Cannot Install XP, why? (boot error)

[JDawn 0]

Ive installed 95,98,2000 probably 100's of times, but i cannot solve this problem with XP. IT installed fine for me on a couple of friends system (they're using basically the same system as me)

 

There are two problems i'm having that i think are related.

I bought a new HD, so I went into disk managment in win2k and created a 60gb NTFS partition. did a full format. tested out OK. I shut down the system and disconnected all my hard disks except my new drive, the 60gb. I boot off of my WINXP CD (this is just like w2k) and i get to the menu where you choose which partition to install WINXP and my drive is shown as 60gb partition and "UNKNOWN" file system!! (but i had just formatted it with NTFS and it was FINE!) SO i decide to let winxp setup delete the partiton and reformat it again with NTFS, seems to work out OK. after the copying files process winxp setup reboots the machine and i get the WINXP startup screen, and after about 7 seconds into starting up i get a black/blue screen with the error "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME"

 

ive re-installed multiple times now and always the same problem.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

thanks.

[JDawn 0]

Yes, winxp would not install (boot) off a HD installed in the main IDE controller on my board (Epox 8k7a+)(AMD761+ViA-686B) but it installs fine and runs fine if i boot off of and use the HPT370 raid controller (though xp's drivers for this suck, i highly reccomend using highpoints most recent WIN2k drivers once XP is installed.)

 

an an Epox 8k7a (w/o the raid card) xp will install fine.

 

odd.

[JDawn 0]

Really? Mabye its because you're using RAID, i'm just using the raid controller like another IDE Controller.. looks like an issue Microsoft needs to fix

 

Also i'm using 4k clusters on my boot drive with no problems (60 gig NTFS on the HPT370)

 

Right now i'm pretty unhappy with drivers for the VIA ide controller (686B southbridge)

Microsofts will not support DMA with my plextor CD writer (which makes burning CDs a chore and a slow reader)

 

With VIA's 2k drivers my DVD rom seems to be limited to 16.6 m/b transfer even though it's listed as using UDMA 2 in device manager

AND I cannot play DVDs, the only way to get video is to load the .vob files manually in powerDVD, but i get an error/lockup if i just try to 'play the dvd'

 

So i will use microsofts for now, hopefully VIA will release XP drivers soon.