Windows installation error

Man, I picked up a bunch of malware downloading some random crap and now my PC is running like absolute garbage, so I figured I’d just wipe everything and reinstall Windows. I’ve done this a million times for myself and my buddies, but I have never seen an error like this one in my life. Basically, the installer hangs on the initial loading screen for like thirty minutes, and then when I finally get to deleting the C drive and creating a new partition to hit "next," it throws this error saying the boot isn't compatible with the hardware and tells me to go mess with my BIOS settings. So now I’m stuck with a completely wiped system and zero way to actually install the new OS. I already set the first boot device to the disc drive just like I always do, but the damn thing won't cooperate—does anyone have any clue what the hell is going on?

Boot into your BIOS, locate the SATA Mode settings, and switch them from AHCI to either IDE or Compatibility mode. That should clear up those errors right away.

Noah Miller6 said:Boot into your BIOS, locate the SATA Mode settings, and switch them from AHCI to either IDE or Compatibility mode. That should clear up those errors right away.

Alright, I'll give that a shot later. I forgot to mention that before I even tried wiping the system, I found a ton of viruses and had to scrub them out with Norton, and ever since then, everything has just been glitching out like crazy. Plus, when I was trying to install Windows, the installer kept acting up and wouldn't even show my partitions during the drive deletion step. You really think that BIOS tweak you mentioned is gonna fix all that too?

Alright, here’s another one for you guys because I was thinking maybe my CD-RW drive is just acting up since it takes forever to load, so I wanted to swap in an old CD-RW drive, but this new level of CD-RW has these weird new ports and that wide cable from the old one won't plug into the motherboard, whereas the old one only had that single output. Can I just plug it into the board using that cable without blowing anything up, especially since there's an identical slot on the board that looks like it fits?

If your new optical drive only uses those narrow SATA connections, but your motherboard is stuck with the wider ones (P-ATA/IDE), you’re probably going to need an adapter or converter like this:

I have to admit—I haven't actually messed around with these converters myself—so I'm not entirely sure which end plugs into what. Whether they connect at the motherboard side or the drive side... it's hard to say. If they plug into the motherboard, then you'll want an IDE to SATA converter; if they plug into the drive instead, then you'd need a SATA to IDE one. I guess it just depends on the specific model.

Robert Taylor4 said:Alright, I'll give that a shot later. I forgot to mention that before I even tried wiping the system, I found a ton of viruses and had to scrub them out with Norton, and ever since then, everything has just been glitching out like crazy. Plus, when I was trying to install Windows, the installer kept acting up and wouldn't even show my partitions during the drive deletion step. You really think that BIOS tweak you mentioned is gonna fix all that too?

And where the hell am I supposed to find that setting in the BIOS?