Xp won't install

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cldlr76

289 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#87788 7-Aug-2011 11:35

Hi,

I have got got an old compaq laptop that had xp installed on it. One day it jut wouldn't boot so I put an ubuntu cd in and it loaded fine and allowed me to get any data I wanted off it and then threw it in the cupboard for while.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to pull it out again and have a go at rebuilding it. I installed ubuntu 11
.04 onto the hard disk and it has been working ok, but TBH I don't have the patience to learn linux properly at the moment, so I thought I would try an install XP again from the CD.

It started loading all the files, then we it gets to the setup I get a message saying "Setup did not find any hard drives installed in your computer"

Any ideas on what might be causing this problem and how to fix it?   The hard drive is there and has power etc as the laptop happily boots to Linux from the harddrive.

Cheers

aw

296 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 30

#502962 7-Aug-2011 12:28

The most common cause of this is when you're trying to install Windows XP onto a computer that is using a SATA disc in native SATA mode.

Not sure what your level of knowledge on storage technologies are, but SATA and IDE are two different interfaces for your computer to talk to its hard disc.

SATA came along after Windows XP was released, so XP doesn't know what to do with it, and the install CD can't see your SATA discs unless you either load or slipstream the correct SATA driver using a floppy disc (hard, and who still has floppies these days?), or set your laptop to emulate an IDE disc (slightly slower performance but easier to do).

You'll need to press F10 when the system starts to get into your BIOS setup utility to change it. If you can't find it, reply with your laptop's model number for more specific instructions.

cldlr76

289 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#502968 7-Aug-2011 12:52

Thanks, changed the bios to disable native sata support and it seems to be working, just repartitioning the drive at the moment