Hard disk not detected By windows XP setup

Hi all,

In fact this is not MY problem. I am just asking for the sake of curiosity. Some days ago, one of my friends came in asking for helping him repairing his Windows XP. After looking at the pitiable condition the machine was in, I asked if there was some important data in the machine. Getting a negative answer, I inserted the Windows CD that the guy had. To my surprise, the Windows setup said that No hard disk was found on the system.

It was damn sure to have a hard disk! SO I though I could do some cross check with Linux. To my surprise, Linux didn't say anything as such and installed with ease. The guy is happy to have his computer doing at least SOME work. But since, he is not a power user, Linux is quite tough for him.

After searching a BIT (it din't take me a BYTE ;)) on Google,. I found one guy saying that disabling SATA had worked for him. I did the same and the result was positive. But the performace was So low.... it is almost pitiable to start the machine. Ultimately I had to reenable SATA and reinstall Linux.

Can someone tell me : Why afterall enableing SATA in BIOS makes Windows XP setup detect no Hard disk at all?

You need to have the driver on a floppy for the sata controller and while booting off the xp disk hit f6...................

OK Great Idea. I did not have the SATA drivers at that time.

However I must ask one question: How was the OS installed for the first time then? The first time, it had not asked for ANY drivers and had detected the Hard disk very properly.

There probably was a preloaded OEM image on it ;)

An XP /w SP2 cd will pick up SATA controllers. Pre-SP2 XP cd's will not pick up them up. Been there, done that.

They pick up SOME controllers but on a lot of motherboards have RAIDS so they arent picked up.

And they are loaded initially because the restore disk has the drivers slipstreamed.

The image was not OEM... my friend had installed it manually. And the problem is: Even my SP2 CD was unable to start it. It too had failed!

ANd the amazing thing is: another setup (after trying out some 15 <pirated> CDs) it got installed! What could be the difference? The laptop is new and CD rom and Hard disk are working right (he had checked them service center).

What kind of controller is it? One of the newer SATA's (check device mgr)? Perhaps one of your pirated CD's had a customized set of drivers.

Quote:

---

The image was not OEM... my friend had installed it manually. And the problem is: Even my SP2 CD was unable to start it. It too had failed!

ANd the amazing thing is: another setup (after trying out some 15 <pirated> CDs) it got installed! What could be the difference? The laptop is new and CD rom and Hard disk are working right (he had checked them service center).

---

Why is it that I do not believe this story?.............. err where in hell do you get a blank LAPTOP and load Windows? That is the biggest load of crap I have heard since my last IRS demand!

Might I help you here? with the definition of a "friend". Basically a "friend" is someone who_does_not_lie_to_you

Ack phtt! I am no longer interested...............

Dear Nihil,

You do get laptops here which DO NOT HAVE WINDOWS INSTALLED. ... here in India. I never went to other countries to see what is offered there. But here there are many such laptops.

I agree that they are not blank. But they are not loaded with anything to work with .... the knows the preloaded OS as "FREEDOS" which I think no one would like at all to work with. So one HAS to install an Operating System on it and since WIndows is th de-facto name in the world of OSes, that is what gets installed usually!

If you still do not believe on the STORY (as you call it), just perform a google search for laptops sold in India ... go through some pages and you will find out if that I told can be considered as true or not.

Just google it!

Still ... Thanks a lot.