when trying to load Xp from disk... it won't!

[Inaris]

matters not. The shipsets are part of the Mobo drivers. There are times when yes, you do need to update them, but the system will still beable to load up on it. The advanced parts are where the OS will have trouble at first, but it will see it even if it's a totally new chipset.

 

[dafydd_brown]

Yeah if I try to boot up as normal it freezes at 'verifying DMI pool data'... and someone suggested that I try booting from the Xp disc... which caused all the problems I've talked about..
The BIOS recognizes all my hardware.. and the memtest passed everything. Is it possible that the age of the hard drive could have something to do with it? But I only bought it three years ago and the newer one was less than a year ago.

 

[TheMajor]

I don't think age matters. my drives are older and I neve had problems.

 

[Inaris]

boot into safemode. Then go thought the device manager and uninstall the system devices. Uninstall them all, and the reboot. This should force discovery to run.
that should help...

 

[ShoobieRat]

The chipset matters if the chipset is controlling your IDE chain (which in most cases it does). Depending on your chipset, and your mobo-manufacturer's recommendations, you may need to install seperate chipset drivers, aside from your mobo drivers.

 

[dafydd_brown]

Well I took the second hard disk out and upon starting up and booting from the Xp disc it took me through the whole process as before but deleted the old copy of windows I had and installed the new one. Then it rebooted but now it keeps saying 'error loaing operating system' and when I try and boot from the cd again it gives me the blue screen error with 'windows has shutdown to prevent damage to your computer'...
So if I try to boot from the hard drive it won't work and if I try to boot from the Xp cd it won't work either...

 

[ShoobieRat]

Check your BIOS. After you yanked that drive out, are the BIOS still looking at the right HDD?

What kind of drives are these?

 

[dafydd_brown]

Right! I've finally manage to get the damn thing working... Don't ask me what I did though... it was a mixture of stubborness and luck i guess... Now I've just got to figure out how to work around having a dodgy copy of Xp... I had a legit one once! but oh-no I couldn't keep it when i changed the hard ware...
Thanks for all your help! This forum really is a gold mine!