abit it7, seagate 40gb HD, install XP

[age]

Hi, I'm having a nightmare... Am trying to build a pc with an Abit IT7 motherboard, P4 2.4gb processor, and Seagate Barracuda 40gb Ultra ATA 100 Hard Disk. Bios detects the hard disk as 40gb, and XP was finding it as 8gb. A bit of searchin online prompted me to flash the motherboard bios with the latest bios from Abit (done yesterday so bang up to date), and I also downloaded the DiscWizard software from Seagate to set up the disk.

Running diskwizard with the hard disk configured just as a master on the jumpers simply partitions and formats it. XP then gets to about 20% of the initial file copy during the install process, and then prompts that it cannot copy a file (it happens in a different place each time). No amount of taking the cd out and cleaning it will prompt it to copy this file. Skipping the file by pressing Esc just means it cannot then copy the next file, and the next, and the next. I have tried 2 XP cd's, and also a windows 2000 cd and they all bomb out in pretty much the same place.

Running Diskwizard with the extra jumper on the hard disk to limit the disk size in bios to 33.8, prompts diskwizard to install some drivers on the harddisk called Dynamic Drive Overlay (DDO) which looked promising, as it seemed to address the kind of problem i'm having, but the SAME THING HAPPENED when i ran the xp install!!

Anyone experienced this before?? Is there a way to use a Seagate Barracuda 40gb disk (model st340016a) with an Abit IT7 motherboard? Or is it a lost cause?

Thanks for your help everyone

Adrian.

 

[gargouille]

This is a RAID board?
Are you using the IDE RAID connectors?

 

[MA5]

I have seen this with a faulty CDROM drive.

 

[gargouille]

Are these all new components?
We're positive the RAM is right for the board and is QUALITY versus el cheapo?
I'm not confident you're not experiencing hardware problems...besides the obvious ones.

 

[age]

Not using the RAID connectors, but I can if you think I should be?

The CDRom is the only non-knew component, so I could try swapping this out...

The RAM is knew, and is right for the board, according to

http://www.crucial.com,

as they only list their RAM by moby/pc compatability....

I'll try a different cdrom, but anyone got any other thoughts??

 

[wolluf]

I'd agree with Gargouille - very like hardware (not hard drive) problem (have you got another hard drive you could try with to check this?).

 

[age]

I think I'll try 2 things... A different hard disk in this new pc, and the new seagate hard drive in a different PC that definitely works...

Thanks for your help everyone, I'll let you know the result

Adrian.

 

[age]

Ok, i'm beginning to thik it's either a faulty hard drive, or some kind of incompatability with the motherboard... I managed to get the install of XP to a point where it runs a scandisk and it basically stated that the hard disk was too corrupt for installation to continue... I am going to contact Seagate for some assistance, but if anybody has any other ideas, please keep posting!!

Thanks for your help

Adrian.

 

[Kocky]

Is it a new hard drive? I don't see you making any comments that you used fdisk to make a primary partition. So did you use fdisk to create at least one partition ?

 

[age]

Hi, It is a brand new drive, and I have tried to use fdisk to create a primary dos partition, but it hung during the drive verification stage. Also, I've tried using the XP installation to create the partition, and although it allowed a partition to be created and formatted, I then get 'cannot copy file' errors when the installation gets to the file copy stage. I have also used Seagates Discwizard software to create and format a partition, and this has the same outcome as using the XP installation, i.e. the file copy part of the installation bombs out at around 20-25%....

thanks for you help everyone