Formatting HD for XP Pro ?

[georgencopy]

What do I need to do to my new 250 gb HDD to get Windows XP Pro loaded onto it?
I'm having trouble getting a format and partitions to stick.
Thanks.

shuttle sn45g v2
athlon xp 2700
1 gb corsair twinx 3200
250 gb hitachi
ati radeon 2700

 

[dmroeder]

You should be able to format it during the windows installation. Could you describe the problem that you were having in some detail? What were the steps you went through to format it?

 

[_WW_]

Are you using a installation CD without SP1? If so it does not support HDDs that size.

....WW (5.0)

 

[georgencopy]

Although my shuttle mobo manual says to format the drive with a floppy first, I didn't think there would be a problem since windows xp sp2 gives you formatting options on install.
When I stuck the windows xp pro sp2 cd in it gave me formatting options.
I alloted 20 gb for the system, and broke the rest into two 70 gb partitions, a fifty, and whatever was left over to make up 238,456 (if I remember correctly).
I hit enter and got a bsod stop error.
The computer wouldn't post when I restarted.
I tried reformatting the drive with my partition magic rescue disk floppies then continuing install from the windows cd.
After four failed attempts (blue screen stop errors) here I am.

 

[riser]

Just make a partition and leave the rest unformated. You can format it after you get everything updated in Windows. That should allow it to install unless you have a bad HDD.
If you don't go to SP2 in XP, you can do a reghack that will allow you to use that hard drive.

Riser

ps - Gateway has this program called GWScan.exe that will go through and write actual 0s to your HDD and do a scan to make sure the drive isn't defective. You might want to write the 0s, then try formatting. The writing of 0s will take a few hours because of the size of the drive.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by riser on 03/18/05 03:15 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[georgencopy]

Turns out it was the RAM.
I replaced my crucial RAM with samsung RAM and that solved it.
Format and OS install went flawlessly after.
I offer this up to anybody else who installs and uninstalls and reinstalls and formats and unformats and plugs and unplugs and still gets hit with random blue screens.
Go to your favorite memory seller, run through their configurator, then buy that RAM.