Uninstalling Vista

[Tom Lake]

I have a strange situation on one of our computers where I have to uninstall
Vista
and reinstall XP (gasp!) I know how to do that on most machines but
when I try to install XP on the SATA drive, it tells me there's no disk
present.
I tried booting Vista 64 and deleting both partitions that way which worked;
at least Vista says the entire drive is unallocated space. When I try to
install
XP, however, it says there's no disk present so I can't partition and format
the drive. I tried the MS KB and Google but no luck in this situation. If
it matters,
the machine is using an Intel DG965WH motherboard and a Samsung 500 GB
SATA hard drive. Thanks for any help you might be able to give.

Tom Lake

 

[pvdg42]

I have a strange situation on one of our computers where I have to
uninstall Vista
and reinstall XP (gasp!) I know how to do that on most machines but
when I try to install XP on the SATA drive, it tells me there's no disk
present.
I tried booting Vista 64 and deleting both partitions that way which
worked;
at least Vista says the entire drive is unallocated space. When I try to
install
XP, however, it says there's no disk present so I can't partition and
format
the drive. I tried the MS KB and Google but no luck in this situation.
If it matters,
the machine is using an Intel DG965WH motherboard and a Samsung 500 GB
SATA hard drive. Thanks for any help you might be able to give.

Tom Lake

On the XP install, did you install the SATA drivers from floppy at the start
of the installation?
IIRC, an XP install asks you if you need to install drivers? You'll need the
SATA controller drivers.

 

[Isaac Hunt]

You need to install the SATA drivers at the beginning of setup.
Setup asks you to press F6 if you wish to install 3rd party drivers.
Press F6 at this point & it will prompt for the installation disk.

 

[Tom Lake]

You need to install the SATA drivers at the beginning of setup.
Setup asks you to press F6 if you wish to install 3rd party drivers.
Press F6 at this point & it will prompt for the installation disk.

Ah, I didn't think that was necessary since I installed XP on other machines
IDE drives
which also have SATA drives in them. XP recognizes the SATA without any
external drivers
being loaded. Oh well, I'll give it a shot tonight. Thanks for responding!

Tom Lake

 

[Guest]

I believe this has to do with what MB you are using. It was my MB directions
that told me I would have to make a driver floppy to install XP.
Not XP or the HD directions.

 

[Isaac Hunt]

That may be so for your case, but if XP cannot see a disk controller you
should install the driver for it by pressing F6 when prompted by XP setup.
It is XP setup which prompts you to press F6 & it's been this way throughout
NT OS setups.
But, setup doesn't know whether you *need* to press F6, it simply gives you
the choice of whether to install a 3rd party driver.