With XP I do not know how to find out or how to set it active, others can post the how to.

0

Hey Tubesandwires... "Wrong. Your mboard supports 48bit LBA (not 64) - all newer mboards do." Wrong? I said I was pretty sure it *does not* support 64-bit. "I have never seen an XP CD that has SP1 on it..." It is SP1. It says it on the disc. Windows XP Home SP1a. "...go into the bios Setup and load Defaults..." I did that between every major change I made. I also tried changing everything seemingly relevant in one shot. No go... "Do you have the hard drive jumpered as master..." Yeah, that seems to be fine, it is detected as the master as well (0). Only the 250GB is installed. No errors from the CD (new from the package) and I've copied the files more than once (and formatted). Everything appears to go smoothly until the boot order gets to the HDD. Then it just INSTANTLY says there is a problem. It really doesn't even *try* to boot from it. It just dies right away. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

0

I took a look at your manual. In your bios Setup.... Advanced Bios Features Hard Disk Priority - should list the 250gb drive There are many ways you can do this - this should work for any situation: First Boot Device - Floppy Second Boot Device - CDRom Third Boot Device - Hard Drive (On many computers if Floppy is after CDRom, and there is no bootable CD in the CD drive, a bootable floppy will not be recognized). Delay IDE Initial - some computers boot so fast the hard drive doesn't have time to be recognized as bootable. Set this to something other than zero - shouldn't need more than 5 seconds - try 5 - if that works you can try decreasing it. My brother has a hard drive that requires this. ............. "Wrong? I said I was pretty sure it *does not* support 64-bit." - I should have explained taffyboy had the number wrong - it should have been 48bit. - pretty sure it *does not* is very close to saying you thought it doesnt support it. When you want to find out about a mboard, you don't just read a sellers ad - it probably doesn't have the complete info - you go to the mboard web site and look up your model. "It is SP1. It says it on the disc. Windows XP Home SP1a." Fine. All I said is I've never seen one. ""...go into the bios Setup and load Defaults..."" "I did that between every major change I made. I also tried changing everything seemingly relevant in one shot. No go" Okay. You didn't mention that previously. So you were using a new CD drive, and your CD is an original by the sounds of it (copies can give you problems) so both of those should be fine.

0

SO this is weird... I can't set the HDD delay to any more than 1. I hit 5, it says 1. I hit 9, it says 1. It's insane. ... I am ready to give up. Hah.

0

Hi, Did you set the Jumpers corectly? Oz "Bite off more than you can chew, And chew like hell!" Peter Brock. Yahoo Id. ozyoiy

0

Normal to set or change values in the bios, you use the arrow or page up/down keys not the number keys. If you read the display it normal tells you.

0

I'm just about out of ideas. If these are of no help, test the hard drive with the diagnostic utility. Two things to try: (Repair using the Recovery Console) Boot the XP CD. Let it load the initial bunch of the Setup files. At the end of that, you will be asked if you want to Repair Windows - signify yes, I believe by pressing the R key. You will go to a Dos like screen - that is the Recovery Console. A line will ask for a password. You have no password - just press enter. At the prompt, type: fixboot (press Enter) At the prompt, type: fixmbr (press Enter) At the prompt, type: exit (press Enter) You computer should then reboot automatically. (If it does not, press all 3 of the Alt-Ctrl-Del keys at the same time, let go, choose Shut Down from the menu that appears.) Do not boot the XP CD when it reboots - let it try to boot normally. If that fixes the boot, Setup should continue from that point. If that doesn't work, try this. Use a 40 wire data cable instead of an 80 wire one with the hard drive. The mboard should automatically slow down the hard drive to UDMA33 speed, and that may allow it to boot properly and for you to continue with Windows Setup. If that works, after Setup is finished, load the drivers for the mboard chipset from the mboard CD, then connect the drive to an 80 wire data cable again - it may boot okay after that.

0

This motherboard is such a piece of junk. I can't believe it. Either way, I tried just about EVERYTHING. The BIOS (even the latest version) is absolutely useless. I ended up actually installing XP onto a 6GB HDD and then slaving the 250GB onto that. It works now. Regardless, I'm not sure if any of you have dealt with the motherboard I described above (check for a link), but I would have to say just avoid it. I've had way more problems with it than any other mobo I have messed around with. Then again, maybe I am really missing something (although I tried nearly ALL of your suggestions). But I think not. Oh well, it works now though. Thanks so much for all of your help. I appreciate all of your time spent. =)

0

Thanks for the last post, but.... "The BIOS (even the latest version) is absolutely useless...." NEVER flash the bios unless you find specific information on the web site for your mboard model that doing so will cure a problem you are having! You are taking a big risk when you flash your bios - if the flash fails, and/or the flash chip physically fails while flashing (this is COMMON - these cheap flash chips can only be flashed an unpredictable small number of times - it can even fail the FIRST time you try), you will have a mboard that will not boot. After you flash the bios, the first time you boot you will get a "Cmos Checksum Error...." or similar message. You will either be prompted to enter the bios Setup or you will automatically go there. (Do the following even if the above doesn't apply) Enter the bios Setup, and load Bios Defaults (of any kind) - save settings, reboot. You MUST do this (or Clear the CMOS by moving a jumper on the mboard) in order for the bios update to be fully accepted by the mboard. Loading Defaults may work in situations where Clear Cmos does not help. If you have AGP video, after you flash the bios make sure your AGP video is enabled in the bios, has been assigned an IRQ, and AGP video is initialized first - if those are set to PCI, you will have no video once Windows starts to load. If you have a fairly recent model scanner or printer connected to a parallel (LPTx) port, you also need to make sure it is set to EPP, EPP/ECP, or ECP mode in the bios - usually EPP is fine - ECP mode also requires you use Add Hardware in Windows to install an ECP port if it is not already there in Device Manager.

0

Good God. Hah. I seriously had no idea that flashing the BIOS was such a massively risky procedure. I figured as long as I obtained the driver from a reliable site (the company's) I'd be safe. I'll take note of that in the future.

0

No Hah! Serious! Why else do you think it is they warn you at every mboard makers site not to flash your bios if you are not having problems? Too many use flashing the bios as a troubleshooting thing to do. 99.9% of the time it will not help at all with their problem, and they are taking an un-necessary risk. Why they don't use more reliable flash chips for the mboard bios is beyond me. It would only add a few bucks to the cost of a mboard. You can search here or all over the web and you'll find zillions of messages such as "I flashed my bios and now my computer won't boot....". More info? www.badflash.com

0