Really hate to bug you guys with computer questions, but I'm at my wits end.

Bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320-GB Hard Drive, and using the Seagate software, partitioned it into 3 sections. I want to install my OS on one of the partitions (Non RAID), and here is where I'm running into trouble. When I was booting from the XP CD, it wouldn't recognize the SATA drive. Did a little research, and they mentioned something about having a supplimentary boot with a 3.5" floppy. So to the basement I went, dug out the drive, ripped open the tower and hooked it up. Coppied the files I needed, and started over.

After starting the boot from the XP CD-Rom, it will flip to the floppy, and the whole system hangs. Over and over. So I disconnected the floppy drive altogether. Unbeleivably, the same thing still happens! It starts booting, then hangs just as the screen goes blue. Can't get it to the point where I choose a drive or partition to install the OS. (I have two copies of XP and it does the same thing with both copies) Any thoughts?

The system still runs fine booting from the existing IDE drive. (XP Professional)

Also, during the initial start-up, the system BIOS recognizes the SATA drive, but XP (running on the existing IDE drive) doesn't.
Second also - after reading a bit more, I only need the floppy if I plan to set it up for RAID. (Which I don't)

System:
Motherboard: http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=K8Upgrade-VM800&s
Processor: AMD 754-pin Sempron 2800+ 1.6GHz
Memory: 768 Meg DDR 233Mhz
Video: GeForce 6200 / 256MB DDR / AGP 8x/4x / DVI / VGA / TV Out

I know, a little on the weak side but does what we need for now. (Surf, e-mail, MP3's)

Have you tried flashing the BIOS? It's either a button on the motherboard or a jumper that you move to the 'reset' position. Either way, leave it in the reset position for a little while (from 10 seconds to a couple minutes, depends how patient you are) and then put it back to the regular position and boot up again. This resets the motherboard's BIOS to factory defaults and should remove any changes that that floppy drive could have made. If you don't know where the jumper/button is, just look in your manual, or download one online if its available.

Another thing you can do is check the boot order in the BIOS. Its usually under its own tab called "Boot", "Boot order", or something similar. Just move the CD/DVD drive option up to the top so the first thing it does is load from the XP CD. Set it how you want after you're done installing the OS.

Actually, I found your problem. Have a read in the manual on the link you supplied on P.21. There's an option in the BIOS you need to change from "RAID" to "Non-RAID" for the operation of the SATA drives. If for some reason this doesn't work, the clear CMOS test I was talking about is on P.15.

Good Luck

Jason, thanks for the quick reply.

The RAID to non-RAID Bios change was done when the floppy drive was yanked back out and of course, the boot order from the very beginning.

I'll try the flash/re-set trick and see if that helps.

Thanks,

Flashing the CMOS did the trick. Thanks!

Now I just have to work on getting windows to see the other partitions......

Update:
Flashed the CMOS to re-set it, and no more hang.

So now, I am able to boot from the XP CD, (no floppy involved) and it see's a single 120G partition on the new drive. (But not the other 2) Installed XP to this "good" partition, but it said it couldn't copy [digiras.chm],[dmutil.dll], and [driver.cab]. I said "OK" anyway, the thing re-booted, and now does an endless loop of re-booting on that drive.

If I boot the old XP install off my IDE drive, everything still works - hence my ability to still email and surf. (but now it does see the one partition on the new drive) My MB does support 48-bit LBA, but to be safe I did 2 @120Gig and 1 @ 80Gig.

If I can't get it to go, I'll have to cave and install a fresh OS on an old IDE drive and use the Seagate software to do the transfer. That's what they want you to do in the first place. Bastards.

Ok first stop using seagate software to do your partitioning.
just boot again to the XP cd (does the dc already have service pack 2?) use xp to delete all partitions on new drive. then create 1 new partition of what ever size you like load onto that partion. once windows is loaded create the additional partitions to what ever size you like inside of disk management in windows. as far as the copy errors that is most of the time some sort of cd problem either drive or disk.
Jake

I second that. I've never had good luck with partitioning software provided by HDD manufacturers. I would boot to the XP CD and delete partitions etc as above. If that doesn't work, try hitting F6 when prompted "if you want to load a third party disk driver" when booting to the cd and load a newer version of the driver for you SATA chipset from floppy at the beginning of the XP install.