New build, boot problems

[CBJ023]

Ok just built my new PC yay! Only it won't boot... I checked everything the 8gb of ram are recognized, so is the processor, HDD, DVD drive, Graphics card, and USB slots. When I try to boot it gives me a blue screen with a warning saying that it had problems and one said the bios might not be updated. (Windows XP 32bit was installed on the HDD prior to build) I knew it wasn't installed so I tried putting in the dvd and tried updating. I got this message: generate serial ata driver diskette? (y/n) Yes or no this pops up and asks to restart: No supported drive found: Floppy 1.44mb and USB drive! So what do I do? It will start in safe mode and I was able to install the disk for my GTX 660 but for that I went into the systems menu under hardware found video and updated I didn't seen any for the motherboard. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[OhSnapWord]

Ok, here we go...

1. When building a new machine, always install the OS after the machine is built. Never install the OS on the hard drive then build around it. It will cause all sorts of problems. You might be able to boot into safe mode and uninstall every single driver for the system, then boot into normal mode and have the OS reinstall the drivers, but this is an extraordinary pain in the arse.

2. 32 bit OS and 8GB of RAM don't mix since a 32 bit OS is only capable of addressing up to 4GB of RAM.

3. If you're intent on installing XP on that machine, it will be easiest to slipstream the drivers in the install disk. nLite is a nice tool for this. Otherwise, if the installer can't find drivers for the HDD controller, you will need to press F6 to install the third party drivers, which in XP has to be from a floppy disk.

Ultimately, your solution would be performing a fresh install of a 64 bit OS.

 

[CBJ023]

Ah ok, was hoping I could buy everything then just wait on the new harddrive and WIn 7 64 bit, I guess I'll just wait a few months and get that rather than mess around and try to get it to work with this, I got this message when trying to install from the dvd in safe mode: 'Drivers cannot be loaded, re-install the program may fix the issue, if it happens again, report with your system configuration as detail as possible' Also would restoring the harddrive remove all prior drivers and make it easier? there's nothing on it I care about losing other than the OS