BleepingComputer.com: XP install Drive letter issue

I am trying to do a fresh install of XP on a blank drive that has been wiped. It keeps wanting to assign drive letter F: to the drive. It is detecting 2 onboard media slots as drives even though they are empty. My first thought was to simply unplug the so they would not be detected, gowever they ar built into the motherboard with no wires to unplug.

System is an Asus P1 barebones. It has 1 HDD . Any suggestions?

Can the media slots be disabled in the BIOS?

Not that I could find. Have decided to install windows using another pc then move hard drive back and see what happens. Asus has not responded to my support request.

Thanks.

miztrniceguy, on 17 August 2011 - 01:52 PM, said:

That won't work. Is anything plugged into usb ports?

Could you look for Cardbus on your BIOS and Disable it?
After that please installing your WinXP again.

Installing WinXP on another computer sometimes wouldn't boot if you switch Mainboard.

If those slots are not set as bootable in the BIOS...there is no way that they should interfere with a clean install of Windows. Even if they are bootable...they should have no impact on doing a clean install with a valid MS XP install CD. Such installs happen every day on systems, with no consideration of such media slots.

Since you don't mention what media you are attempting this exercise with...please tell us.

XP CDs do not necessarily perform well with pre-formatted hard drives. I suggest deleting everything on drive from the XP CD...then starting the install process, as XP CDs are set up to do.

http://www.asus.com/Barebone_PC/P_Series_0811L/P1AH1/#specifications . From looking at the specs/description, it appears to me that Asus may have created/installed partitions on the hard drive. Eliminating the Windows partition would have no impact on other partitions which may have been created.

Louis

abauw, on 17 August 2011 - 02:13 PM, said:

hamluis, on 18 August 2011 - 10:53 AM, said:

Thanks for the responses, which all basically said it won't work to install on another pc, and which were all wrong. And no there not an option in bios to disable them.

I am up and running. Here's what i did:

1.took bare drive out
2. Unplugged drive in second working pc (hp i previously gutted and put in new mobo, processor ram hdd and multi optical drive)
3. Plugged in bare drive and installed windows xp completely but no updates.
4. Put hdd back into Asus and started it up.
5. Upon BSOD inserted windows xp disk and instructed it to repair the install.

Presto !! I now have Windows installed with correct drive letter and have done all updates including SP3 etc.

All is working perfectly.

Yes, a repair install in this instance will generally (though not always) work as you found out - but that wasn't what you asked. Anyway, glad you're up and running - thanks for the update.