Installing Windows XP on a SATA HDD on ASUS P5WD2 Premium mobo

I can't figure out how to install Windows XP (Pro SP1) on my SATA HDD connected to my ASUS P5WD2 Premium. I've tested the hardware (memory tests and Prime95) and it's been running stable for over a week with a Linux (Fedora Core 5) OS. So I don't think it's a hardware problem.

Here's what happens: I boot to my XP disc, press a key to boot to it (when prompted), it says it's checking my hardware for about a second, then the screen goes blank (black) and nothing happens.

In my BIOS settings, I can change the hdd setting from AHCI to IDE and it makes no difference on the install. Anybody have any idea what I need to do?

 

Make sure you have you cd drive connected to the blue connector.

 

It has always been connected to the Primary IDE connector, thanks.

 

You may need to install the Drivers for your SATA drive. During the install procress you have to hit F6 and provide the drivers via floppy.

 

That's what everyone's been telling me. :^)

But the install process doesn't get that far along, so I CANNOT do that. The XP install ends about a second (maybe two) after it begins; while it's detecting the system hardware.

 

You may have to use a floppy to format your hard drive first then change bios back to boot frrom CD

 

I'll try that. But if I whipe Linux of my hard drive for nothing... I'm coming for you! :^P

 

Go to Frys and buy another hard drive ad try it first. You can reeturn the hard drive after you test it . Thats what I had to do. Max Blast4 by maxtor is a good utility.

 

If there was something wrong with my hard drive, how could it have ran Linux with no problem for the past week?

 

I just meant you could make sure the process works on a different HD first so you don't loose your data on the other.

 

Ah, now I understand. I may have to try that.

But not before I share this new bit of info. I made an XP SP1 boot FLOPPY and booting to it caused the exact same problem as the cd, except that now it actually gave me an error message instead of just going blank!

After trying to detect my system hardware for a couple seconds, the error message comes up "File \biosinfo.inf could not be loaded Error code 4104 Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit."

Anybody have any ideas what to do from here?

 

Your istallation cd has software to make a boot disc. Pick your OS 32bit or 64 bit and use the make disc program. I think it is sat3132 make disc. Or make the raid disk so you can use ACHI for your hard drive instead of standard IDE in the bios.

 

The XP disc is bootable. For kicks, I made a bootable floppy (well, 6 of them actually). I don't need another boot disc.

I need to figure out how to correct that error message.