problems installing windows xp on my old pc

[culexor]

ok so my old pc (gateway 310 s) was so messed up that i had to wipe it. i used ubuntu to reformat it and then decided to try to install mac os x on it (i used the hdd on my current pc) but failed. so i reformatted it to ntfs and now i cant install windows xp. while it is loading setup it gives me an error saying it couldnt load /i386/biosinfo.inf error code 4096. i tried doing windows 2000 and it said it couldnt find the hard drive. i have an ide cd drive and an ide hard drive. im wondering if the jumper configurations have anything to do with the problem. they both are set to cable select. they each have their own ide channel on the motherboard so they are on 2 separate cables. any ideas? thanks ahead of time.

 

[eyeCpc]

Try setting both drives to master to see if that sees results.

While often it's typical to see hard drives in prebuilds set to cable select that's also how drives are shipped. Companies like boards where techs simply drop a new drive in without fuss.

Optical drives are the usual suspects for mandating either the master or slave position depending on which part of the cable they are plugged into. With ide HDs on older systems sometimes a second hard drive would be invisible when set as slave and need to be set to cable select if not both drives in some cases. But a quick move of the jumper will tell there.

 

[culexor]

i got an error saying setup cannot copy the file: ansi.sys
im going to go ahead and skip that and see what happens


EDIT: my friend has my windows cd so im using a "backup" but i burned it to a dvd-rw. i just noticed that, i thought it was a cd-r. im going to try a cd and see what happens.

ok now that i used a cd setup cannot find my hard drive. any ideas?

 

[eyeCpc]

You likely have to replace the original flat ribbon data cable if the drive hasn't simply failed. Most likely the cable is simply dried up from age. The original errors seen where likely from the now missing hidden partition used to store recovery files for the original preinstalled copy of Windows.

The components list shows that came with a 40gb ide drive. The specifications and driver updates are found at http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/310_Series/2800351/2800351nv.shtml

If you are able to get the installer to see the drive and Windows on you will need to grab the board and other drivers needed there.

 

[culexor]

ok, so im just plain dumb and didnt think of putting in the drivers cd that came with the pc. i reset everything, put it back to cable select and stuck the drivers cd in. loaded all the hardware configs and drivers. then i restarted and put the xp disc in. not a single problem. its installing as we speak. ill make another post if i run into any more problems. (ill edit this one, i forgot i cant double post)

 

[eyeCpc]

Your board needed a driver disk then. Prebuilds generally have a premade disk ready provided you get those when buying a new model.

I had one older build here where the driver floppy had to prepared only in a certain way to get sata drivers loaded. You first booted up with the board's software disk and formatted the floppy there. Then you booted into Windows to see the drivers unpacked by the utility onto the 3 1/2".

Any other combination like formatting a disk by a right click in Windows Explorer or unpacking drivers while booted with the software was rather futile. That was on a Socket 939 board at the time. The newer AM2 model requires no driver disk for XP and Vista comes with it's own generic drivers.

 

[culexor]

yeah prebuilds are a pain. my current machine just installed perfectly without having to install any drivers prior to the installation.

 

[eyeCpc]

The prebuilds generally saw the branded Windows oem disk along with a second for prepackaged softwares and device drivers. If you lose the software/driver disk then you have to download the updates once Windows is on.

Now for boards requiring a driver disk when installing Windows on a sata drive you either have the second disk onhand or make up a driver floppy which is more of a pain when the system only sees one optical and no floppy! Driver cd needed.

At least you remembered the disk you have onhand and didn't have to fuss about getting them downloaded and even making up a driver floppy/cd to have the installer copy and load them for you.