Major Hard Drive problem (originaly cause of vista... GRRR) HELP!!!!

matqc20

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Sep 11, 2008
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Hello. I have been trying stuff all night to make my computer work properly.. but now I have no more ideas/options so im asking for help.


Here are my computer's specs:

Asus striker II formula mobo
4gig ocz reaper ddr2 1066 fsb
Seagate 750gig Sata 32 megs hard drive
Evga gtx 260 graphic card
antec twelve hundred ultimate gaming case
windows vista premium 64bit
intel quad core q6600 cpu


My original problem was that I was unable to connect to the internet. I would constently get a limited connection warning when booting up the pc and the it would become local only. I tried to connect my older comp with xp, my lapto and my friends computer in the internet plug and all worked fine. I browsed the web to find a solution, and found that many vista users had the same problem. I tried multiple fixes and nothing worked. I the tryed to restore my system since last night it was working fine. This didnt change a thing. SO finally, after long hours of trying to fix this, I kind of got pissed and decided to install windows xp on my new computer. I put in the windows vista cd, formated my hard drive, then put in the windows xp cd and tried and install it. I was surprised to se I only had NTFS format for my hard drive, but decided to format it anyway. What I quickly realised is that windows xp wouldnt boot. It formatted and created the files on the HD but the installation wouldnt continue after reboot and it would just stall at a black window. So I decided to put the windows vista cd back in and try to reinstall it. I quickly realised that windows vista couldnt find my HD. I went to see in bios and it detects it just fine as a sata device. I can select to find a drive but I have to select the drivers. So I went to nvidia's web page and downloaded the nforce7 vistaX64 9.64 drivers and 9.99 drivers. Extracted them, selected the IDE/WindowsVista64/Sata_IDE file (With nvstor.inf,idecoi.dll,nvata.cat,nvide.nvu and nvstor64.sys) wich I assume is the SATA drivers for my mobo and put them on a usbkey. I then tryed to use them so windows vista would recognise my HD but it doesnt. The workbar acts as if it is loading the drivers but it then puts me back to the same page without any HD apearing. So I decided I would stick with my original idea and go back to XP. I downloaded Nlite to merge the windows xp cd with the nforce Sata drivers, made the bootable disc and then tried to install XP once again with SATA drivers.. to my great surprise this didnt work cause I didnt get the option to format in SATA, only in ntfs like before. So Now im stuck with a computer with no operating system, I cant install either xp or vista on it and I dont have a clue what to do. Can someone pls help me? Are those files really the drivers for my SATA HD? I tried using my striker II cd but vista doesnt find any Sata drivers on it to recognize my HD either. HELPP!!!!
 
G

Guest

Guest
OK

you probably don't need the SATA drivers or any HDD drivers to install XP (unless you enabled RAID in the BIOS, if you did unenable it now)
SATA just refers to the way the MB connects to the hard drive, it has nothing to do with the format used, in your case NTFS.
That you could format and install XP on the drive suggest to me the drive is working fine with your mainboard.
Question - did you delete the PARTION that vista was installed on before installing XP? or did you just format the existing partion and install XP on to that? If so try re-installing XP but delete and re-create the partion before formating and installing XP.
 

matqc20

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Sep 11, 2008
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I can see the HDD in the bios, everything in bios looks fine. Raid drivers are installed but raid is set to disabled. I did not delete the partition before installing Xp, I had formated it and installed xp on the formated partition. One thing that is weird is that the partition of the HDD that xp gives is me is like 130gig but my HDD is 750g. I will try to erace the partition and make a new one before reinstalling it and give you some feedback.
 

blackwidow_rsa

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Aug 16, 2007
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SATA isn't a file system btw it's the connection the hdd uses. NTFS is the file system and it's correct to format with it.
Reset bios by using the jumpers or by removing the cmos battery. Remove power first. Try installation again
edit: the original xp can only see 128gb, you need to install service pack 2 or 3 to be able to see the whole drive
 
G

Guest

Guest
Yup - this is probably the root of this problem, Vista would have used a partion size of ~750Gb on this drive, XP SP1 is going to have issues installing into this partion as, as Blackwidow has stated, is can only handle a partion size of 128Gb. My guess is you see the black screen at startup because of boot sector issues with XP. Delete this partion and reinstall windows XP. You will have to use the max size of 128Gb, but you can create further partions using XP's disk management tools, or use NLite to slipstream SP2/SP3 and get the full ~750Gb.
 

_minkzar

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May 16, 2009
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I have exactly the same problem! low connectivity, dropping in and out of connection. Tried to reinstallk without formatting, froze on black screen, tried wiping drive and reinstalling vista, froze on black screen, tried installing xp, error. I researched and found others with similar problems finding the cause of the failed installion is an HDD error. Have you resolved your problem?