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installing windows xp

Started by Guest_liam_lad_* , Jul 26 2005 07:34 PM

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#1
Guest_liam_lad_*
Posted 26 July 2005 - 07:34 PM

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hello, im trying to reinstall windows xp on my computer but every time i get passed the stage where you press enter to install windows xp, i get a message saying
"No hard drive disks were found on this computer" Make sure any HDD are plugged in and powered, any disk related hardware configuration is correct. Run manufacturer supplied diagnostics."

Well i have a SATA hdd, so ive installed wot i think are the appropriate drivers from the HDD manufacturer, by pressing f6 and inserting the driver floppy at the begininig of the setup. But this hasnt made any difference, the computer still says it cant find my hard drive even though it works perfectly fine when turning on the computer. When the computer boots up on the left side whree all the white writing is i can see the HDD manufacturer and model number, so surely this means that the HDD is recognised by the computer but i cant understand why when i try to install it, it says HDD cant be found. Im not sure how relevant this is but the HDD is split into two parts, 120GB C: and 40 GB D:

I also forgot to mention that the HDD is a Maxtor, so i visited their web site and got power max, the diagnostics for my HDD, i ran that on boot up but the only devices available to choose from to test were my DVD Rom drive and my CD/RW drive. So i couldnt run a diagnostics test on a hard drive that didnt show up in the list.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thankyou

lee

Edited by liam_lad, 26 July 2005 - 07:36 PM.

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#2
Guest_anynamewilldo_*
Posted 26 July 2005 - 07:44 PM

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Hey Liam,

Have you tried a different SATA cable?
Have you tried plugging it into a different SATA channel?
Did you swap power plugs?
Does FDISK see the drive if you boot to a DOS prompt?
Have you tweaked with some settings in the BIOS?
Try setting BIOS back to defaults.
Try disabling unneeded features in the BIOS such as second IDE channel.
Try updating BIOS firmware if this is an onboard SATA controller.
If it is an addon SATA controller, try moving it to another PCI slot or getting another one.

Hope that helps! Good luck.
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#3
flexoman
Posted 26 July 2005 - 07:51 PM

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Is this the only HD installed?......

On my Sata which is all I'm running I had to go into Bios and set enhanced mode to Sata and made sure that the Sata disc was the first disk to use.

I have read articles that depicted difficulties in installing XP on Satas so I can only offer what little experience I have on these drives.

Hope this little bit helps......(a little bit).... :tazz:
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#4
Guest_liam_lad_*
Posted 27 July 2005 - 10:29 AM

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hi thanks for the replys guys. With regards to tryin different cables, sockets etc. Wouldnt having a dodgy cable or socket stop the hdd from working and letting me use my computer as normal? Ive tried the SATA cable in SATA 1 slot and SATA 2 slot. I dont have a nother SATA cable to try. Im not sure what you mean by booting to a dos prompt and seeing if it fdisk shows it. Ive tweaked with some of the bios settings but not too sure what i can and cant change. This is the only hard drive installed but it is split into a C: and a D: Ive read some where that when i insert the driver for the SATA drive at the setup window after pressing f6, i should press the function key. What key is this?
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#5
flexoman
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:16 PM

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Hi Liam

Although you may have read this already via internet I'm posting what I found on a google search below...........

____________________________________________________________________
Loading Windows XP on a SATA drive
Just in case anyone else has this problem and doesn't want to spend an hour figuring it out...

If you are loading Windows XP onto a computer with a serial ATA (SATA) hard drive, you will have to manually load the SATA drivers.

As suggested on this usenet post, you need to put the drivers on a floppy disk.

Copy the drivers from motherboard support CD *\DriverDisk\SATA\*.* into root directory of floppy disk. (i.e. root directory of floppy disk should contain \pide and \sata folders, txtsetup.oem, etc. files.)

Then, boot system by Windows XP installation CD, when the message "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver" shows up, press "F6". Then, press "S" to specify additional device when next screen pops up. Put the driver floppy disk you made in and press enter to continue. If the floppy disk is made successfully, the installation program will ask for selecting driver. Please then select "VIA Serial ATA RAID Controller(Windows XP)".) After SATA driver loaded and Windows XP can recognize the SATA HDD, you can continue to install Windows XP as usual.

This should work fine if you have the drivers on a CD somewhere.
____________________________________________________________________

Now , I would like to make a suggestion if this doesn't work.
When I installed my Sata I already had an IDE HD on the computer with XP on it.

I installed Sata...Cables...etc.
I did exactly what the above instructions said and all went well.

I'm just guessing here, but maybe having an IDE HD in as primary and then installing Sata makes a difference in how XP handles recognition of these drives.
Again I say this is just a guess.

Finding info on installing XP on Sata drives is not that easy an the info you do find is not that encouraging...suppose because it's still new technology...


Food for thought................
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#6
wooza
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:19 PM

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thankyou ill try that and post my success or failure
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#7
Murray S.
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:33 PM

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thankyou ill try that and post my success or failure

View Post


Hey wooza.. You still trying to install that pirated version of XP??

http://www.geekstogo...ror-t47491.html

Murray
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#8
wooza
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:37 PM

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of course not, i value the advice of any geeks to go member of staff and was wrong to even put you in the position of giving me advice on an illegal program. I put the copy in the bin and dug out my official version. Im still having problems with my HDD though.
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#9
Murray S.
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:39 PM

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Nice to here.. still can't get it installed or what??

Murray
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#10
wooza
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:45 PM

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no im having a message saying "no hard drive disk was found by the computer" even though it shows in the white text at boot up, and my computer and the hard drive run fine. Ive made sure all the cables are securely connected, ive ran the drivers for the HDD model at the f6 stage of windows setup. i then tried to run a diagnostics program called power max for my HDD, but wen it sed to select the drive to test, the hdd wasnt in the list, all it found was my cd rom drive and my dvd rom drive, which i thought was very strange. so im at a loss as to wot to do.
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#11
Murray S.
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:48 PM

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Is your HDD a SATA drive and do you have it connected to the SATA controller??

Murray
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#12
wooza
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:49 PM

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yes its a sata drive, but what is the sata controller?

(is there any where i can go to praise the efforts of the geeks to go staff? i am absolutely amazed by the speed in which i am recieving replies from members of staff. great job guys top marks)
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#13
Murray S.
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:54 PM

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The controller is where the SATA drive plugs into.. It's NOT a normal IDE connection..

Either your motherboard will have it built in or you will need to buy a SATA controller card..

Murray
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#14
wooza
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:58 PM

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well i have a grey ribbon going from the mobo to the hdd, a power cable and a round grey cable going from sata 1 to the hdd. If one of them isnt the sata controller then i need to buy one?
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#15
Murray S.
Posted 27 July 2005 - 02:59 PM

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What's the make and model of your motherboard??

Murray
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