Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
The BIOS setting are all in their default state - I did that several times.
The drive will not format nor can the partition be deleted.
did I miss any questions above?
I have not slipped newer drivers in, but perhaps somehow a program did that.
re 32 vs 64bit drivers, I have not seen anything on any screen about that as a choice - I am just following the install directions... making the choices outlined above - and I have made every choice you can on the whole install decision tree.
Now, one question: should the machine be able to do something with the motherboard CD in drive D: first? i.e. before I put the Windows System Builder CD in?
IS there anything I can do by interrupting the BIOS via the Del key?
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The motherboard CD contains the drivers for the various components on the board, audio, video, etc. It may be bootable, and may have some sort of diag program or installation helper application however that's normally reserved for the larger manufactures.
Windows in this case cannot correctly access the hard drive in it's current state. The BIOS on the machine is likely correct since windows knows about the drive and it's geometry. The BIOS settings that may be suspect would be the boot order. The HDD needs to be in the boot order somewhere.
Recover the data on the drive using an external enclosure or another host computer, and then re-install as suggested above. That would be the path of least resistance right now.
If the drive is physically bad then windows will probably not install even on a cleaned drive. If the problem is software then a clean install will correct that.