CD booting is not working and other crap

[DuckRA2]

So my replacement hdd for my crashed laptop came in. I thought setting it up would be easy... oh I was completely wrong. The hdd is snug and detected by the bios and the functional ubuntu I installed on it by usb. The reason I installed ubuntu was because all those stupid disks from gateway/acer didn,t  work. The cd boot seemed to just ignore them all even when I set priorities in bios. Before I had linux installed, it came up with some PXE-E61 error, now it totally ignores them. Next I tried my trusty windows XP disc. A miracle, this one actually boots occasionally in like 1/8 boots. But then when trying to install XP, it gives me a bunch of "UNKNOWN DISK" and "THERE IS NO DISK IN THIS DRIVE" bs. All I want to do is install windows XP or make the recovery disks work so I can get my windows 7 running again.

[DuckRA2]

Ok this is kind of getting urgent, has anybody at least read this?

[DuckRA2]

damn scrooge of the galaxy keeps spamming and making this topic not seen.....


I tried Wintoflash. I successfully put windows xp on a usb drive. When the setup starts, the only place to install is to the memory stick. The new harddrive was nowhere on the list. I was stupid and accidentally installed it to the memory stick. So now I have to redo the xp on the flash drive because I think it formatted it.

[Serge]

CD booting: Maybe your CD drive / CD is faulty?
No HDD visible from the Windows installer: If you're using AHCI, disable it, or slipstream a driver into your installer (nlite can help you do that).

[DuckRA2]

is AHCI something changeable in the bios for the harddrive?


I will check out nlite.

[Scrap Daddy]

off topic: i keep getting confused because i used to have that avatar duck

[DuckRA2]

haha, Bob Marley is where its at


Serge: is nLite for making a usb that you can install an operating system from, or modifying the drivers and what's includedin one you have already made?

[Serge]

is AHCI something changeable in the bios for the harddrive?

Yes. It's basically telling the BIOS to present your SATA hard drives as SATA drives to the operating system. Unfortunately, old operating systems like Windows XP do not have drivers for this mode (usually you can download them from your manufacturer's web site, they're often labeled as 'chipset' drivers). If it's disabled, the drives will be presented via a legacy interface, which has its shortcomings, but XP will recognize them out of the box.

[DuckRA2]

Where exactly is that located in the bios? Is it the type? which is defaulted to "auto"? because for some reason I can't change that. The computer just gives that beep noise. The only thing I can change under the harddrive is 32 bit I/O from enabled to disabled. The type looks like it could be changed based on the UI, because the ones that can't be changed are a light grey color, and cannot be selected. But the type can be selected and is a black color for the font.


BTW: My bios is in something called Phoenix TrustedCore(tm) setup utility, if that helps at all.

[Serge]

Where exactly is that located in the bios?

It's not in the same page as the drive list and settings. For me it's in Optional Features. For you it might be different (Advanced CMOS Features/...) - basically in that page with the list of all the various bizarre settings you can turn on and off. Also, it might not be called AHCI mode, but something like "SATA mode" (which you'd have to switch to "Legacy")... Just mess around.

EDIT: On Phoenix BIOS it's in "Advanced" if you have the tabbed-style setup utility or "Advanced BIOS/Chipset Features" if you have the older (before Phoenix and Award merged), non-tabbed interface. Remember, manufacturers may have renamed stuff.

[DuckRA2]

Legacy USB support? I don't think that is it though. here is what I can see in advanced


Summary Screen

Legacy USB Support

Internal WLAN Power State
 
Internal Bluetooth Power state

AC Wake on LAN






And also from my previous post. I don't think you read this due to me editing after you had just posted.


 is nLite for making a usb that you can install an operating system from, or modifying the drivers and what's includedin one you have already made?

[Serge]

Well, none of these options fit. EIOther your manufacturer has disabled that, or that isn't causing the problem.

nLite is a tool to modify an installation image of Windows. You can use it to include drivers, automate the installation, etc. You would first mess around with nLite, then create a bootable USB from what nLite created, via whatever tool you were using previously.

[DuckRA2]

I think I am on the right track so far. Dziekuje bardzo! Ty pomoc bardzo dobre. Zepraszm, ja mowiam moui polska.


EDIT: Works!!! +rep for you my friend!(If I could figure out how I would.) I got windows xp running just fine. Maybe eventually I will triboot with windows 7 too.


EDIT#2: Dang... I am driverless. I can't find any drivers, none of the ones I download work.