Setup can't find any hard disks

I ran into a Compaq Presario V5000 that I am trying to reinstall XP on, because the owner conviently lost the restore disk. When i got the computer the hard drive was wiped with Killdisk for a fresh install of XP, the laptop previously ran XP by the way. Now Everytime i get to the part where it says to install Windows press enter it says: "Setup did not find any hard disk installed in your computer." I would love to chalk this one up as a loss but, any help will be appreciated short of buying a restore disk.

 

You should be able to find what discs are installed through your BIOS.

To enter the BIOS Setup, you must press a certain key or combination of keys during the initial startup sequence. Most systems use "Esc," "Del," "F1," "F2," "F10," "Ctrl-Esc" or "Ctrl-Alt-Esc" to enter setup.
There is usually a line of text at the bottom of the opening screen that tells you "Press ___ to Enter Setup."
This setup should list what hard drives and optical devices (CD/DVD players) you have on your system.

 

If you can find out what brand of HD it is then go to the manufacturer's website and download their utility disk. There should be an option to "prepare disk for OS install". If you can't find the brand just download both maxtor/seagate and Western Digital's utilities.

Once you prepare the drive, 2 minutes once you find the right software, XP will recognize it.

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There may be other ways but this is how I've done it in the past.