xp doesn't have any sata drivers on the disc.
XP was out well before there were sata drivers.
XP64 has them though.

Microsoft OneCare Beta is good, and currently free. Otherwise the usuals like AVG (free) or Norton (not free).

Thanks for all your replies! It was the raid settings in the end!

Got windows installed etc now! :D

Just need some anti virus software now before i put it on the net!

Can I download any good software from anywhere?

nope! your still wrong!!
XP does have some (and most) SATA drives pre-loaded.

Take a read of my post from a hardware forum here where i had exactly the same probs installing Windows XP onto a new SATA drive, a few weeks back.

I can tell you now, that when i first tried it,it couldnt find the new SATA drive, i tried everything. Then contacted Asus direct, and they told me that Nvraid is enabled by defult, so if i want to use raid i need to set this up to begin with. If i dont wish to use raid, then disable it in the bios.
I did this, and installed XP first time :)

quote:

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Originally posted by Bart

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW
as said, make sure you press F6 when setting up windows when it first boots & put the disk in with the SATA drivers

but tbh when the machine reboots after copying the files for the first time, just DONT press anything at all when it says press any key to boot from CD, as after about 5 seconds this times out and it will resume to booting from the HD

i assume you are installing XP yes??

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NO NO NO NO :)

Claire, if you cant find the SATA hard drives when it comes to installation then you need to go into the bios and look for RAID Config, and DISABLE raid config.

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quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW
as said, make sure you press F6 when setting up windows when it first boots & put the disk in with the SATA drivers

but tbh when the machine reboots after copying the files for the first time, just DONT press anything at all when it says press any key to boot from CD, as after about 5 seconds this times out and it will resume to booting from the HD

i assume you are installing XP yes??

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as said, make sure you press F6 when setting up windows when it first boots & put the disk in with the SATA drivers

but tbh when the machine reboots after copying the files for the first time, just DONT press anything at all when it says press any key to boot from CD, as after about 5 seconds this times out and it will resume to booting from the HD

i assume you are installing XP yes??

Thanks for your help people, I'll try ang give answers to your questions once i can see bios again.

I'm trying a full format again and then will have another go.

Found this on the gigabyte site (second question down) it refers to the board and drive AND problem that I have!

quote:

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Originally posted by Ian
What options do you have in the boot sequence list?

Primary boot device, secondary boot device etc.?

Even if the drive isn't named you should still be able to nominate fixed HDD in the BIOS.

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quote:

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Originally posted by James
You been into BIOS and looked at the boot ptiority? Might be set to CDROM only.....

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What options do you have in the boot sequence list?

Primary boot device, secondary boot device etc.?

Even if the drive isn't named you should still be able to nominate fixed HDD in the BIOS.

do it frsh, unplug your drive, plug it back in, boot from cd, format (not the quick one) and install it all again. do you have a disk for raid drivers, you press f2 or f6 or something and load you the drivers. if its recognising your drive in windows setup, hen like i said, just do a full reinstall

mines SATA and it picked it up, but i know its quite common for SATA not being recognised

Checked. I'm wondering if bios cant see itr because its sata? I cant find any info about the hdd in bios (can see other drive types etc. I have formatted it so I know its connected, just maybe bios cant see it?

checked the HDD hasnt got a loose connection or anything?

Just tried that :(

You been into BIOS and looked at the boot ptiority? Might be set to CDROM only.....

Hi, Ive finished building my computer. The hdd is sata, 2 dvd drives, floppy, amd athlon blah blah.

Turned it on, went into bios and seddt time etc, then saved that and exited. it ran through a few checks and stuff then said "boot from cd"

It read cd (windows) and then went into windows setup. It formatted drive etc then said it was installing files. After a while it said In 5 seconds it would reboot and I should take any floppy disks out then it would continue setup. Well i did that and it rebooted but then it just went through the exact same process :mad: when i selected setup windows it said windows was already installed do i want to overwrite. If i take the disk out when it reboots it just stops at "boot from cd"

HELP :(