Setup can't find HD

[superdave1984]

But the thing will boot to windows. Gateway laptop. XP MCE. Needs a repair install, but when it boots to CD, goes through the initial loading, I get the "Setup cannot find any hard disks installed". I am guessing this is a dying drive, but I can't understand why it will boot to windows, but I can't do a repair. Did I mention I HATE MCE?

 

[Nitestick]

sounds like a clean cut case of driver problems. if the laptop uses a SATA drive you will need to press F6 when it says so to install SATA drivers.

 

[superdave1984]

The drive itself says it's a WD Serial ATA, the WD diagnostics found nothing. No drive. But it boots to windows just fine.

Also, the SATA drivers have to be on a floppy. This thing has no floppy drive.

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

In order to be able to install Windows XP on a SATA hard drive without installing a SATA driver during setup is to disable 'SATA Native Mode' in the BIOS (if such an option is available in the BIOS) to emulate PATA mode.

Of course, this means that you won't benefit from all the SATA features, but it is possible to install a SATA driver in Windows XP and then enable SATA native mode when Windows XP reboots to apply the changes.