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This is rather funny.

I just built a new computer yesterday with an A7N8X motherboard, and a WD hard drive.

I also had the exact same problem.

I had set up the HD as master, with a CDRW slaved to it. Jumpered it all, etc.

Ran setup, which installed the setup data on the HD.. then rebooted.

BIOS couldn't detect the boot sector on the HD, so it looped back into booting from CD, re-running setup, etc.

Turns out the HD, which I had jumpered for 'master with slave present' needed to be on 'cable select', which it was jumpered to when I pulled it from the anti-static bag.

Anyway, rejumpered to cable select on the WD, and my XP install went like budder.

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After building a new computer, how long does it take for XP to check out the hardware before beginning the install?

For the last few higher-end systems I put together, I find WinXP takes a long time to check system hardware and load drivers before it starts installing. Maybe cuz it doesn't recognize a lot of the new hardware.

Personally, if I had a system with just one hard drive and one optical drive, I would put them on seperate IDE channels and make them both master which would likely give better performance.

Do I need to format the HD prior to running setup?

Nope, the WinXP installation routine lets you partition and format HDs from the CD. No more floppy disks (unless you are installing the OS on a RAID) and fdisk :P

In any case, sounds like an issue with the HD. Hopefully just jumpers. I've had the occasional hard drive that came DOA.

Also, if your mobo came with it, use the blue 80-pin IDE Cable for the HD to get the ATA/100 speeds.

Edited by CR6
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Here is what I found the problem to be. Now remember that I have built mine with 2 HDs vs. just one. I had put the jumper in the Master w/slave slot instead of just taking it out. Once I done that, the new box saw the drive and I was able to start the install.

I see now that I had done the same thing as Dannik did. Imagine that. ;)

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Attention, jumpers are always a good starting place. :whistle: Lots of hard drives like cable select because most manufactures want to take the thinking out of the process. Ends up most home user didn't get the memo. :lol:

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