Can't load windows XP on new hard drive

[Raydee]

When I try to reload windows on my new Hard drive it loads it and then wants to start the re- loading process again and again. When I format the drive I am seeing this.
305243mb Disk 0 at ID 0 on Bus 0 on Atapi (mbr)
Is that normal?

[Train]

Last time that happened to me, I DBANed the drive with the default 3 passes and it installed OK after that.


http://www.dban.org/

[Raydee]

Was that even on a brand new hard drive? I have loaded windows plenty of times in the past without a hitch but this is a first for me.

[Midknyte]

Could you provide specs like make/model of the drive and motherboard?

Is it SATA or IDE? If SATA, did you enable IDE compatibility mode?

[SuperSparks]

You sometimes need to install the SATA drivers during Windows Setup, depending on the motherboard. You'll need to put the drivers on a floppy disk, then almost as soon as Setup starts, at the bottom you should see a message about installing SCSI drivers - press F6 at that point. Setup will then tell you when it wants the floppy, and after that it will see the drive and you can partition and format it.

[Raydee]

It is a older HP computer and the hard drive is a Western Digital WD Caviar SE EIDE hard drive. The computer is a co-workers and he asked me if I could install the new drive that he bought and format it for him. Of course I said
"that is no problem" well I guess it is.

[SuperSparks]

OK, in that case go into the BIOS Setup and see what that has to say about the drive in there. The reference to Atapi makes me think that the BIOS is confusing it with an optical drive.

[bugspop1]

It would also help more if you could give us more spec. than just "it's an older HP". Depending on how old the comuter is it may have a limit of Hard Drive size that you can use and you may have to Partition the drive.

I do agree with SuperSparks about it saying Atapi having to do with the Optical Drives.

[Raydee]

I will get a better look at the PC tomorrow but I think it was a Pavillion 500. I also tryed to format a 60gb hard drive that I had laying around and it does the same thing.

[wolfgang_Iasusn]

I have had this happen on several HP machines. What I generally do is take the drive and install it in another machine, boot the machine and then go to MyComputer-> right click and choose manage. From there choose "Disk Management" and select the disk you need to format. Remove "ALL" partitions and create one logical drive. Format the drive, remove drive, put it in the other machine install Windows and you should be good to go.
The problem is in the master boot record, if I'm lazy I just throw in a Linux install and use the boot loader from Linux.
Don't forget to change BIOS so that the bad HD isn't the one to try and boot.

[bugspop1]

Raydee,
I had to look back on Windows XP instructions to make sure but seeing 305243mb Disk 0 at ID 0 on Bus 0 on Atapi (MBR) is normal. Your computer will restart and you will see instructions saying "Press any key to Boot from CD" at this time DON'T press any keys! I'm betting after you see this message your pressing a key to boot from the CD which will start the install all over again.
Anyway here is a link with step by step instructions on installing WinXP:
http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=3930

[Shinma]

... hard drive is a Western Digital WD Caviar SE EIDE ...

Double check jumpers on the HDD
and
Check jumpers of other drive if HDD is sharing the IDE cable.

[Raydee]

Bugspop1, I have left the computer alone after wiping the new hard drive, formatting the new partition and going through the whole setup process but after the computer restarts it automatically going into the setup all over again without me pressing any keys. I wonder if I remove the Windows CD after the setup process and let it sit at the black screen if it will eventually startup?

Shinma
I tried the jumper on the HDD on CS and Master, it is the only drive on the primary IDE cable.

[photolady]

This is a Western Digital drive and the only one on the cable, correct?

Remove the jumper altogether. For every WD drive I've ever owned, which is still what I use today, has the setting that there is no jumper needed when it's the only drive on the cable.

[Train]