On Nov 23, 4:48 pm, Erik Funkenbusch <e...@despam-funkenbusch.com>
wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:19:00 -0800 (PST), raylopez99 wrote:
> > Really what I'm looking for in this post is a reply by an experienced
> > installer who says: "been there, done that, it could be X,Y,Z...and
> > good luck". Morale support more than anything.
>
> I have seen the problem before. Things to check:
>
> Do you have any USB devices attached? I know, stupid question, you've
> already whittled it down, just double check. Some BIOS's can have goofy
> results with certain USB devices attached.
USB available but nothing in fact attached.
>
> Is the drive configured to be a primary master? Some bios's won't boot off
> secondary or slave drives. Also, set it to Master explicitly, don't rely
> on cable-select.
Yes. set in BIOS.
>
> Try removing the CD-Rom after the OS is installed. Just for kicks.
>
Too much bother. Jack in this thread is onto the real problem: SATA
drives cannot be used to load Windows unless you load external drivers
during the installation--you have six seconds to do so, and WIndows
before Vista does not recognize non-floppy drives! And this system
doesn't have a floppy (only a CD)! Screwed (unless you use a third
party 'slipstream' utility, see below).
> Try "resetting" the BIOS to defaults. I've seen corrupted CMOS do that.
> Also try clearing the CMOS via jumper.
Too much bother. But thanks.
>
> Try something stupid, like download a DOS boot disk from bootdisk.com.
>
I will, but this will not fix anything (perhaps). I'm almost sure of
it. You will get DOS to install, but unless you want to use DOS,
you're soon back to square one (perhaps). Recall: I do get Vista to
install, though the system hangs on reboot (I'm using Bart's PE CD to
spy on the Sata HD once the installation of Vista "hangs", and I can
see that stuff exists on the HD from Vista, including game folders
like Chess and Minesweeper, so Vista is seeing the HD and doing stuff
to it).
> Swap out the IDE cable, i've seen bad cables cause all kinds of weird
> issues. You may have to re-install because a bad pin on the cable could
> mean it never wrote the data to the right sector.
>
> If you have an older drive, even if it's ancient, try that.. just to see if
> it's the drive itself causing problems.
>
Yes, good point, I will install IDE not SATA. This is my latest
workaround. Otherwise I'd have to do all kinds of tricks including
using a third party utility to 'slipstream' the installation using a
CD with SATA drivers (which for Hitachi I'm having a hard time
finding) burned in: see:
http://weblogs.asp.net/jkey/archive/...28/423901.aspx
Verdict: installation of OSes suck, and I doubt Linux is any
better.
> If you have the ability to flash the BIOS to a later revision, try that
> too.
This bios is from this year. Not the problem.
Oh well, I didn't spend that much money so I can't complain (one-fifth
of US prices). I'll simply use the SATA HD as a secondary HD, use an
older IDE as the primary HD, and see if that works. I'll report back
my results. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.
RL