Built My First New Computer

ZeOneZeOne
edited August 2007 in Hardware
Hello i am a new user to this forum, and i have recently created my own computer, i got all the parts off NewEgg of course, and am having a bit of difficulty getting the OS working, i set up all the hardware on my own but i am having trouble getting the operating system installed, i am using Vista for the soul reason of the new games that are only vista compatible but i set it all up on my own i have a dvd burner and a floppy drive, and i need to get vista to work but for some reason when ever i try and install it my hard drive doesn't show up on the list for places to install, and when ever i boot up my computer it gives me an error saying "Primary Master Hard Disk Error", i think i need drivers for my hard drive, but im not sure how to install that, or if thats even the problem, can i please have some help here?

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    ZeOne, we will be happy to help you. You are our kind of guy. But before we get to that: if your new computer is like the enormous run-on disaster of a sentence(?) you wrote above, your new computer is one big, amorphous lump of parts all fused together by force of a sledgehammer. Not pretty - and no parts distinguished one from another. (In other words, please just communicate in a standard format. No, AOL and MyFace are not standard.)

    Frankly, your post is painful to read. Try again. Don't make those wanting to help have work really hard to interpret the rambling.
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    well its this, when ever i start up my computer it says "primary master hard disk error press f1 to continue" so i follow along and start trying to install the operating system (vista), i get to a point where it asks where i want to install the software, yet my hard drive doesn't show up on the list, any thoughts?

    btw my hard drive is a Western Digital Caviar se16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 rpm 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Leonardo wrote:
    ZeOne, we will be happy to help you. You are our kind of guy. But before we get to that: if your new computer is like the enormous run-on disaster of a sentence(?) you wrote above, your new computer is one big, amorphous lump of parts all fused together by force of a sledgehammer. Not pretty - and no parts distinguished one from another. (In other words, please just communicate in a standard format. No, AOL and MyFace are not standard.)

    Frankly, your post is painful to read. Try again. Don't make those wanting to help have work really hard to interpret the rambling.

    Ouch.
    ZeOne wrote:
    well its this, when ever i start up my computer it says "primary master hard disk error press f1 to continue" so i follow along and start trying to install the operating system (vista), i get to a point where it asks where i want to install the software, yet my hard drive doesn't show up on the list, any thoughts?

    btw my hard drive is a Western Digital Caviar se16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 rpm 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

    It almost sounds like it needs the SATA drivers for the the SATA controller on the system, but as I recall Vista had those built in. But the disk error message sounds funny.... do you get that after POST like during the actual install of windows, or right when the computer turns on?

    Check your BIOS and see if the drive shows up in the list of devices attached...

    A quick google search for an image to help....
    bios4.gif
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    It says that when i boot up the computer, and upon trying to install vista my hard drive doesn't even show up on the list
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    OK... does it show up in your BIOS?
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    How exactly do i check that?
  • ThelemechThelemech Victoria Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    I believe if you hit F8? at startup it will take you to your BIOS. And although you probably have already done so - maybe cracking the case and checking (maybe even re-attaching) the connections for the hard drive, just to be sure?

    Oh and welcome to Icrontic! :bigggrin:
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Usually the DEL(delete) key or one of the F keys, but usually DEL
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    lol thanks, i have had to open and close the case so many times in the past few days that at this point when im sitting here working on it i leave it open, i have tried disconnecting and reconnecting EVERYTHING to and from the hard drive, even power, so i know thats not the problem, but ill try going into bios now and seeing if the hard drive is even working, umm F8 and delete didnt work, let me try every other F key
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    okay for some reason neither delete nor any of the F keys worked to boot me into the BIOS, any other thoughts? I was thinking about pulling a hard drive out of one of my other computers and trying to use that one, see if it worked.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Well read the manual... sometimes when it's booting up it says to press a button to goto "setup" for example.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    It seems like it should be F2 to enter the BIOS. ZeOne, on some laptops there's only maybe one second or less to hit the right key. Look for a message that reads "Hit X to Enter Setup," where X is the key. Maybe none of us have given the right key! Sorry, laptops seem to be all different from each other.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    Yes, "setup" is exactly what you want. That's another term for 'BIOS Settings.'
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    Ok, well when ever i try and enter setup it seems like it freezes, but ill leave it running and see if it will load up setup, but theres something else BBS POPUP which i can enter by pressing F8 while SETUP is pressing delete, do you know which one i should be entering?
  • dnorf87dnorf87 Northern Virginia
    edited August 2007
    Post your system specs. Everything from the motherboard, to the power supply, to the case. (well not really, but you get the idea.)
  • ZeOneZeOne
    edited August 2007
    I think i got it figured out, i tested my hdd drive on my friends cpu and it didnt work there either, so i guess newegg just sent me a faulty one, so i just sent it back and am getting a new one soon.

    Thanks for all the help though guys, although i have to say i re-read my first post and it honestly doesnt seem that confusing, although i guess different minds just think differently.

    P.S. its not myface, its facebook or myspace, u need to spend a bit more time on social networks :-) OHH and aol as a chat client is for like dinosaurs, its AIM, nice try tho u got the A.
Sign In or Register to comment.