Can't Install XP On My 250 GB Maxtor Harddrive

Hi people how are you. I have been having problem installing windows XP on my

" Maxtor / DiamondMax 10 / 250GB / 7200 / 16MB / ATA-133/ OEM / RoHS Compliant "

harddrive. It has two partitions currently. One is C: and the second is D: I currently have XP on C: and my data and backup files on D: So i recently decided to install fresh xp copy. I restarted the computer inserted the xp CD and the CD initialized by saying press any key to boot from CD. I pressed enter and then a black screen awaits me, after 5 minutes still black screen, after 10 mins still black screen so restarted and tried it again, i thought mayb the cd or my pc froze on me. After restarting still same issue. So i restarted and inserted windows 98 Cd inside and the setup was completed without any problems. It was very weird, so i decided to delete all the paritions and format the whole hard drive as one partition. And luckily this time it worked, xp was installed. Now my questions to you are

1)what could be wrong that i was not able to setup XP when there were 2 partitions. I still have two partitions and would like to re-install xp on C: drive

2)whats the best way to install a OS if i have a

"Diamond Stealth Radeon 9250 / 256MB DDR / PCI / DVI / TV-Out "

video card installed in my pc, should i remove it and then install any os and then within os install the drivers and so on, or installing an OS while the video card is installed in my pc. Is there any difference between using either methods

3) just for kicks what do you think of my harddrive and video card specs ?

Thx in advance

Any help guys ?

You see that's the problem "it does not" do what a windows xp installation normally would do. This is what is exactly happening

1) I put in the Windows Xp Pro Sp2 inside and boot from the cd rom.
2) It shows me the message that "Press any key to boot from cd" So i hit enter
3) It shows me the message "Setup is inspecting your system's hardware configuration "

Normally after this message a blue screen should popup asking to "press F6 if you need to install any third-party or RAID drivers" right ? But this screen does not show up right after the 3rd step there is a complete black screen like a blackhole sucking my patience right in it. I have waited 10 mins 20 mins 30 mins still nothing and i have tried this 4-8 times. FYI the cd is not scratched or broken, as i just finished installing xp the same exact way i always do on my old WD 15 GB harddrive, so that means something is wrong with my Maxtor 250 GB hard drive. Now that being said anyone have any idea as to what's wrong ? I have been searching guides/notes/tips/ and searching on google for almost 5 days now and i came up with a few questions

1) is it the 137 GB space windows xp space barrier involved here ? i thought that was an issue only with windows xp before the sp1 and sp2 was out

2) does it has to do something with my bios or motherboard not supporting this huge hard drive ? Although i do see my harddrive active and alive in my bios setup

3) should i update my bios and motherboard drivers as i havent done so in many years. Is this safe ?

4) i can install a fresh copy of windows 98 on this same harddrive without any problems, then why xp only ?

5) i called up Maxtor helpline and explained to the rep what my problem was, he advised me that it should be a Microsoft software problem/issue and that i should contact Microsoft. Did he just get away with a lame excuse ?

Thx in advance

Any king of suggestions or help appreciated

If partitioning is that important to you I would update the BIOS and or get partitioning software.

Otherwise a single partition should be no problem.