[jwm81us]

I have a dell xps 600 that came with xp media center. Hard drive went bad so replaced it with identical drive. Dell suggested installing xp pro so that's what they sent only it was 64 bit. My machine is 32 bit, so I got the 32 bit xp pro. Not being very smart I installed the 64 bit which didn't go well at all, so I tried installing the 32 bit, but install setup didn't recognize the new hard drive where as the 64 bit disc did. 64 bit os disc is sp2 and the 32 bit is sp3. When I go into bios setup, hard drive is there and passed hard drive diognostics. Tried removing and reinstalling hard drive making sure I got good connections and that works, but the 32 bit os disc still doesn't recognize it. Has anyone ever had this happen and if so how did you fix it. Thanx

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Try using DBAN to wipe the beginning of the drive so it's unallocated and unformatted (RAM). Use a program like ImgBurn to create a bootable CD from the DBAN .iso you download.

Once it's booted, just enter autonuke. Let it run for a minute or two, that's all that is needed to wipe out the partition table and MBR ([probably a few seconds will do but give it a minute at least). If there is more than one hard drive, disconnect the others before doing this.

Then try the 32 bit XP Pro install CD again.

It would also be a good idea to try the 32 bit XP install CD on a different machine. Just run it far enough to be sure it sees the hard drive.

[Ztruker]

Try using DBAN to wipe the beginning of the drive so it's unallocated and unformatted (RAM). Use a program like ImgBurn to create a bootable CD from the DBAN .iso you download.

Once it's booted, just enter autonuke. Let it run for a minute or two, that's all that is needed to wipe out the partition table and MBR ([probably a few seconds will do but give it a minute at least). If there is more than one hard drive, disconnect the others before doing this.

Then try the 32 bit XP Pro install CD again.

It would also be a good idea to try the 32 bit XP install CD on a different machine. Just run it far enough to be sure it sees the hard drive.

[jwm81us]

Thanks so much for the input. I let you know how it turns out.

[juliadexter]

• try another disc for the installation
• plus wipe your hard drive completely
• if you have made any partition, delete them and reinstall hard drive.
• hope it will work for you.