its been while since I have been here. Life is busy. My computer has stayed most part 4+ year unchanged:
Antec Solo
Asus M4A97
Phenom II BE 955
8 GB Kingston 1333 DDR3
500GB Smasung HDD
1 TB Samsung
2 TB WD
Seasonic X550 W PSU.
So with tax returns I orderd
AMD FX4300
Fractal Design R5 Blackout Edition
Asus M5A97 Rev.
So... Day 1:
Change build, load HDD with 7 and XP in normal dual boot. No boot. I try to put DVD in for foxing, nothing. 3 Hours later I have to get on night shift. Computer is as it is. Powers on. But no OS yet.
Day 2:
I get SSD, 128GB Adata Sp660. Next 4 hours go as I try to get XP installed. most errors are 0x0000005 or 0x000007B. I finally get it installed. 0x0000005's were that my Sata Controllers were at ACHI mode, changing them to IDE worked. Disabling Secure Boot and Uefi helped in XP installation. After pressing F5 in XP installation and taking another installation Achi compatible installation profile it installed everthing fine. Then I just downloaded ACHi drivers from asus, installed new hardware, installed them, removed both primary IDE controllers, rebooted, changied Sata mode to ACHI and voilá XP booted and installed AMD ACHI raid controller. Man its fast. I still got 2 hours before nightshift begins so I put Win 7 DVD and hit everything goes well, except when it hits partition section. When I try to install left over 80 GB drive, its says MBR and GPT prevents installation. So... I whipe out installation, install 7 instead, make partitions. I have working 7 now, not activated yet.... but no active XP.
Day 3:
I get another SSD as I have given up to make it dual boot via windows boot loader, instead 1 HDD 1 OS and use F8 to select different HDD when I need to use XP (which is rare but still needed time to time) I pop 2 SDD in. Well, Then Win 7 went haywire and did not boot. I managed to get XP working but then after 2nd WIn 7 installation when I had both SDD's on installation did something odd. short version:
6 hours later, I have working Windows 7 not activated after 2 Installation as it decided to go haywire. XP installations fail again. When I am walking at work, I remember I forgot to take out my PCI USB 2.0 expasion card and Asus Xonar soundcard which probably were reason XP failed again installation.
At day 3 nightshift I am typing this. Normal routine to take about 6 hours has taken now almost 21 hours and almost doubled my budget. I am slightly annoyed. If I would have decided to quit on dual boot via Windows Boot Loader since XP is so old system and went earlier 1 HDD 1 OSS system I would have had system up and running.
Both SDD's work and I've installed 4x Win 7 sucessfully and 2x Windows XP. But I still have no working XP yet. I think Day 4 is deciding factor.
I just had to share this
Pictures will be done once I get XP installed on my SDD again and I get it work via F8. At this point, old school computer person like me I can only say one thing: I hate new UEFI... I really do. If I fail installing XP, I prolly stick this SSD my old computers carcass with M4A97 and BE 955 in Solo but I lack PSU so I need to remove my Seasonic for it... With that much older Motherboard, installation of XP should be enough easy to make it on different computer and when files are installed, stick it back in computer and then use F8 to select it, and put all the drivers and software needed... That is my back up plan and I see how it goes. But in the morning of Day 4 after I've slept few hours after night shift, I will pop out my expansion cards and Install XP again in IDE mode like in Day 2. I just hope everything works this time...
My original plan was just to pop everything in, upgrade drivers in Windows 7 like last time and then re-install XP.... Alas that was not the case... *sighs* Damn you Murphy!!
Edit:
Day #4
I managed to install XP after I Slipstreamed Sata drivers into XP installation disc with nLite. Installation needed 2 installations as first one didn't want to install drivers. After XP was done, I installed all programs and rest drivers to Seven on different SSD. Now I have two SSD's and Two OS'. I have no bootloader, but I switch system with F8. It works perfectly.
Day #5. Seven's installation was completed, it was activated and all Hard drivers were installed. Old Samsung 500 GB was copied to new WD 500 GP Green. Side Panels were closed and computer is now Finished... Man... I'll order Pizza to celebrate this. I counted together 13 Windows Installations during 5 days...