Formatting

[Sinque]

I was waiting until I received my new harddrive, thanks to OcUK , before I formatted my computer finally. I'm wanting to format without losing all my main files, such as pictures and music etc. I don't mind about installed games and programs. I was wondering if it's possibly to just fill my current HardDrive up with all my information, format my new hard drive and install Windows. Then possibly copy all my files over and delete the old windows install folder? Or would it stop me from removing it?

Any ideas or suggestions on this as it's my first time with two hard drives

Cheers, Sinque.

 

[Sinque]

No I mean re-install Windows. Like totally new windows but keep my music and picture files etc. I'd need to re-install drivers etc again.

Edit: Hmm, i've just thought. Couldn't I just format the HD with the old windows on?

 

[Sinque]

Nah, I htink he means to install on the new HD then install the old one and copy files over from it. That would work.

So nothing would conflict as there are two windows present? Would I be asked to choose which to use?

 

[Sinque]

It would boot the one in the MBR, the new installation. It wouldn't care at all about the old installation.

And the latest installation would auto go into the MBR?

Just making deadly sure as I hate having troublesome installs

 

[Sinque]

Yep. I've done this several times in the past and I've never had any trouble.

1. Remove old hard drive
2. install new one
3. Install OS(es)
4. Reinstall old hard drive
5. use as you desire

Ah rightio, didn't think of taking the drive out.

I've already disked all my drivers etc so all is good. Cheer mate

 

[Sinque]

Just formatted my new drive and it has copied the install files accros on to it. But strangly, when I boot up, it says Error Loading Operating System. Maybe it's not looking for it on the harddrive? Any ideas

 

[Sinque]

This is my new drive:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache

I read something about SATA but i'm still confused as to what to do. Thank god i've got my old HD with windows still

Edit: I didn't get any disks or floppies with the drive to install it during formatting, any ideas?

I think this should be in the HardDrive section now, the topic has totally changed

 

[Sinque]

Bump

Just spent ages trying to find SATA/RAID drivers to stick on a floppy and use during windows setup. There arn't any drivers for my board on the main asus website? What am I meant to do?

 

[Sinque]

Asus K8N4-E

I'm shocked how difficult this is just to simply run an OS on my drive...

 

[Sinque]

you are right cant see any sata drivers on any site i searched.what is the controller?silicon image etc.?maybe have a look on their site ?
maybe post this again on the mobo forum and ask some one to copy the floppy or relevant file from their mobo cd and e-mail it to you?

I really don't know, i've searched through the manual in PDF format and it refers to nothing about the SATA Controller. I managed to find a driver not long ago and it's called '1006.BIN' and I can't remember what it does.

Also just realised I don't have a floppy drive and can't do anything without one... Can be easily sorted though. Is it not possible to use a USB pen or CD instead?

 

[Sinque]

1 take out old hard drive with windows etc on it from your computer case.
2 fit new sata hard drive to computer case using sata data and power cables or possibly a molex to sata power converter, making sure that the bios is set up correctly, and that the bios recognises the new hard drive on the first page when computer boots up.
3 install windows on new sata hard drive

I get to that point and then when I try to boot into windows I get the error 'Error Loading OS' and there's nothing I can do.

Even if I press F8 or whatever it is to get the boot selection and choose my SATA drive it still gives me the error.

 

[Sinque]

i am pretty sure you MUST have sata drivers to enable windows to see the hdd.but of course i could be wrong here
tried pressing ,i think it is F5 or is it F6 for additional drivers during install?yes?

Yes but I get asked to put a floppy in with drivers

I currently have both HDs in and my SATA drive is just sat there, I am able to put files and music etc on it so it works. I can see it and windows detected it instantly and installed some stuff for it.

Possibly my BIOS is wrong, but surely if I select it in the boot selection and it still says error it can't be

 

[Sinque]

So on the first page when the pc boots up just underneath the memory check and the processor there is a list of drives both optical and hard and your new sata is listed there yes??

Yes it's there

 

[Sinque]

Okay i'll try that, here's what exactly is happening though.


ST33206 is the Seagate hard drive

Those are it's setting

This is the boot menu where I select to boot from the SATA drive

And that all I get

I'll go have a hunt about and try what you have said. Cheers. Hope those pic's will clear some things up that I may not have explained clearly enough.

Edit: Just looked through bios and there is nothing to do with which HD to run the OS off, the boot order is already set at CD -> Hd though

 

[Sinque]

That's exactly how it's setup

 

[Sinque]

This is getting tricky now I can't see anything you are doing wrong, but I maybe missing something myself.

So how far into the instaltion do you get??

It's stressing me out also

I format my drive, the windows setup files are copied on the the drive and then Windows reboots after 15seconds. It then restarts and says Error Loading

 

[Sinque]

Really silly question probably, but you have tried more than once yeah??

3 times iirc.

 

[Sinque]

Wow that website is giving me a serious head ache, i'll take a look around though. Thanks for all your help, much appreciated.

 

[Sinque]

Would the recovery console on the XP disk be sufficient? I tried typing 'fdisk /mbr' but nothing happened.

 

[Sinque]

Oh I give the **** up for gods sake, this is just ridiculous. I've got such an insane headache now.