Getting Hard Disk drivers loaded before XP Setup run on Dual Boot system

[Patient Guy]

After creating 6 GB partition (maximum shrink volume available) and
formatting NTFS using the Vista HP disk management control for setting up
an XP Pro system in that space, I am unable to run the XP setup disk
because it apparently does not have the drivers for running the hard drive
("the machine apparently has no hard drive"),

Once I find the drivers (a chore in itself), can I somehow load them into a
RAMdisk and then run XP setup?

This is a new laptop, so naturally there's no floppy, and we have no USB
floppy, and what's worse---see below----even if we did manage to borrow a
USB floppy, we're not sure if we can alter the boot sequence because we
have no access to BIOS.



I hope that answer does not involve accessing BIOS: this Toshiba laptop is
presenting me with a password block to the BIOS and the owner of the laptop
claims he did nothing to create a password during his setup/initial use. I
see no BIOS battery when uncovering the screwed-down accessible areas of
the laptop bottom. Dozens of times we've tried to guess the password (unit
shuts down after 3 failed tries).

 

[AJR]

More info would help- type HD? - installing XP from within Vista? - booting
from XP CD? Booting from XP and HD is SATA drivers may be required.

Keep in mind, recommended method of creating a dual boot setup is to
install XP first followed by Vista. If you are successful in installing XP,
system will not boot - requiring modification of the boot manager via
BCDEdit or a third-party utility such as VistaPro.

 

[the wharf rat]

Once I find the drivers (a chore in itself), can I somehow load them into a
RAMdisk and then run XP setup?

Finding the drivers will be easy, especially for a laptop. The
manufacturer's site will have them. If not, there are only a handful of
SATA (I'm assuming sata...) chipsets in use.

When you boot the XP install disc watch carefully and when the
little message line says "hit F6 if you have drivers to install" hit
F6. Nothing will happen right then but later it will ask for the floppy.

This is a new laptop, so naturally there's no floppy

Well, no floppy... You could create an answer file for an
unattended install and use the OemPnpDriversPath mechanism to get them
in. It's not as hard as it sounds.

The BIOS thing might require a return to Toshiba, but on some
you can leave the thing without a battery installed for a couple of days
and it will lose its memory.

 

[Karl Snooks]

Patient Guy,
Concerning your BIOS password problem:
1. Have you checked the Toshia site for a program to reset the Bios
password? I do not know if such exists from them but--
2. There are programs which will clear out your BIOS password. If I find
where I put the info on that I'll post again.
3. The old stand-by methof of resetting the password, which also resets
the entire Bios settings----open the laptop up, remove the battery which
backs up the Bios settings, wait 10 seconds, reinsert battery.

karl

 

[Winston Smith, American Patriot]

More info would help- type HD? - installing XP from within Vista? -
booting from XP CD? Booting from XP and HD is SATA drivers may be
required.

It's a Toshiba Satellite M305, whatever they are putting for hard disks.
Certainly SATA.

I am not setting up XP from within Vista: I just used Vista's disk
management console to create a 6 GB partition (within one 200 GB physical
disk), then re-starting the machine with a boot from the XP setup disk:
during the setup loading, it's reporting no hard drive found, so thus it
has no drivers to recognize the physical disk.

Keep in mind, recommended method of creating a dual boot setup is to
install XP first followed by Vista.

The Toshiba came with Vista HP already installed (what new machine doesn't
come with it?) There are some success stories out there of those
installing a dual boot with XP installed on an already-Vista machine.

If you are successful in
installing XP, system will not boot - requiring modification of the
boot manager via BCDEdit or a third-party utility such as VistaPro.

I hear there's a program called VistaBootPRO that sets up a multi-boot
boot sector information which effectively does the job of BCDedit.




--
If Craigslist, which is a complete waste of your time, allows the chaotic
to manage the website, then how can anyone expect anything other than
chaos to be the result?

http://mavigozler.awardspace.info/

 

[the wharf rat]

3. The old stand-by methof of resetting the password, which also resets
the entire Bios settings----open the laptop up, remove the battery which
backs up the Bios settings, wait 10 seconds, reinsert battery.

That's not always easy on a laptop.

And *some* of them are really sneaky and write security configs
to flash rather than cmos.

 

[Earle Horton]

Assuming you get past the disk driver problem, there is another method of
dual booting Vista, XP, whatever. Establish two or more primary partitions,
using the DOS Fdisk command to switch the "Active" partition between one and
the other. That way you can set up XP without having to worry about the
Vista boot program throwing fits. Once you have everything set up so that
XP works, then you can use BCDEdit or a third party utility to make the
operating system selectable at boot time.

I did this with a Dell, having no problem of XP recognizing the SATA hard
drive. Maybe the Toshiba controller or BIOS interface is different though.

Earle

 

[Patrick Keenan]

After creating 6 GB partition (maximum shrink volume available) and
formatting NTFS using the Vista HP disk management control for setting up
an XP Pro system in that space, I am unable to run the XP setup disk
because it apparently does not have the drivers for running the hard drive
("the machine apparently has no hard drive"),

Once I find the drivers (a chore in itself), can I somehow load them into
a
RAMdisk and then run XP setup?

Not likely, the easier thing is to use a USB floppy drive, $20. The
drivers will be easy to find.

The real question is whether they will *work*.

On this R61 thinkpad, I had to shift the SATA controller into a
compatibility mode because the SATA driver Lenovo offered was accepted
during XP setup, but it still couldn't find the hard disk in AHCI mode.

Had to shift modes, yes from the BIOS, install XP, then install the driver,
then go back to BIOS and shift modes.

This is a new laptop, so naturally there's no floppy, and we have no USB
floppy, and what's worse---see below----even if we did manage to borrow a
USB floppy, we're not sure if we can alter the boot sequence because we
have no access to BIOS.

You won't need to; the floppy is normally assigned A automatically, and
that's where XP looks.

But as noted above, this may not help you.

I hope that answer does not involve accessing BIOS: this Toshiba laptop
is
presenting me with a password block to the BIOS and the owner of the
laptop
claims he did nothing to create a password during his setup/initial use.
I
see no BIOS battery when uncovering the screwed-down accessible areas of
the laptop bottom. Dozens of times we've tried to guess the password
(unit
shuts down after 3 failed tries).

Laptops don't have a BIOS battery. Remove the main battery and the power
adapter, hold the power switch down for 30 - 60 seconds. That's the usual
secret handshake. Otherwise, you must call Toshiba support, and probably
send the unit for service.

HTH
-pk

 

[the wharf rat]

Laptops don't have a BIOS battery.

Some do. I've worked on older IBM's that have one. Also some
Dells. It's not a button battery though it looks like a big resistor.