Re-formatting problems

Hey guys I'm kinda new here but it looks like a great forum with helpful peoples

Its coming up for my regular re-format and for some reason, when I boot to the Windows XP CD and tell it to install windows on a partition or any of the other 3 options, it tells me it cannot find any hard drives. I have a 74gb raptor as my (C) drive and a 160gb seagate as my backup (D). Anyone have any ideas on how to format my (C) drive and then install windows back on it?

 

I would truly appreciate some help with this, I still can't get it to work.

 

By any chance is the drive a sata that needs a driver first?

I have had hdd problems like that when the power plug to the drive was loose or the data cable was loose.

When I didn't know what else to do, I would boot to a startup floppy or a floppy with system files and cdrom support. You should be able to go to C: then.

I have also used a Linux cd to boot the computer and I keep a Linux Livecd on hand.

If you play around with different operating systems or frequently format your drive it is handy to have some "tools" to regain control of the hard drive when some gremlin gets in there.

Just some thoughts for what its worth. Good luck.

 

SATA HDD, You need to install 3rd party drivers for SATA HDD's, during install you have to press F6 key when prompted, then you have to have your SATA drivers on floppy disk ready when prompted for third party drivers.

You must not have ever reformated this Raptor?

Some newer MOBO dont need the drivers on floppy.
Make sure your boot order is CD 1st, then HDD/SATA then Floppy, For aditional info refer to MOBO manual

 

hey, thanks guys I'll go try that right now =D

 

Just wanted to give you guys an update, what you suggested looks like what was wrong with it, doh! It looks like my floppy drive is on the fritz so right now I'm trying to figure out something with that. Shame it doesn't work for putting the drivers on a usb disk or a CD.

 

Sorry for the double-post, but I have another dilemma.

Link to my MOBO's downloads

When I scroll down and download the RAID one, after extracting it is 10mb. How am I supposed to fit this onto a 1.44mb floppy?

 

Download the file and see 'Windows Pre-OS installation Floppy Disk' in the readme file.

Check out this link it has some info that might be useful to you:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=5&ArticleID=93

 

Thanks for the help stardis! Got everything up and running now, sorry for the late response I was visiting family on the east coast. I skimmed that article you posted and it looks informative, I will check it out in-depth later.

Cheers for the help everyone