Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize drive

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by davequinn2, Oct 31, 2008.

  1. davequinn2

    davequinn2 Private E-2

    Hi, i'm working on a friend's laptop and he wanted it reformatted. I deleted the partition as he wished, and reformatted the drive with spotmau ... put in windows disc and windows set-up starts ... goes thru installing the set-up files, and then says press enter to continue or r to repair ... as soon as i press enter, it immediately says that windows does not find any hard drive and to press f3 to exit ... i've worked on alot of computers, and had my share of interesting problems, but not this ... fyi, drive did work before the format, but when i formatted, it seemed to format very fast ... but this is the first time i've used the spotmau to delete partitions and format ... drive is visible to bios and spotmau shows no errors ... any help would be greatly appreciated ... it's a laptop with cd/dvd only ...
     
  2. Toke

    Toke MajorGeek

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    This sounds like the drive has not actually formatted. I would try again using dareks boot and nuke. This will take quite a while and plz read instructions fully before using. http://www.dban.org/
     
  3. davequinn2

    davequinn2 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    well ... tried that too ... did the full auto thing ... you're right takes a while, about 3 hrs ... but, still says that "setup did not find any hard disk installed on your computer" ... arrrrg!!! ... any other ideas? ... going to try a few other things, but any suggestions will be welcome ... thx in advance
     
  4. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    Does the HD manufacturer have a disk utility that includes an option to Prepare Drive for OS Installation?
    *******
    I just want to be sure--you formatted the drive with Spotmau before Windows installation(in your original post)?

    If you did this time you could try formatting and creating a partition before using the Windows disk.
     
  5. Toke

    Toke MajorGeek

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    After you have tried what sach2 suggested Run this link and see if this prog does detect the HD...

    http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz/

    I have used this succesfully but once again take care to read all insructions..:)
     
  6. davequinn2

    davequinn2 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    thx again for all the help ... sach2, i tried a utility from gateway, but not from fujitsu ... i'll see what i can find there ... then i'll try that link that toke sent ... i'll keep you posted
     
  7. davequinn2

    davequinn2 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    Well, i've found out alot of things today ... called fujitsu ... seems that a sata drive cannot be installed without a static driver ... sounds easy ... LOL ... not so fast, no floppy drive on laptop ... ah, but what about downloading the driver to a usb flash drive ... nope, not supported by Microsoft ... in fact, there are only 3 floppy drivees that are supported, check out this link ... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859/en-us ... but, i didn't give up there, geeks never do, eh hem, LOL ... so, i found this site ... http://weblogs.asp.net/jkey/archive/2005/08/28/423901.aspx ... it talks about Slipstreaming VIA Serial ATA drivers (The drivers from the F6 floppy are slipstreamed into the Windows install CD and the drives are automagically recognized during setup.)

    ... never tried it, but there's always a first time

    ... fyi, found out that most manufacturer (gateway,dell,hp,etc.) windows reinstall CDs are slipstreamed ... so, it is important to hold onto your original CDs if you have SATA drives

    Well, i'll let you know how it goes ... thx again for help
     
  8. KingSteve

    KingSteve MajorGeek

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    Sounds like what happened to me. My problem was on a vista machine putting xp pro on it. the hdd is sata and xp pro cd doesnt have the drivers and no floppy on laptop.

    go into bios and put the hdd controller on legacy. try to install again. that worked for me. good luck
     
  9. davequinn2

    davequinn2 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    No option for hdd legacy only legacy usb support ... good idea though
     
  10. Zell127

    Zell127 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    yes this is the same problem i am getting.... i only want to repair the winxp os :( because there are files on this laptop that i need and i don't know how to get into it because when i try to turn on the laptop it makes it to the winxp screen then a blue screen flashes with white writing and it reboots before i can see what it says. also when i tried to intall the os it says it has no HD but it is there in the bios menu..... arghhh wtf
     
  11. Zell127

    Zell127 Private E-2

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    lol i tried this and the computer booted up fine did not need to re-install windows.... wow that was easy :)
     
  12. KingSteve

    KingSteve MajorGeek

    Re: Trying a fresh WinXP install on an existing drive ... windows won't regognize dri

    damn what kind of laptop is it? thats sort or strange that there is no other hdd option. i know mine was defaulted to ahci, other option ata.
     

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