Reformatted computer, but have problems..

[ruderitalin]

ok heres my problem. I wanted to reformat windows so I went into "windows xp proffesional setup"(booted to recovery disk).I have 2 internal hard drives, so I deleted them both. then I installed windows on 1 of them and turned the other into a partition (so that windows would recognize it). after I turned the second drive into a partition and pressed f3 to exit, I got the message...

"Windows XP is not completly set up on your computer. If you quit setup now, you will need to run setup again to set up windows XP.

>to continue setup press enter
>to quit setup, press F3"

, so I just thought thats weird and exited because I knew I had installed windows on the first drive. everything works fine except when I restart the computer without the recovery disk inside, before windows starts I get the message "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". if I go into "windows xp professional setup" and then press f3 to exit it gives me the message "Windows XP is not completly set up on your computer. If you quit setup now.......".

Recently the message, "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" has changed to...

"
Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.

Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."


What is wrong and how do I fix it?

I could just change my boot order, but Im concerned this might be causing my computer problems that I cannot see.

Another thing I wanted to know.. Is what I did supposed to work? Because Im not very experienced with reformatting computers.

Another thing I should probably mention is that I had a new motherboard installed recently and apparently 1 of the hard drives had to be connected unconventionally because there wasnt enough particular types of ports or something.


I thought of a solution for my problem that I havent tryed yet... I will install windows on one drive, then instead of turning the other drive into a partition using "windows setup" I will go inside windows and search for new hardware,as a different way of detecting the other drive,hopefully without problems. I havent tryed this yet though. I was wondering what you guy thought of this solution and if I should go through with it.

Sorry for the barrage of information and questions

[Mak213]

You will have to format and reinstall Windows. Leave the other drive alone for now and get Windows installed on the first drive. There is ways to get the 2nd drive taken care of from within Windows.

[ruderitalin]

Originally Posted by Makaveli213

You will have to format and reinstall Windows. Leave the other drive alone for now and get Windows installed on the first drive. There is ways to get the 2nd drive taken care of from within Windows.

Sweet, thanks. I will most likely take your advice. But, in addition, I will dissconect the second drive before I format and reinstall windows. Then I will recconect it once everything is set up and stable. The reason I will do this is because I have posted my question on many other forums and multiple people have advised to me to do this. What do you think of this aproach?

[Mak213]

It is unecessary. As long as the drive is not the drive you are installing to it should not complicate things at all. I have 3 hard drives not including the External and i never remove any of them when installing.