Windows won't install

Discussion in 'Windows - General discussion' started by iamsam43, Dec 15, 2010.

  1. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    I just got a PC back from a repair man who replaced the motherboard. I had RAID0 setup and my new motherboard has 5 sata ports and 2 different sata. My understanding is that he plugged the drives into the group of 5 ports and could boot into ubuntu and see the raid. He then plugged the drives into the 2 separate ports because I'm only going to have those two drives in RAID.

    It gets to the bios fine and appears to be working, except both windows 7 and XP freeze while loading files. With windows 7 I see "windows is loading files" and the progress completes then leaves a black screen. With XP it loads some files then halts on "setup is loading files (Windows Executive)."

    I also tried booting from a 5.10 Ubuntu live CD and it froze after loading the kernal.

    It seems to me like the problem must be related to my RAID but I don't know what to do.

    I have two 1TB drives in the raid, the controller is "DriveXpert HDD0"
    I have an intel core2 quad Q9550, 8GB of RAM
    Asus P5Q PRO Turbo motherboard

    Asus ENGTX260 top graphics card

    Thanks so much for the help!
     
  2. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    I have now decided that I just want to delete the raid but I can't figure out how in the BIOS. I see a single sata drive listed for SATA 1 and on for SATA_E1: DriveXpert HDD0 which is the raid. There is no option to delete the raid that I can find. Also, should I leave the raid drives plugged into the two separate sata ports or move them to the 5?

    UPDATE:
    I deleted the RAID and I'm still having the same issue with installing windows.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2010
  3. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    I have determined that my RAM isn't compatible with my new motherboard and that was the issue. It works with 6GB of the RAM however.

    So I tried to install windows 7 and after formatting a drive it said it couldn't create or find the partition. I am formatting the drive with windows XP setup now. I guess I'll install XP then upgrade to 7 later. So I am still unable to install windows 7, any help would be greatly appreciated.
     
  4. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

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    Use edit button to add more to a post if no one has answered or you'll get dealt to by a mod for multi posting,only person i know who has a raid setup is ddp who just so happens to be a mod..lol..perhaps a pm to him with link to this thread will set you on the right track at solving your delema
     
  5. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    thanks scorpNZ
    I won't double post anymore. I actually deleted the RAID so I'm just trying to install windows on a normal hard disk.
     
  6. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    scorp, i don't use raid as i only have 1 hd partitioned into 2.

    iamsam43, reset the bios to factory defaults then see what happens when installing win7 but use 1hd not as a raid.
     
  7. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    Well I got windows 7 to install with the RAID gone. I installed windows XP first on one HD then installed windows 7 on another HD. Windows 7 said it couldn't format the drive with XP on it, so I used KillDisk in windows to wipe the drive. About an hour in my PC froze so I rebooted it. It's definitely set to boot off the HD and it tells me to Reboot and select the proper boot device, or insert media into it.

    I can see all my HDs in the bios, and yet I can't boot off them. I didn't think I needed anything on the HD with windows XP, but maybe it contained the master boot record or something?

    I have no idea what to do, thanks for any help in advance!
     
  8. Jeffrey_P

    Jeffrey_P Regular member

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  9. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    @Jeffrey_P I already had a successful dual boot going. It was when I tried to erase the XP drive that I wasn't able to boot into an OS.

    UPDATE:
    So Ubuntu will boots off a cd then freeze while loading. I just formatted the drive I erased before and installed XP on it, XP is running fine. What in the heck is going on?!
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2010
  10. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    you messed up the boot ini when deleting xp. do you want a dual boot system or a single with win7?
     
  11. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    I want a single with win7. Windows XP is installed again though, and I want the drive it's on formatted, but I can't boot the win7 drive. I don't want to reinstall win7 if possible because I spent a long time getting stuff setup, and I have data on the drive.

    UPDATE:
    I repaired with the win7 cd and I'm now booting into win7. I still want to format the drive with XP on it but it isn't letting me format it again which makes me think there are boot files on the drive still.

    EDIT:
    So I still want to wipe the drive with win xp on it without messing up my boot this time. How do I find out where my boot files are?
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2010
  12. iamsam43

    iamsam43 Member

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    This hasn't been resolved yet, I'm booting win7 off a hard drive and I have xp on another drive. I want to wipe the drive with win xp on it without messing up my boot this time. How do I do this?

    Thanks!

    edit: sorry I didn't notice this windows forum isn't very active and this thread was still on the first page, I shouldn't have bumped it. I thought after 12 days ppl had forgotten.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2010

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