[hj3]

Hello. I have a Maxtor IDE 200GB hard drive that I'm installing onto a computer. I want this drive to be the primary hard drive. When I plug the drive into the computer and motherboard, the computer identifies it. However, the problems start when I go to install the OS - Windows XP. Here's what I did:

1st, I went to do a clean erase of the drive to ensure it was completely blank. I used WipeDrive Software, which detected the hard drive. When I went through the prompts and finally got to erasing it, it didn't show any progression (the % of the drive wiped clean). I figured that since the drive was clear there's nothing to erase so I restarted my computer and went to install the OS. I booted from the cd. The OS identified my drive and the partition space, and I installed the OS software. At the point when the OS software restarted, at which the next point in the installation process would be to set up your settings, it didn't get that far. It got to the startup screen (the POST), identified the devices, then the message came up to boot from cd. I left that alone because I knew I had to continue with the installation and that it should proceed to settings, but the black background with white letters identigying devices just stayed on the screen. I waited 10 minutes, then 20 minutes and finally after a half hour passed, I restarted my computer. Same thing. I decided to experiment and changed startup options to hard drive first. Same thing instead of at the bottom stating "Press any key to boot from cd" it now states "Verifying DMI Pool Data". All the while, the orange light is steady - it doesn't blink, it just remains steady lit like the green power light. What could be going wrong? Thank you & have a good day.

[seahwk83]

See if some info on this site helps

How to Format Drive and Install Windows from Scratch
Geek to Live: How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch