possibly a hard drive failure?

[mixah]

Hi, I'm in the process of building a computer, and I ran into a problem that I never had before.

I cannot install an operating system. I've tried two backups of Win XP Pro, an OEM of Win XP Home, and two original Linux discs, and I can't install any. It seems that I cannot go passed about 400MB (it's an 80GB MDT hard drive). The reason I believe that it could be a hard drive problem is that the mainboard takes an unusually long time to detect the IDE devices, mainly the HD. If I unplug the HD, it boots up normally.

I have an LG CD burner on the secondary IDE, and the HD on the main IDE.

Any tips would be greatly appriciated

 

[SHAWN]

Go to the vendors website and download their diag tool for the hard drive and run it.

 

[mixah]

the tool doesn't need an OS, right?

 

[BVR]

Could still be a controller on the mobo. Try pluging in another IDE device see what happens

 

[mixah]

ok, so another device works fine... i changed the HD to CS, and it loads up normally

however, when i start, now i get a CMOS Checksum error - Defaults Loaded

therefore, i cannot install an operating system, because i can't save it to the cmos. could that be the battery? i tried resetting the mobo already, and updated the drivers...