[schillyinphilly]

I had a hard drive go bad on me so I got a new one and havent gotten it up to speed yet. I'm trying to install Windows XP onto it and after it's initial load, it says:
"Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program. Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3."
Then after I reboot, I try to run "fdisk" and a message comes up that says:
"No Fixed Disks Present"
I've been trying to get this laptop up and running for 3 months now and it's really starting to get to me. I would really apreciate some help with this.

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I've been trying to get this laptop up and running for 3 months

Wow, thats a long time!

Have you checked the bios to see if the hard drive is even detected by the computer?

What kind of laptop is this, what are the specs?

makai

[makai]

I've been trying to get this laptop up and running for 3 months

Wow, thats a long time!

Have you checked the bios to see if the hard drive is even detected by the computer?

What kind of laptop is this, what are the specs?

makai

[peterm]

what kind of drive are you trying to put in

Edited by peterm, 16 July 2005 - 01:32 AM.

[makai]

peterm,



makai

Edited by makai, 16 July 2005 - 02:30 AM.

[peterm]

DOH

[schillyinphilly]

Wow, thats a long time!

Have you checked the bios to see if the hard drive is even detected by the computer?

What kind of laptop is this, what are the specs?

makai

it's a Compaq r3000. i have no idea what bios is, but here's the rest of my story...

in the beginning of the day, my hard drive was responding perfectly. but to put on windows, my friend who knows what he's doin told me to run fdisk, which i did. I made a new partition and it told me to restart, which i did. when i restarted, the hard drive was not responding

[makai]

I had a hard drive go bad on me

How do you know for sure the drive went bad?

By your description and all the problems you're having, it almost sounds like a motherboard problem.

I own an old compaq Armada M700 and to get into bios on my laptop, I have to hit the F10 key as the machine is booting up... normally during the Compaq splash screen.

Try repeatedly hitting the F10 on the your keyboard during the Compaq splash screen to get into bios. Once there, check the different menus to see if the bios recognizes the hard drive. If not, then swap the old drive back in and check again. Maybe it's just a seating problem.

makai

Edited by makai, 16 July 2005 - 01:40 PM.

[warriorscot]

Yeah i dont know why people dont just let the windows xp disc do its work. It formats and partitions the drive for you if you arent confident with computers they should just use that. You might need drivers.

[Tyger]

Your friend may have put in an extra partition that is too small for windows to install on, or used the wrong version of fdisk. It's pretty easy to do that.

[schillyinphilly]

Your friend may have put in an extra partition that is too small for windows

That is EXACTLY what my computer is telling me

[makai]

That is EXACTLY what my computer is telling me

Now I'm confused!

Your original post indicated this...

"No Fixed Disks Present"

This means there is no hard drive detected.

Ok... lets start over...

"IF" you can run fdisk, delete any partitions you have and exit fdisk.

Ensure your computer can boot from the CD and try to install XP again. When XP asks to format the drive, let it do so.

makai

Edited by makai, 16 July 2005 - 07:33 PM.

[schillyinphilly]

Ok... i try to run fdisk and it says 'no fixed disks present'

but then i try to install windows and it says the partition is too small or something to that nature

[makai]

Who manufactured this hard disk?

Whomever it is, go to their website and download the Hard disk utility. For instance, if it's a Maxtor, download Maxblast.

Most manufactures will have an iso image you can download and burn to a cd which will allow you to boot and format your drive, or wipe it clean.

Once you get the drive formatted, DO NOT RUN FDISK again. Just boot to the XP cd and follow the prompts.

If XP asks to format the drive, let it do so.

makai

[peterm]

fdisk is for FAT32 not NTFS which is what xp runs under.