Re: Installing xp on new hard drive

Hi, Ran.

Why did you get the new drive? Is it bigger, better, faster than the old
one? Then it probably uses a newer, better, different interface than the
old one. Even if you managed to ghost or otherwise copy the old HD verbatim
to the new one, it would include instructions for how to boot from the old
HD, but not how to boot from the new one. To get those new instructions
integrated into your copy of WinXP, you must clean install WinXP - or at
least do a repair install - with the new HD in place as the primary master.
(And leave your old HD completely disconnected, at least until WinXP is
installed on the new one.)

If your new HD is not a "plain vanilla" EIDE drive, then the drivers for it
may not be on the WinXP CD-ROM, especially if your copy of the CD predates
SP2. The original CD could not handle a drive larger than ~137 GB, for
example, or SATA. If you have such a leading-edge or exotic HD, then you
will need to have drivers for it on a floppy diskette before running Setup,
then press F6 early in the Setup process to install those drivers.

If you tell us more about your computer and HD/controller configuration, we
probably can give more specific advice.

The "Drive A:" message is both misleading and a big clue. When you set the
BIOS to boot from CD and then you boot with the WinXP CD-ROM in the drive,
the CD temporarily (and usually invisibly to the operator) becomes A:. A
malfunction at this point can leave the Setup utility searching for A: -
which does not mean the floppy this time. (Don't ask me for details about
this; I've already told you more than I know, as Paul Harvey would say.)
After the text phase of Setup, you reset the BIOS to boot from HD and then
you reboot, and the computer - for the first time - boots from the HD to
continue with the GUI phase of Setup. If the new HD drivers are not in
place by this time, the computer cannot boot from the HD and you get some
kind of error. The typical symptom is a BSOD complaining of Stop 0x7B,
Inaccessible_Boot_Device, but sometimes there are other symptoms - such as
what you are seeing.

> What will the hard drive appear as in the Bios?

Most likely you will see the make and model number of each HD and CD/DVD
connected to your IDE channels at the time. We can't say more without
knowing more about your specific computer and BIOS.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP

"Ran278" <Ran278@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E9DE9E60-174B-436C-8BDF-496317ED0954@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I been haveing trouble installing xp pro on my hard drive.
> I am able to get through the windows install, computer reboots then
> starts the process all over again starting from the blue screen.
>
> I've removed the disk and the message that comes up is
> "Please insert boot cd in drive A:" Hit any key to continue.
>
> I've tried setting the cdrom as the first bootable drive but this does not
> do the trick. In the BIOS the Cd rom is easy to find and set, but what
> about the setting for the hard drive?
>
> What will the hard drive appear as in the Bios?
>
> Please help...


.

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