Dell Optiplex GX280 and GX270. OS Windows XP Will locate Maxtor DiamondMax hard drive when booting and formating Will not locate Western Digital Caviar hard drive when booting or formating, why?
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try doing a F disk on the hard drive first then format it and make it the active drive and then try installing the xp software. if it has had another operating system say for instance windows ME it will not install on that drive without removing it. You can also go to www.maxtor.com and download their free hard drive tools to see if there is a problem that thier software can fix. the software is for free.
Does anything show up on the screen when you access your BIOS? Have you tried a fresh install? Are there two video adapters installed (one integrated and the other in the AGP slot?
Check the settings of the internal setups. This is using the BIOS itself and hitting a particular key before anything happens. On some machines it is F1 or the DEL key. In the basic setup there are settings for the boot order and floppy drives and HD type. Make sure these are set correctely.
ALSO on one of mine I have to use a formatting/partitioning program supplied by the HD manufacturer (in this case Maxtor) to pre-prepare the drive beofre trying to install WIndows.
No compatibility problem in your case. XP should work well with Dell optiplex gx280. Try re-installing the OS, there is problem with the OS version you had used to install.Rate me if it is useful!!
The problem is the driver for the sata hard drive. You would need to get that from the dell site and put it on a floppy disk, then at the start of the windows install select to install that driver. I ended up just installing the rc version of windows 7 and it worked out fine.
If you are getting bad block reports on your hard drive, it means that your hard drive media has suffered some degradation. It could very well be that some system files are being affected by this, thus continually triggering the problem. You may not like the suggestion I have, but it looks to me like the most solid solution (saving you hours and hours of troubleshooting).
Backup all files from your hard drive, save all of your browser shortcuts to backup files, then perform another Windows XP installation with a low level format of the hard drive. I know a PC specialist with many years of experience that says hard drives develop faulty areas over time and that every 5 years or so, it's just best to back up data from the hard drive and perform a low level format. This resets the device completely. If there are any faulty areas on the disk, they are skipped over--to the operating system, the drive will be perfectly fine.
This is not a guaranteed solution, but it sounds to me like it will eliminate a lot of possible culprits for you. Good luck.
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