Can't install any version of windows

[DanDaMan]

I have been attempting to install Windows XP Home onto a system that has a SATA hard drive with several different retail version cd's, I have tried Windows XP Home, Vista, Windows 7 about 3 to 4 Retail CD's per version and none of them will install, some make it half way through the blue screen (windows xp) setup file copying and fail to copy a certain file (always different) and some fail at cd boot before entering the setup process (mostly the vista & 7 cd's) All of these cd's work on other machines, I have replaced the CD/DVD rom with a brand new factory rom and to no avail. I have replaced the SATA Hard Drive and cabling and still the same thing. I am at a loss. The hard drive as well as ROM are being seen in the BIOS. I have changed the BIOS setting for the drive from IDE to AHCI?? I can't remember what the second is but something that starts with an A I am sure you all know what I am referring to without me looking at it right this second. I am totally confused and I haven't a clue what to do at this point. Any ideas and suggestions are GREATLY welcomed.

Thanks!

[Dencandy]

Assuming these installation disks are all genuine, have you taken it up with the organisation/person you purchased them from?

[DanDaMan]

Assuming these installation disks are all genuine, have you taken it up with the organisation/person you purchased them from?

They are all genuine and I have borrowed discs from other people just to make sure I didn't have bad ones so my guess at this point is its not the disc... i have a hard time believing 7 discs from 4 different sources are all bad. Although, this has been my luck with computers as of late lol.

[DanDaMan]

Assuming these installation disks are all genuine, have you taken it up with the organisation/person you purchased them from?

They are all genuine and I have borrowed discs from other people just to make sure I didn't have bad ones so my guess at this point is its not the disc... i have a hard time believing 7 discs from 4 different sources are all bad. Although, this has been my luck with computers as of late lol.

Borrowed discs but not COA's or Product Keys by the way.. Just wanted to make that clear, and to top it all off, I purchased a new disc based on my product key from Microsoft directly and that is one of the discs I attempted to use... Thanks again for any ideas!

[-pops-]

XP requires separate RAID drivers to install on a SATA drive. Can't remember much about it but this may help:

/>http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=&q=sata+and+xp&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_en-GBGB341GB341&ie=UTF-8

[DanDaMan]

Without the drivers would it see the drive and attempt to install on it without giving it the drivers at the start of the install?

[-pops-]

I can't remember the details, unfortunately. What I do recall, though, is that I gave up trying to install SATA on XP (reverting to IDE) and it's made me very wary of SATA ever since, even though the difficulties were with early BIOS versions and XP, not later Windows versions.

[DanDaMan]

I can't remember the details, unfortunately. What I do recall, though, is that I gave up trying to install SATA on XP (reverting to IDE) and it's made me very wary of SATA ever since, even though the difficulties were with early BIOS versions and XP, not later Windows versions.

Well the main goal here is Windows XP Home Edition if it will work, the motherboard has 4 sata connectors on it and one IDE spot, I can run an IDE cable from the ide spot to the hd and off the same cable hit the cd/dvdrom but when I did that windows all of a sudden couldn't see the ide hard drives.

[Digerati]

XP came out way before SATA. Therefore, at a hardware level, the system must know how to use SATA. Your motherboard should have come with a utilities disk and program to create the SATA install floppy disk. You MUST do this. Then during the install, you will be prompted to press F6 to install SCSI (because XP does not know SATA yet) drivers and you will be prompted to insert the floppy. After that, it should work fine.

If you do not have the motherboard utilities disk, look on the motherboard maker's, or the PC maker's, if applicable, website.

[rong]

I have a SATA hard drive with XP and it was a pain to get to work and I can't remember what it was that sorted it but am pretty sure it was a setting in the bios so try playing with some of those

[bludgard]

I have a SATA hard drive with XP and it was a pain to get to work and I can't remember what it was that sorted it but am pretty sure it was a setting in the bios so try playing with some of those

I ran into a couple of posrs dealing with this issue as well. It may not be helpful in this particular thread, but here it is:

CD/DVD ROM;STOP:0X0000007B (0XF78D2524,0XC0000034,0X00000000,0X00000000)

__something about running chkdsk,and something about possible hardware fault(s),could be a virus,run a scan,blah,blah....Which I did.Searched the error very lightly and found something else about BIOS changing RAIDAUTO/AHCI to RAIDAUTO/ATA.I looked and only saw option to change SATA from AHCI to IDE.What the hell,I tried it.Nothing.Changed it back and ran the suggested operations.

and

Although checking BIOS SATA configuration was the first thing I checked (and changed to IDE),when I rebooted from XP,there was a prompt to "Press any key to boot from CD".Well,I do not know why-possibly personal memory failure on my part-I didn't press any key.Of course the monitor went straightway to Repair screen for my Windows Seven runs AHCI and it was trying to boot IDE.

from this thread.

I interject for this was resolved by a simple change in the BIOS. However, if the option is not present, then it must be introduced/installed as Digerati has suggested.