XP Install won't pick up my hard drive!

ottostreet

I have a decent enough HP laptop running Vista Home Premium at the moment, but I HATE Vista, and won't to go back to good old XP. Slap in teh XP Pro bootable disk, start going through the setup, but when it comes to selecting where to install it just says 'Windows cannot find any hard drives connected to your computer' and restarts. and goes straight into vista.

i have tried creating partitions, doing dual-boot etc. but for the life of me i cannot get xp to install onto this bloody machine. What exactly am I doing wrong?

codan

New hard drives in PC's are Sata (not IDE).
windows xp discs dont have sata drivers on the disc.

You need to slip stream sata drivers into your XP cd.

generic intel sata drivers should be fine.

Use nlite to add the sata drivers to your disk

C

kikel

Codan is spot on with his reply. That's the correct way to do it. SATA drivers are not on the disk.

A work around is a setting in the Bios. Not available in all versions on the BIOS.

I'm currently having a memory block and can't remember that setting name.

Anyone else know?

ottostreet

i love you guys


didnt have to use nlite or anything, just disabled SATA thingy in BIOS, and it picked up the hard drive straight away.

currently installing XP woohoo!

kikel

Happy Days

ottostreet

slight problem now...

everything is installed, and all drivers operating...EXCEPT the chipset drivers.

cannot get the chipset/ethernet/network controller to install...have the drivers sitting there, setup just stops, and if i try doing it manually, it says "file does not contain setup information for your hardware" or something like that.

one of the files mentions SATA...im assuming its a problem with SATA native support being turned off? what do i do to install these drivers?

Overheal

Why downgrade from Vista when you can Upgrade from Vista?

Because when given that kind of choice, nobody likes Vista.

ottostreet

i would....but this laptop is used as part of a djing setup, and i need a very reliable platform...i found vista nothing but a pain. i cant imagine 7 has had all its problems ironed out yet.

my previous generation dv6000 running xp pro ran perfectly for three years straight, but i burned it out...probably because it was on for three years straight.

Rackstar

Delete anything showing up with an exclamation mark or warning in the device manager and try reinstalling!

Rackstar

Rackstar wrote: »

Delete anything showing up with an exclamation mark or warning in the device manager and try reinstalling!

When i say delete I mean uninstall!!

ottostreet

nope...didnt work.

the folder is quite clearly there, with the xp drivers in it, but its ignoring them.

im assuming it must be to do with that SATA thing...

Rackstar

ottostreet wrote: »

nope...didnt work.

the folder is quite clearly there, with the xp drivers in it, but its ignoring them.

im assuming it must be to do with that SATA thing...

no its nothing to do with the sata setting you changed in the bios.

If you go to device manager and right click on the device with the missing driver and then click on update driver and point it to the folder with the drivers does that work? you need to point it to the .inf file.

jimmycrackcorm

ottostreet wrote: »

i would....but this laptop is used as part of a djing setup, and i need a very reliable platform...i found vista nothing but a pain. i cant imagine 7 has had all its problems ironed out yet.

my previous generation dv6000 running xp pro ran perfectly for three years straight, but i burned it out...probably because it was on for three years straight.

Windows 7 FTW.

ottostreet

Rackstar wrote: »

no its nothing to do with the sata setting you changed in the bios.

If you go to device manager and right click on the device with the missing driver and then click on update driver and point it to the folder with the drivers does that work? you need to point it to the .inf file.

nope...if the inf file sis elected, it just goes 'contains no info'...its definitely the right driver.

Rackstar

Is the wireless working? If it is and its on the internet I could have a quick look remotely for you. I work in IT and we have a remote support website. PM me if you want me to and ill give you the website! Off to bed shortly though!

ottostreet

Rackstar wrote: »

Is the wireless working? If it is and its on the internet I could have a quick look remotely for you. I work in IT and we have a remote support website. PM me if you want me to and ill give you the website! Off to bed shortly though!

cheers, but no, the wireless isnt working either. the broadcom lan, the wireless assistant is all installed, but it just keeps saying 'disabled'...i think its linked to the network controller on the chipset...which i cant get to install! grrrr

codan

drivers for xp are different from vista.
Are you trying to install vista or XP drivers for your laptop.
Why not go to the manufactures site put in your model number and download the newest drivers for XP.

C