Problems installing windows xp on SSD

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:42

Hi guys,

Help needed i'm attempting to reinstall windows XP on an old p4 machine. The mobo is a gigabyte 8I848-PM. I got a gen1 x25-m 80gb SSD of the members market to give it a new lease of life, however, i'm having trouble installing windows on it.

I booted from the windows CD, deleted the partition, made a new one and setup copies files and then the machine rebooted.

Upon restarting i get the message "error loading operating system".

The BIOS detects the drive as the IDE Channel 0 master and the drive is physically plugged into sata0 on the mobo.

Anybody got any ideas how i can get xp onto this drive?

Cheers.

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:46

Have you got another drive plugged in? Try with just the SSD in. (Also if you can I believe you want an SSD to have the SATA set as ACHI not IDE mode)

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:48

No other drives plugged in. The SSD is connected to the port that the previous boot device was plugged into.

I can't see AHCI anywhere in the BIOS, i think it may be a bit old for that.

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:52

Yeah I did wonder if it might be. One second...

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:54

Okay. so the set up ran okay, then it restarted itself (as part of the set up?) but didnt continue set up?

Maybe check the boot order. For now put the DVD/CD first.

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 13:59

Boot priority is CD -> HDD

I boot to CD first time round which is supposed to copy the necessary setup files across. Once it restarts it should just boot from the SSD and continue setup.

If i boot from CD after the restart then it just wants to do phase 1 again.

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 14:06

Have you tried only once? Check all the power cables and SATA cables, restart, boot to the CD, start set up again and see if it works

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 14:14

3 times now i think, always the same

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 14:16

is the SSD definitely working? Do you have another PC you can test it in?
Seems like the SSD or OS is at fault here as the PC is starting okay.

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 14:44

SSD was bought off members market. It seems ok, just wondering though if something that has been installed on there before is messing things up. Maybe a complete wipe (all zero tool) might do the job.

beejjacobs · 14 Jan 2012 at 14:48

yeah, worth a try. Also look if there are any firmware updates for it

DavieJG · 14 Jan 2012 at 15:51

running kill disk on it now using a different machine.

DavieJG · 15 Jan 2012 at 00:58

after a full erase using kill disk (all zero write), setup was able to complete. Something must have been messed up in the MBR or similar. Anyways, solved, cheers for the suggestions

beejjacobs · 15 Jan 2012 at 01:03

DavieJG said:
after a full erase using kill disk (all zero write), setup was able to complete. Something must have been messed up in the MBR or similar. Anyways, solved, cheers for the suggestions

Glad you got it all working

Enjoy your new super quick SSD!