can't install windows, doesn't read the disc

[unwashed potato!]

trying to install windows xp but it isn't reading the disc i got windows on.


last time i installed xp on my last hard drive i rememeber reading
something about as the hard drive is sata and something about the disc drive that i can't install windows that way or something? is this true?

atm the windows is on a duallayer disc, guessing its been put on wrong. is there a way to fix the dual layer disc into working correctly?


i will be buying vista very soon but im waiting until i go to uni to see what they give me and also because of al my buying lately i can't afford to spend another £70 or whatever vista is just yet so using my windows xp

 

[Bludgeon]

you might need to put the sata drivers on a floppy disk and when the windows
asks if you want to install and drivers at the start of the setup (f3 i think) pop
the floppy in.
if this is the case it will say it cant find your hard drive, but it sounds like you cant get that far.
have you the cd/dvd as your first boot device in the bios?
DMB

 

[unwashed potato!]

you might need to put the sata drivers on a floppy disk and when the windows
asks if you want to install and drivers at the start of the setup (f3 i think) pop
the floppy in.
if this is the case it will say it cant find your hard drive, but it sounds like you cant get that far.
have you the cd/dvd as your first boot device in the bios?
DMB

yeah the dvd is first to boot in bios,hard drive second.

as the bios can see the hard drive and has its proper name does that mean is can find the hard drive correctly?

the installation gets no where, i turn it on, then just says insert proper media to boot and press any key or restart seelecting proper boot device.

i gave up with this and used a resinstalltion disc my mum had which was for dell pc and included xp proffesional with service pack 1. it said the disc was for computer with it already installed but it managed to install xp afaik but its deifnetly not working correclty. e.g. i can't change screen size, can't connect to the net, said i only had 40gb though i actually have 500gb (though this mght be as i partitioned the drive but it only showing the partition and not the other 460gb) etc. has xp been installed wrong?

i also have one last disc to try which looks promisiong however as i have used the dell disc it wont boot from the dvd drive anymore and goes striaght into xp on the hard drive. Is there any way i can get rid of the current xpand try with the new disc if its reccomened?

thanks

[edit]

do i need to install all my drivers for everything in my pc? i don't remember doing this before except maybe installing the disc drive.

 

[Bludgeon]

so when you boot up with the xp install in, does it say somthing like press any key to boot from cd?
if it dont maybe your dvd/cd drive has a problem(has happend to me) or maybe your xp disk is ******.
you could try using fdisk to format the drive from a floppy but do some research into it first.
also it youve got it running try downloading a tryout of somthing like Acronis Disk Director suite which should give you info on your hard drive,its size, partitions ect
DMB