PLEASE HELP!!! I have spent over 10 hours trying

[skylinepigeon]

Here are your board drivers: ASRock > Products > Motherboard > P55M Pro > Download

I wonder why it only lists SATA RAID drivers. ANYONE HAVE SATA DRIVERS FOR THIS BOARD?

The AHCI driver on the disk might suffice for now.

Confirm on first BIOS page you have latest BIOS update.

I have the first release of the BIOS driver 1.00. I am a little afraid of updating my bios... could you guide me through it??

Could this be the cause??

 

[skylinepigeon]

Yeah, I deleted everything XP formatted using Gparted, and created a 60gig partition like a previous user directed me to

I have used this countless rimes with no error, yet when I tell someone else to use it, they have problems.

LOL, and I bet millions of users around the country have upgraded to windows 7 without problems...

sigh. this really sucks.

 

[gregrocker]

Sorry to bust in here but, can you take your HDD to another computer and check it for errors? Those errors sound like maybe a bad sector on HDD.

Very good idea. Read failures are normally: 1)ISO,Burn, 2)OS, 3)HD errors files/surface

Stand by will download WD Lifeguard diagnostics into this post to burn to CD - Won't let me download GWScan (WD Lifeguard bootable) ISO, so here is app to extract, find ISO in C:Cabs file, burn to CD using ImgBurn at 4x with verify.

Just boot the CD from where HD is and run full diagnostics.

You can also zero HD after doing full diagnostics/repair. Also run chkdsk [drive:] /f from DVD command line to completely clear HD.

View attachment 40776
View attachment 40775

 

[skylinepigeon]

i am writing it right now.

 

[skylinepigeon]

well, when i boot from the wd disc, it "starting caldera dos" shows up, and then the screen goes black and nothing else happens....

 

[gregrocker]

Here are your board drivers: ASRock > Products > Motherboard > P55M Pro > Download

I wonder why it only lists SATA RAID drivers. ANYONE HAVE SATA DRIVERS FOR THIS BOARD?

The AHCI driver on the disk might suffice for now.

Confirm on first BIOS page you have latest BIOS update.

I have the first release of the BIOS driver 1.00. I am a little afraid of updating my bios... could you guide me through it??

Could this be the cause??

After checking HD and getting AHCI driver into installer, need to resolve SATA drivers (replaced by AHCI?) then consider BIOS upgrade. Others ideas?

 

[skylinepigeon]

well, seeings that the wd checker didn't work, i have downloaded the gwscan and am now in the process of scanning the hard disk.

Progress report: QUICK TEST COMPLETED WITHOUT ERRORS. now on to full media scan

Estimated time remaining an hour and a half.

Thank you Greg for sticking with me this entire time. Your support is truly appreciated

 

[gregrocker]

WD Support > Downloads > SATA & SAS > WD Caviar Black

 

[skylinepigeon]

well i just finished the complete scan and it found no errors. :/

 

[gregrocker]

Now boot into WIn7 DVD Repair Command Line and run chkdsk /f

 

[skylinepigeon]

X:\sources> comes up

and i type chkdsk/f

but it says,

The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected

 

[skylinepigeon]

i tried again without the /f and this time a long list of things is spit out with "Windows has checked the file system and found no problems" at the end

 

[gregrocker]

OK the hard drive is clean.

Suggest you focus on getting that AHCI to work, inserting AHCI driver you found on CD into installer at Custom screen, whether that is sufficient for SATA controller.

Maybe someone can answer why your board had defaulted to IDE. Was that because AHCI driver needed to be installed first? Does it replace SATA drivers which are not found so far for that board, or on its downloads page? Would installer have had IDE emulation drivers or was that a bogus setting since you have SATA drives?

I asked SIW2 to look at this as it needs higher expertise, or deeper Googling.

 

[skylinepigeon]

The drive setting is AHCI already. I tried installing with the AHCI drivers installed, but the same thing happened, except for one time when the expanding reached 93% and adifferent error occurred:

0xc0000005 Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation

 

[gregrocker]

If Vista install is experiencing the same fail (or similar), and it's not BIOS settings, how about Memory.

Try install with one then the other gigstick.

Have you tested it with memtest bootable CD? I'd run it overnight tonight.

 

[skylinepigeon]

i will try that tonight. thank you for your suggestions. I have school during the week so I probably won't be able to work on it again until next weekend.

Once again. Thanks.

Do you think that it's the BIOS???? Perhaps a BIOS Update?

 

[gregrocker]

I was just thinking about that. Those additional BIOS Updates listed on Downloads page came fast and furious since August, so they might well have to do with these install issues

http://www.asrock.com/MB/download.asp?Model=P55M%20Pro&o=All

You need to find out first if they are cumulative, as some BIOS updates are, or if you have to install them all sequentially. I would also want a way to recover from failure.

Can you question your mobo tech support about this? I always use phone tech support (to call back until I get answer), but you might want to chat or send them an e-mail with the relevant questions since you need to spread this out during school week.

 

[skylinepigeon]

will do.

 

[gregrocker]

Keep the thread active and check back in as you go along so others can chime in.

Since SIW2 was in here awhile and didn't post it is a real tough one, indeed.

But there is an answer out there.

Also, please fill in your System Specs as the smart guys wanna see em or they will often go away

 

[aravinda]

yea skylinepigeon, looks like our problems are very similar.