XP can't recognize hard drive for OS install [Solved]

Answer

+133

gsfilm May 18, 2009 04:55PM

Hi. Found this thread after having BIG trouble trying raw installation XP on a HP/Compaq laptop (nx9420). Same symptom. After loading all drivers, the installation sw said it could not find any hd. After googling a while I thought it had to be the SATA / AHCI issue. Also have this very basic BIOS setup with very few setup possibilities. After a couple of days trying Nlite and drivers an god knows what I got a fluke whim just to test switching "SATA native mode" OFF ! Heureka ! it worked. Dont know if this is solution for genuine AHCI - issues, but it might be the solution for some of You also who found this thread. // Peter

Ashu - May 23, 2009 06:32AM

where is this SATA native mode option??? I have the same issue..... XP SP3 bootable not recognizing my Dell Vista Laptop HDD. I want to format VISTA drive and install XP instead thru bootable DVD....but not happening :(

jay - Aug 21, 2009 12:52AM

i have got a compaq pressario v 3777tu the problem is that it is with vista and no option to disable sata in bios and i tried with black xp 35 ultimate .someone please help me yaar i need to install xp on this system.

jay › Ashu - Aug 21, 2009 01:48AM

i have got a compaq pressario v 3777tu the problem is that it is with vista and no option to disable sata in bios and i tried with black xp 35 ultimate .someone please help me yaar i need to install xp on this system.

douglas › Ashu - Nov 12, 2009 09:57PM

i have a similar issue, i have vista pre installed on my laptop, and i have the xp instalation disk, but when i try and install xp it wont recognise my harddrive, if you have worked out how to solve this problem, please email me on douglas_2176@live.com.au

J Hizzle - Sep 17, 2009 12:04AM

worked perfectly, thanks!

cpr - Feb 3, 2010 01:39PM

God Bless you! Thats just what i needed!!!!!!

FljohnnyD - Mar 28, 2010 09:42AM

Went into the bios on my Acer netbook Aspire one, on bootup F2. Change to IDE mode, worked!

abdul - Apr 9, 2010 03:55AM

thanx very much...its work yar

NiceMove - Apr 11, 2010 03:10PM

It sure works! Thanks dude! :-)

pany03 - May 6, 2010 08:16AM

Awsome! I have a LifeBook S7020 and I tried Nlite and everything, then i read this thread and disabled AHCI in bios and it works like a charm.

Wade - May 21, 2010 09:28PM

didnt work for me, switching to IDE just freezes the boot.

Nick SW - Jul 17, 2010 01:45PM

This worked! Thanks a lot!

brian - Jul 23, 2010 10:47AM

You are genius dude!! thanks alot!

Technogeek of another kind - Jul 24, 2010 09:15PM

You guys are frickin geniuses!. I have a Fujitsu that caught a bug. I don't have a Fujitsu boot disk and I have spent a month on and off trying to make a Boot disk to recover. I get all the way through it, even observing the whole mystical Slipstreaming dialog to find my laptop won't recognize the HDD. It is looking for the floppy, of which I don't have one of those with a SATA drive...I look on this website and shazam, I am now running CHKDSK. For anyone who has a Fujitsu N-series Lifebook, in the BIOS setup is a setting that enables AHCI. Under that is a sub setting. Leave the top setting enabled but the sub setting disabled. Also leave the IDE setting enabled... There is no "SATA" reference but that is what it is refering to. As in "Advance Harddrive Controller..." I can't believe I am finally at 54% on CHKDSK. Thanks much!

oszi - Jul 27, 2010 03:31PM

sweet, it worked. thanks a whole lot!!!

wac - Jul 28, 2010 10:06PM

Thanks, been playing with this all day, I'm happy and my baby girl will soon be happy

ee - Aug 4, 2010 09:22AM

YES! this worked for me on my Compaq nx9420. thank you! i was really dreading the nLite push =)

sortagreen - Aug 9, 2010 10:56AM

outstanding!

Sam Star - Oct 7, 2012 03:23PM

thank you!!! This worked perfect

Answer

+52

Jdun Jul 30, 2009 03:03PM

For those of you that have Aspire One (netbook) and window XP installer could not find HD problem.

You must switch the SATA Mode (BIOS) to IDE from AHCI.

Hit F2 at boot screen -> Main -> SATA Mode -> IDE

This will allow Window XP to see your SATA.

Pete - Jul 31, 2009 12:22AM

how about those of us, whose laptops dont have any sata/ide menu options?

i have a toshiba satellite A205-s5000 laptop, which has VERY BASIC bios options, and none of those which u mentioned.

i also want to install xp on a vista laptop, n i also keep gettin the "cant find hard drive" error.

help?

Wade - May 21, 2010 09:30PM

Switching to IDE just freezes my boot.

JohnMaroto - Jun 17, 2010 09:36PM

I have a Acer Aspire One, but the Bios has the "InsydeH20 Setup Utility, and "Main", has only the following options:

System TIme
System Date

Total Memory
Video Memory

Quick Boot
Network Boot
F12 Boot menu
D2D recovery

HELP, I have no OS, and can't install it!

schutt - Aug 23, 2010 02:57PM

i have a 2000 gateway computer and harddrive dont want to work right from boot and I need help on how to fix the problem please help thanks

Answer

+19

USMC6995 Jan 28, 2010 09:00AM

The BIOS change to IDE on SATA worked! Thank you for the tip!

Answer

+15

chaiz Aug 5, 2009 03:34AM

i have an vista o.s i formatted vista but then too xp does not detect hard drive

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+6

Chris Aug 13, 2010 08:01PM

no... once you have the install complete, change the setting back to SATA as it is faster than IDE.

