Hello, All!

I am trying to do some "spring cleaning" if you will, and am having some trouble.

I have gone through the rigors of backing up all my necessary files from my computer, and am ready to re-install Windows XP Pro.

My first attempt: I placed the WinXP cd in the drive and set CMOS to boot from the CD. Everything seems to be going fine. It loads up all of those generic &c drivers to go through the setup process. It asks if I would like to repair, install, or quit. I choose to install. Then I get a message that says:

"Setup did not find a hard disk drive installed on your computer." (etc.)

I quit the setup (only option) and reboot. I am a little worried that I've done something wrong, but when I boot from the hard drive it works just fine (that's what I am using now). I write a previous version of this post, then get an idea:

My second attempt: I load the autoplay from the WinXP CD and choose to install Windows. I choose a new installation (rather than upgrade). Again, everything seems to be going fine. I set the advanced option so that later I can determine the drive letter and partition information. It loads all of the setup files to the computer (the hard drive?) and reboots (actually, I rebooted it manually, though that shouldn't make any difference). The computer boots to setup, and loads all of that generic driver stuff again- only faster because it is loading it from the hard drive (!), where it copied it before. I am notified that setup is starting windows and... blue screen (of death).

I have tried checkdisking the drive (chkdsk /f /r) and it reports no corruptions or bad sectors. One time, after checking the ribbon cable on the hard drive, I got a different error: couldn't find "setupdd.sys" I can't remember which method produced this- I think it was the first. I have not been able to duplicate that error. The others I can just fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Irephin

are you trying to do a complete format/reinstall?

This happens if you have a SATA drive or a drive that's on a RAID that uses a device that Windows XP Setup doesn't know what to do with.

If it is one of these, you need the SATA/RAID driver disk. Press F6 when prompted to load a third party driver.

Hmmm...

Thanks for the replies.

dsenette, yes I am trying to do a complete format and reinstall. I have since re-partitioned/formatted the drive (using win98 bootdisk) and that worked fine.

Neil, I do, in fact, have a RAID motherboard. I am not using that capacity, however. The drive is just a plain old maxtor drive. Could this still be the problem?

I assume the the 3rd party driver would be the drivers that came with the motherboard?

Thanks again,

Irephin

Either that or the driver for the hard drive itself.

Fenor

This post has been edited by Fenor: Jan 13 2006, 08:14 PM

I will try that and see what I get.