what software goes on first

[deerhunter721]

I just built my computer and i am ready to plug her up and fire her up. what I would like to know is what software do i install first. my windows XP or the drivers that came with the motherboard or do i have to load the lifeguard cd that came with my new WD hard drive. If my harddrive is'nt formatted i can't load windows. just remember everything is new so where do i start first.
thanks, :? [/b]

 

[purelithium]

Yep, Windows will let you format your hard drive.

 

[deerhunter721]

i put my windows cd in and booted it up. windows stated i did;nt have a hard drive connected and would not go past that point i check my bois and it shows i have no hard drive either so i ran the WD hard drive software but it would not do anything either. what do i do???
:?

 

[deerhunter721]

i put my windows cd in and booted it up. windows stated i did;nt have a hard drive connected and would not go past that point i check my bois and it shows i have no hard drive either so i ran the WD hard drive software but it would not do anything either. what do i do???
:?

 

[purelithium]

Check all your connections. Make sure you have the hard drive connected, and have a power cable plugged in. Even if they are plugged in, unplug and plug them back in, making certain that they are firmly seated. If this doesn't work, try the hard drive in a different computer. If that doesn't work, call Western Digital and ask for a replacement.

 

[crazywheels]

it is possible that you hvae a bad hard drive. check all your connections again. you really can't do anyhting until you install the OS. the OS does have all of the basic drivers so you can get everything up and running and then you install the manufactures drivers. but if you are having trouble witht the hard drive try a different if you are still have problems reset your cmos by taking out your cmos battery for a minute or 2 put it back in. Hopefully that solves your problem

 

[deerhunter721]

i have an old computer in the basement. i will steal the hard drive out of that one and put it in my system. it should have an OS allready on it and if its not XP i can upgrade it. install mt drivers on that hard drive and if all that works go back to office max and get a replacement for the bad one and make that a drive of its own. does this sound like a plan to you?
:?

 

[crazywheels]

yeah try it and see if the bios recognizes it, but you will probably get the blue screen of death though if you try to boot the computer with a different hard drive from a different pc. yeah just see if the bios recognizes it.

 

[purelithium]

No, I meant take the hard drive that your computer doesn't see out and try it in the old system.

 

[pcrig]

i put my windows cd in and booted it up. windows stated i did'nt have a hard drive connected and would not go past that point i check my bois and it shows i have no hard drive either so i ran the WD hard drive software but it would not do anything either. what do i do???
:?

When building a rig it is usefull to boot first time from KNOPPIX on CD!

Knoppix 4.02 CD ISO

Burn CD from the image and use it!

Do you have SATA drives?

You need first load SATA / RAID drivers from floppy!

Otherwise SATA drive would not be visible when attempting to install OS and you will get message to press F3 and EXIT!

Load your MoBo CD to working PC, make floppy disks with SATA Drivers!

Than boot your PC and follow instructions installing SATA drivers (F6, than S, than ENTER until you load all drivers for SATA!)

Than partition and format hard disk drive and install OS.

Partition for OS should NOT be greater than 10 GB!

Planning Partitions

 

[crazywheels]

i am not saying that you are wrong, but i have a sata drive and i didn't have to install sata drivers from a floppy to install the OS.

 

[pcrig]

i am not saying that you are wrong, but i have a sata drive and i didn't have to install sata drivers from a floppy to install the OS.

On MoBo with nForce 4 (native RAID) you might be able to install OS but RAID SATA will NOT function properly unless the drivers are properly installed.

Been there ....

 

[purelithium]

Doesn't seem like this guy is using RAID. normal Sata operation does not require a separate driver.

 

[crazywheels]

well now that ou mentioned it, i did have to disable able raid function to recognize my one harddrive to load the OS, but i still didn't have to load any drivers and i have gigabyte K8n ultra F3 nforce4 sli ( or something like that)

 

[pcrig]

normal Sata operation does not require a separate driver.

It might also depend on BIOS and on controller itself (part of OS setrup), however in 99 % of cases you must load from floppy SATA drivers first during OS installation.

F8 / F6 / S / Enter and repeat as needed ( " S & "ENTER" to load all the drivers ) !

Yes, I had one installation where the WIN XP SP installed without SATA drivers for nForce 4, but I couldn't use that pc as I wanted.

Try to load Windows 2000, or Windows XP without service pack 2 and come back wih the results and please post them here.

I have performed over 1,111 OS installation and always needed to load SATA/RAID drivers from the floppy made using MoBo CD.

Please READ the MANUAL!

If SATA / RAID drivers are not loaded OS / BIOS will NOT recognize the SATA drive during windows 2000/XP installation.

This gould change with XP SP 2, but I am not certain at this time, as I am installing drivers religiously based on my past experience.

 

[pcrig]

well now that ou mentioned it, i did have to disable able raid function to recognize my one harddrive to load the OS, but i still didn't have to load any drivers and i have gigabyte K8n ultra F3 nforce4 sli ( or something like that)

Well ...
Let's not argue, as from my experience (with one exception of XP SP2 on nVidia 4 with preformated HD drive) windows XP does NOT see the SATA drives on RAID controllers.

Usually the SATA drives which are bot are not formated and this might something to do with ...

Unless the SATA drivers are on that drive the BIOS is NOT listing the drives and Windows would default to F3.

 

[deerhunter721]

the hard drive was bad and it was not a SATA drive, it was IDE the new hard drive works good. my os, xp pro seen it and format it. i loaded the rest of the drivers from the mo bo cd and the video card. thanks for all the help.