Is my HDD screwed up?

[irishdude]

New computer is set up. It booted on the first try and I was able to get to the BIOS and run the GIGABYTE Utility CD, everything was fine. All RAM detected, had to switch my multiplier from 8 to 8.5x to get my 2.83ghz that i paid for (hoping i don't have to change anything else by doing that, because i didn't. 2.83ghz should be stock).

so anyway, i have 2 harddrives. one new WD 640gb, and one old, IDE WD 80gb drive, which is full. both were detected on the BIOS. i was trying to install Windows XP. apparently on my hold harddrive, even though it said i had like 10gb free, i only had room for like 8mb and 60mb partitions. On my new harddrive, it has Partition 1 which is the full size, and then "Unpartitioned 10000mb". Partition 1 had to be formatted apparently, so I go through a quick format AND a long format, and both times I get the error message:

"The setup was unable to format the petition. The disk may be damaged. Make sure the drive is properly switched on and connected. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult the manual for more info."

so i'm pretty sure it's connected (power cable connected, SATA cable connected) and i might try replacing the SATA wire just as a troubleshooting thing, but i don't see why that would be the problem. don't know what they mean by "switched on". and idk what SCSI is <_<.

sorry for the long read, but what's going on?

 

[Nik_I]

sounds to me like the partition table is messed up. i had a similar problem with partitions on my hard drive. i used a seagate disk utility (cant remember the name) to reset the partition table and now it's fine. check western digital's website to see if they have a utility for something like that and try using it.

 

[irishdude]

ok thanks!

i also was suggested that Windows XP doesn't natively support SATA, so I may need to install drivers for it.

 

[irishdude]

Just found out I already installed the drivers with my Mobo's Utility CD. Maybe I should try to reinstall as a troubleshoot?

 

[fleakiller]

What do you have the drive set at IE witch is master and slave??

 

[irishdude]

i have 3 drives, 1 CD, and 2 HDDs, all set at Master. CD drive is channel 2, 640gb is channel 3, and 80gb is channel 4.

 

[fleakiller]

so anyway, i have 2 hard drives. one new WD 640gb, and one old, IDE WD 80gb drive, which is full ( one of these two drives need to be set at primary and one set to secondary or master/slave)

 

[irishdude]

640gb primary; 80gb secondary. but i don't know how lol

 

[irishdude]

ok so what i did was disconnect the 80gb HDD altogether. in the BIOS, the 80GB is obviously gone and now the 640GB was set to slave. I don't know if that effects anything (as opposed from it being Master) but I'll give it a shot now.

 

[irishdude]

nope, same results. should i try to set it to Master or something?

i have a feeling it's either messed up somehow or i'm missing something important >_>

 

[DXRick]

Win XP (even the first pre-SP1 version) can be installed on a SATA drive. I did it.

You cannot create a new partition on the 80G drive using Windows. You need a program, like Partition Magic, to create the partition, because it can move files from the new partition to the old one. Windows can't do that.

The new 640G drive should have come un-partitioned. You should have the Windows installer partition it for you and then format it.

I recommend that you partition and format the new drive and install Windows on it, instead of trying to do this on the old drive.

 

[irishdude]

i'm not trying to install Windows on it, the 80gb is just for storage of files. The OS can go on the new 640gb one.

Quick question, does it matter what is slave and what is master, really?

 

[DXRick]

i'm not trying to install Windows on it, the 80gb is just for storage of files. The OS can go on the new 640gb one.

Quick question, does it matter what is slave and what is master, really?

No. They should both be set to master. One is SATA and the other is IDE. They are on different controllers.

 

[irishdude]

ok, they both are. and the CD Drive is set to Slave >_>. I can easily set it back to master though, now that i figure out i have 2 different wires for both.

Anyway, I'm going to try one more time, and if it doesn't work, i'm goign to delete the current partition (C on the new HD. since i've never used it yet, i'm assuming i have nothing saved on there that i need unless the BIOS saved something. despite the installer's warnings about deleted wanted files, i don't think i have any

 

[irishdude]

Wowww, THANK YOU. I deleted the C: partition and started a new one, and it started installing. Thank you all SO MUCH for all your time and help.