Windows Wont Proceed Into GUI Install Section

I have this problem with two seperate, completely new drives. To install Windows XP, i make one hard drive the primary master on one cable, and the same for the CD-Rom on the second cable. I have formatted partitions both with the Western Digital Data Tools and with the XP install program. Setup copies files and restarts so that it may go into the GUI part of the installationm and i take the CD out. However, after "verifying DMI" the system just hangs, not getting to the boot.ini. it just hangs. it is not frozen, but it does not do anything. this happens with two new drives, a 160 Seagate 7200 and a 200gig Western Digital 7200rpm.

Specs:
Asus A7n8x Deluxe (Nvidia2 Chipset)
GeForce 6200
1gig ram

Thanks

 

Thanks for the replies. I started the process all over again and kept the CD in the cdrom, and i still received an error which prevented the bootup.

 

suggestions:

if u'r bios supports the drive, do NOT use the WD tools to initialize the drive. let win do it. often the tools install a soft bios shim to overcome old machine's inability to read the drive sizes. if softbios is installed, it's typical that u need to use a boot modifier key sequence to actually install any OS to that drive. reason = u must allow the softbios to load and it resides on the drive itself. the WD (or seagate) tools docs should cover this. they should also detail how to remove softbios. usually an 'advanced' mode operation while booting to the tools disc. in any event, i'd bet that u'r HW directly supports the drives so u don't need the tools at all.

so ... check u'r bios support for the drive size. uninstall any tools. do not format the drives at all.

check that the HD is listed in bios 'boot order' as well.