installing fresh XP on 36gig 10krpm SATA HELP!

[timsmx6]

Ohhhh God, this is a mess! So.. I'm just simply trying to make a hot video editing computer here folks. I chose a 36 gig 10k to simply run the OS and any actual program (adobe premiere pro) and the other Adobes. That's it. THe computer won't even touch the internet to keep it clean and pure with no hicups (crosses fingers).

Now.. not sure if anyone's ever done this, but I just bought the whole set up, it came in today. AMD 939 2.4 dual core processor on a MB ABIT AT8 32X RD580 939. I have 3 hd's to be running here, 36 gig OS hard drive, a 150gig 10krpm project drive and a 400 gig mass storage drive. I'm trying to simply install windows XP onto the 36 gig sata drive. HOW DO I DO THIS?!?! When I go to create a partitian, it only gives me the option of how big and not a NTFS option. The 400 gig HD does allow a NTFS partition option, but becuase I cannot partitian the 36 gig drive at all, it simply doesn't allow me to install windows on it!

Even worse, I started to load it on the 400 gig, but then shut it off after about 2 minutes cuz I started reading about slipstreaming and figured I could do that.. but got really confused and had no idea how to go about doing this. Now my computer says error loading operating system, press any key to boot from CD.. what do I DO!??!

any help?

[LLXX]

Does it detect the drive?

If the WinXP install-time partitioner does not work, a DOS boot disk and FDISK will.

[timsmx6]

yeah, it recognizes the drives.. all 3 of em.. but... get this.. out of a wim, I unplugged the 400 gig so I could boot to CD again... and now.. suddenly it's partioning the 36gig 10k?!?! So... let's see if this suddenly works, if so I'll just get windows going and install the 400 gig later... no biggy there wish me luck! Thanks A LOT for ur quick reply though!

[nitroshift]

[...]wish me luck![...]

Good luck!

[Andromeda43]

Just for grins and giggles, and MUCH Safety, never leave secondary drives hooked up when setting up a new drive. With just one little slip, you could be formatting the wrong drive.

If you FDISk and Format the new drive with a Windows ME boot Disk, for instance (that's all that I use), then you will have a HD set up for FAT-32.

That's the only way I ever set up a new HD.

At least by then, you know that the drive is working and being seen properly by the mobo.

Then when you install XP from an Install CD, it will generally ask you if you want to keep the current format or create a NTFS format. (something I would NEVER do)

Then the install should procede normally. NO Problemo!

Cheers!

Andromeda43 B)