reaperjim Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 I am having the following problems, and desperately need help:1) My CD Rom shows and works in Windows and shows in BIOS but the preboot environment cant read it, preventing me from doing a fresh install, and it also wont open empty discs (it says "cant read drive D").2) My Floppy shows in Windows but wont read floppy discs, which it says they are not inserted when they are. I cant install Windows from floppy boot, therefore.I need a workaround to doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro. I have 2 hard drives (Seagate 40MB and a new WDC800JB) and Partition Magic 8.0. Can I transfer my essential files and XP Pro to my WDC800JB, switch master/slave configuration (making the new drive with XP master, be first to boot) format the old hard drive, then transfer all my old files (but not XP) back to the old hard drive after it has been formatted. Will this work, or can anyone suggest a reason why the above two problems are occuring (all cables and jumpers are in the right place)? Help is very much appreciated...JimMy specs from SiSoft Sandra are:ProcessorModel : Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.80GHzSpeed : 2.80GHzPerformance Rating : PR3723 (estimated)SMT Support : 2 Unit(s)Type : StandardL2 On-board Cache : 512kB ECC Synchronous ATC (8-way sectored, 64 byte line size)MainboardBus(es) : ISA AGP PCI IMB USB i2c/SMBusMP Support : 1 CPU(s)MP APIC : YesSystem BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. 080009Mainboard : ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P4P800SETotal Memory : 1023MB DDR-SDRAMChipset 1Model : ASUSTeK Computer Inc 82865G/PE/P, 82848P DRAM Controller / Host-Hub InterfaceFront Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz data rate)Total Memory : 1024MB DDR-SDRAMMemory Bus Speed : 2x 200MHz (400MHz data rate)Video SystemMonitor/Panel : Plug and Play MonitorAdapter : RADEON 9800 PRO Adapter : RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary Physical Storage DevicesRemovable Drive : Floppy disk driveHard Disk : ST340810A (37.3GB)Hard Disk : WDC WD800JB-00FMA0 (74.5GB)CD-ROM/DVD : LITE-ON COMBO LTC-48161H (CD 48X Rd, 48X Wr) (DVD 6X Rd)Logical Storage Devices1.44MB 3.5" (A:) : N/AHard Disk (C:) : 37.3GB (24.7GB, 66% Free) (NTFS)Doom3_1 (D:) : 467MB (0MB, 0% Free) (CDFS)Hard Disk (E:) : 74.5GB (61.1GB, 82% Free) (NTFS)PeripheralsSerial/Parallel Port(s) : 2 COM / 0 LPTUSB Controller/Hub : Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2USB Controller/Hub : Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4USB Controller/Hub : Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7USB Controller/Hub : Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host ControllerUSB Controller/Hub : Intel® 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DEUSB Controller/Hub : USB Root HubUSB Controller/Hub : USB Root HubUSB Controller/Hub : USB Root HubUSB Controller/Hub : USB Root HubUSB Controller/Hub : USB Root HubUSB Controller/Hub : USB Printing SupportKeyboard : Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 KeyboardMouse : Microsoft PS/2 MouseMultiMedia Device(s)Device : Creative SB AudigyDevice : Creative Game PortPrinters and FaxesModel : Microsoft Office Document Image WriterModel : EPSON Stylus Photo 830U SeriesOperating System(s)Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 1)Network ServicesNetwork Drivers Enabled : YesAdapter : Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter, Copper RJ-45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madboy33 Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 OkGo in BIOS and set the CD-ROM as first bootNow restart the computer,leave the XP disc in driveYou will see a note at the bottom to hit any key to boot from CD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 WELCOME to the forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaperjim Posted August 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 Already done that mate, but the pre boot environment (which I think is motherboard based) wont read the CDrom. I wonder why... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 1.44MB 3.5" (A:) : N/ALooks like your floppy is either not being found (bad connection) or is damaged.here is a link for downloads for your motherboard. You may want to try upgrading BIOS. You should be able to boot from CD. I've not seen any reasons why you cannot.You are not even able to boot from a windows 98 bootdisk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaperjim Posted August 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 OK, I have found my floppy problem (a pin was bent) and fixed it. Now the bootable floppies fire up the boot procedure and the system tells me it is inspecting my hardware configuration, but thats all it does... it then just sits there and does nothing. I waited for ten minutes and cancelled the procedure. CD Rom still also wont boot. I did have an idea for a workaround, but need some advice on it.Can I shift the entire contents of my old hard drive to my new one, format my old one, then transfer everything I want on the old hard disk back to the old hard disk (anything not to do with gaming and the paging system)? Is this do-able and what do I need to change anything to NTFS or FAT32 for any of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted August 9, 2004 Report Share Posted August 9, 2004 There is disk cloning software.Why don't you install windows on the new drive, back everything you need up, then install windows on the old drive again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.