[Irephin]

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

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are you trying to do a complete format/reinstall?

[dsenette]

are you trying to do a complete format/reinstall?

[Neil Jones]

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.

[Irephin]

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

[Fenor]

Either that or the driver for the hard drive itself.

Fenor

Edited by Fenor, 13 January 2006 - 08:14 PM.

[Irephin]

I will try that and see what I get.