OS Installation in New Computer

[zippyjuan]

Newbie building first computer- troubles installing OS. First tried to use friend's backup copy of Win2000. Seemed to load, but won't boot all the way- sometimes not at all, but a couple of times I almost got through Set Up Wizard. After numerous tries, decided this is not working and went out and bought XP Home Ed. It hit an error during early stages of loading and aborted. Now all I get is a message "NTLDR Missing" and it asks me to try again. I can't get to anyplace where I can try to reload it again. The message from my ASUS A7N8X says all systems go- computer now booting from operating system- then the NTLDR Missing pops up. Won't boot. Any ideas? I can get into BIOS.
Using West Digital 80gb Special Ed- I have a boot floppy, but it won't work with XP or 2000.

[bachviet]

Restart everything from the beginning including format your hard drive.

[rajatQ2]

if you can use that western digital floppy disk you have, format your hard drive and delete all partitions. If you can, also format the master boot record. thats where NTLDR sits, you might have corrupted yours.


Then start again, as bachivet said. You might have to do a useless format, like format it once then let XP Home installer format it again, but its the best way to make sure the installer goes through.

you are using NTFS to format, not Fat32, right?

[zippyjuan]

Dark Fury got me started in the right direction. At least I can try to load the OS now. I still haven't been able to get past 65% of files loaded yet before it says it is quitting before it damages my computer. I still occasionally get the NTLDR message- but rarely. I am using NTFS formatting. The WD floppy only seems to like 32FAT- if I try to use it it says no 32FAT found.

[zippyjuan]

AlllRiGHtttt! Used Windows XP to do a new partion and reformat. Took a few more tries, but the OS is in!! It is going through set-up now. Thank you all!! I used default settings on everything for now. After loading, it re-booted to Windows page. Now I can start adding my other drivers.

[zippyjuan]

For those who may have problems with loading Windows XP- here is what worked:
1) Set BIOS for the hard drive to LBA instead of AUTO.
2)Repartition and format the harddrive with the Windows disc using NTFS.
This was a new harddrive set-up. Once I did these, the OS load went flawlessly
and quickly.I was amazed at the difference. I had been trying for hours before and this worked the first time!
Wow! This system is fast! I put together what a lot of others seem to be using-
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
Anthlon 2400+
2x Corsair PC2700 CL2 256mb each
WD 80gb Spec Ed w/8mb buffer
Ikebana DVD+r/+rw/CD-rw/CD-r
Logitech Elite Duo (wireless optical)
Antec Per Plus 1080 w/430w True Power
Thanks again to everybody for the help! I still have some drivers to install and I am waiting on a DVI cable for my 17" LCD.

[sbp]

Originally posted by zippyjuan
Dark Fury got me started in the right direction. At least I can try to load the OS now. I still haven't been able to get past 65% of files loaded yet before it says it is quitting before it damages my computer. I still occasionally get the NTLDR message- but rarely. I am using NTFS formatting. The WD floppy only seems to like 32FAT- if I try to use it it says no 32FAT found.

For a brief moment there I thought zippyjuan had given up smoking