Vista not liking my chosen drive

Jecht

Jecht

Big Geek
i went to install vista ultimate from cd in windows, but when it asks me which drive i want to install on, it wont allow itself to be installed on the one drive i want it on. The drive i want it installed on is my Maxtor 300GB IDE drive. There is nothing wrong with the drive that i know of, because i had it as a secondary storage drive. now it says in a caution box when i have the drive selected...:

"This computers hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that this disk's controller is enabled in the BIOS menu.


note*i performed a full fresh reformat via manage disks within windows
 
In windows what program did you use? I think you need to set the drive as Active if you havent done so allready.

You did format as NTFS right?
 
Maybe the size of the partition is too big. Try to split the 300 GB harddrive in 3 partitions of 100 GB each. Now it should work.
 
yeah i did format to NTFS. i used the disk management tool in the properties of my computer under "manage". yeah the disk is also set to active, just like my windows drive.
 
i split them at 78.1, 78.1, and the remaining 123. it still says the same thing for all 3 partitions.
 
What is the 300gb drive set as, Slave? if so try set it as Master, then go itno Bios, and make sure in the Boot Device Priority that the Maxtor 300GB HDD is at the top in 1.
 
Ok, is the Maxtor in IDE Slot 1 or 2?, take the IDE Cable out with the HDD with Windows XP on, and put to IDE Cable with the 300GB Maxtor in its place, go to boot device priority in Bios, make sure the Maxtor is number 1.
 
Ah right Raid, no slave/master then i guess, well go into Bios, check the Boot Device Priority and check that the Maxtor is set to Number 1, thats if it still uses it....
 
thx for the help thus far guys

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
1. Create one or more partitions on all the hard disks that are not initialized.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Install Windows Vista.

i don't remember a step in xp having to initialize a disk and then format . :confused: ..only thing i remember ever having to do was install the hard disk and then right click then format. how am i supposed to do an initialization only? my maxtor has already been formatted , so how would i even start the process since windows sees it?

yeah willz i made the maxtor the 1st boot device before i even attempted to install vista. thx guys
 
Jecht said:
i don't remember a step in xp having to initialize a disk and then format .
Click to expand...
You do it when u hook a new hdd in ur computer........U go to disk management and there u will only see ur HDD on the RightHand Side bottom of the DM window... U right click on the drive and find a click to initialise the HDD.
 
well, i have 4 hdd's in my computer and they aren't new. how do i do the initialization process after i have already formated. because buying a new hdd just to install vista makes absolutely no sense to me.
 
Ahh...You dont need to do initialisation now coz they are already initialised.. But if you have any unallocated space on your HDD's then allocate them and give them a drive letter...I mean partition them as well! After doing this restart your computer and try to install the windows Vista on it.
 
maybe u guys see something i dont
 

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