My computer is now stuck in a rebooting loop~

[BentoBox]

My computer is about 6 years old iirc. The ISO is SP3... But it was downloaded, so that might be another source of problem... I might have to consider buying another XP, sigh.

I used nLite to slipstream all the drivers found on my motherboard's CD [ASUS P5VD2-VM SE] (and it did contain some sata drivers), created a new iso and burnt that on a CD... But the only thing that changed is that it froze on "Loading windows setup" for 5 minutes, literally, before telling me, again, that my HD could not be detected. I'll try creating one more ISO with drivers found on ASUS' website (which might be more updated)...

What I don't understand is how I managed to re-install windows XP so many times in the past using the CDs given by the manufacturer (when I bought my PC)... I just had to lose the first disk =/

Thanks a lot for the help so far! Really appreciated~

 

[KSoD]

Have you gone into the BIOS and set your SATA to run in IDE mode or as BIOS's call it ACHI mode turned off?

 

[BentoBox]

It was running in IDE by default~

 

[KSoD]

If it was running in IDE mode by default then does teh BIOS see the drive? There shouldnt have even been a need for the SATA Drivers if IDE mode was default.

 

[BentoBox]

Yeah, the BIOS did indeed detect the HD, and the problem still occured.

Anyways, I went and bought a legit XP and I was able to re-install windows... Some XPs do indeed come with SATA drivers it seems.

 

[KSoD]

No. As i stated above, if IDE mode is default the SATA Drivers are not needed. So it could very well be that the disk is not ready for SATA Drives. But if it has SP3 it could also have them as they did include some generic SATA Drivers on that install disc.

 

[BentoBox]

I did not want to lose all my files, so I simply overwrote the previous windows folder. Now, I have 4 different my documents folders. My Program Files folder still contains all the programs I had before the installation, except that none of said programs actually feature in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Tool~ And as a result, some of the programs work while some others I have to re-install... Browsing the internet feels a lot more sluggish too. Never before did this happen after installing windows.

I ran the registry cleaner and it found 300+ problems... Re-installing windows does allow me to use my comp now, but it hasn't solved much otherwise~

I think I'd like to reformat the entire disk and start fresh, but I really don't feel like burning 150GB of data on DVDs so I was wondering if it was possible to partition my HD in 2, to store all my files on one partition (music, vids, excel/word/pdf docs, etc) and format and re-install windows on the main partition? (and possibly get rid of the second partition once everything is done)

 

[Hampton]

Check out gparted, If you have enough empty space to create the partition while leaving current files intact, you may delete the folder marked "windows old" that should help free up space. Then use gparted to create your new partition and then copy your files over to that.