Answer

+3

xpcman 7225Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration date ContributorStatus May 18, 2013Last seen Nov 20, 2008 03:05PM

You can use slipstreaming to add the SATA drivers to Your XP disk. The trick is to find the right drivers,

go to this site for info on nLite a tool for slipstreaming.

http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/...

Answer

+2

small student Jul 18, 2009 01:31PM

dear same problem:
i ran through this problem, and i have tried every possible solution, even with fdisk,formatting, third party during setup,drivers, etc etc etc for hell windows
iam a doctor, and this is brain insult

very big advice--------------------------hell to windows
i have changed to linux in very easy way
now my laptop had ubuntu 9.04 and mandriva 2009 powerpack and many other partitions of my work
believe or not ,
swear god i did nothing , no drivers, no problems ,nothing atall
my wireless,my display, audio, video,every thing is perfect
it is not advertisement , i have no time for that shut
it is what happened with me

Answer

+1

xpcman 7225Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration date ContributorStatus May 18, 2013Last seen Feb 26, 2009 07:03PM

This is a link to the SATA drivers

http://icrontic.com/downloads/slipstream_windows_xp_drivers

Leo Tyrannus - Mar 6, 2009 12:18AM

I have the same issue as Chose, I burned countless CD-R's every single time one of the drivers that I slipstreamed in with nlite from the SATAIDE folder that comes with the nforce drivers from Nvidia would be corrupt once I got into the Windows setup, this caused the setup to halt. The funny thing is I did get XP successfully installed before using SP2 and this same method, but when with the SP3 I have now the above happens. Short story, I nuked that successful install using this method with SP2 x64 because the DVD-RW was malfunctioning under it and I had a project I needed to complete which forced me back to the Vista x64 Home OEM that came with my Gateway DX4720-03.

I tried looking for a work around with a bootable USB XP install but, no go, all my USB devices don't support booting. tried booting from and installing from an external hard drive in an enclosure connected via USB and it was a no go Windows won't run setup from external. Ok so I thought about why couldn't you install the Setup inside of a WinPE or a BertPE enviroment, surprise surprise they don't support x64.

It has been a literal nightmare trying to get XP on this machine to the point where I've scoured the internet for a means or a tutorial on how to, and I've tried to find someone that has the same problem that solved it, and I did find one post by someone that found a way but the douche didn't post it.

Answer

+1

mtandy Feb 1, 2010 12:10AM

I'm trying to install xp on and MSI laptop and the bios has not option to change the hard drive type. Bios recognizes the hd but when trying to install xp it says there is no hdd present. What do I do?

91-bluebird - Feb 9, 2010 10:21PM

I have the same error, on my gateway mx6214, bios shows harddrive but xp doesnt see it, ubuntu does however, i need xp to be installed asap without a floppy drive anyone please help I have a windows xp disk from bestbuy with its own product key, please help

Answer

+1

john Mar 25, 2010 05:27PM

This is the only help I have found so far:

http://www.howtogeek.com/...

Answer

+1

thusee Jun 14, 2010 10:48PM

i have built couple of pc's and never ran across this problem ever. I got a hp laptop from a friend to re install windows for them and i got the error mentioned above.

While i was in the middle of the nLite program i decided to keep looking and found this page. I reset the bios to Disable the sata and IT WORKED PERFECTLY!

THANKS OP! Was a good learn as well.

Answer

+1

Akuma Re-Sa Jun 27, 2010 06:11PM

thanks for this one...I'll already solve my problem..

Answer

+1

Anna Aug 9, 2010 07:20AM

Thanks so much guys! You are heaven-sent lifesavers!

Should I leave SATA mode at IDE for good?

=D

Answer

+0

victorh2000 Mar 15, 2009 03:12AM

I had the same problem with a GATEWAY DX4720-03 computer model and downloaded SATA_IDE drive from http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.24.html and install windows server 2003 with no errors.

you will need to slipstream the driver with nlite and change AHCI mode on Bios IF YOU CAN.
the driver is located at IDE/WINXP/SATA_IDE on the file.

good look!
Edit/Delete Message

Answer

+0

geekman2005 May 18, 2009 07:24AM

In a PC there is green button next to the bois if you press this 3 times it clear the bois and you can change the setting of the bois.

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+0

Rahat Jun 15, 2009 10:50AM

I did the same thing as suggested above xpcman however it still did not work. When using the nlite I also included the intel chip drivers for my Gateway MX6214. This was my third XP cd burn before I had it working correctly. Cheers!

Answer

+0

dd Jan 12, 2010 08:13AM

mine one is also pheonix
I have disabled it
and i installed XP sp2

blah - Jan 15, 2010 12:24AM

How did you go about disabling Phoenix? I have an Alienware M7700 with RAID and it isn't recognizing the hard drive when installing XP or in BIOS. I read something about upgrading the RAID controller driver using an external floppy drive????

xpcman 7225Posts Wednesday October 8, 2008Registration date ModeratorStatus May 18, 2013Last seen - Feb 1, 2010 03:24PM

There is a point where the XP install asks you to insert a floppy with the RAID drivers. Something about "press F6 if you have a RAID driver to install".

Good Luck

Answer

+0

hard drive Apr 14, 2010 01:02AM

some technical knowledge about http://www.harddiskdriverepair.com

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+0

Angkri Jul 25, 2010 01:28AM

I disabled the AHCI in the bios and put SATA/ATA and it worked for me thanks....... Solved my problem......

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+0

Dlark Jul 26, 2010 12:57PM

thank u thank u thank u thank u!!! u guys are great!! was stuck on this for 2 days straight!!! u saved my life!!

XP can't recognize hard drive for OS install [Solved/Closed]

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