Windows XP Installing Windows Pro XP

[refuso]

Installing Windows XP Pro

Hey,

I currently have Windows XP Home edition installed on my Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro v2085; The recovery disk for Windows XP Home is the only installation disk that will work on my laptop. I purchased an XP pro installation disk, and when I boot from the disk to make a fresh install, it says that it couldn't detect any harddrives.

I figured it could have been a problem with the disk, so I tried disks from work but it gave the same error. To double check that my harddrive was fine, I used my Fujitsu recovery disk with XP Home, and that worked without any issues.

So I'm wondering if Fujitsu has locked my hardware to read from their disk only? It seems odd that the only boot disk which works is theirs. On the other hand, I was wondering if I installed XP Home again, and used Partition Magic to create another partition on my hard drive, if I would be able to boot from my XP Pro disk into that partition and begin a fresh install from there?

I'm hoping there will be an easier solution to this; I know I could just run an upgrade installation from Home to Pro, but that wont be of any use as I plan on installing Server 2003 on there eventually too (Which you can't upgrade to of course) - So if anyone has some ideas, I'd be greatful to hear them!


Thanks,


-Refuso

 

[Ian]

It might be that you need to loads some drivers for your hard drive during setup - there should be a part where it asks you to press F2 and insert a disk in the initial stages.

Do you know what sort of hard drives you have on your PC, as it seems strange that it isn't automatically detected.

 

[refuso]

I could manually install drivers for my hard drive if I wanted to yeah; but I don't have a floppy drive so I don't know how to do that?

The hard drive is: FUJITSU MHV2040BH

 

[muckshifter]

That's a SATA drive, an old one, check the BIOS


Ian, I believe it is F6 "install additional Drivers", however, yes a floppy drive would help here.

Alternatively, you could try the drivers on a USB drive, and then you will need a BIOS that can use such a drive.

 

[refuso]

How can I tell if my bios would support USB ?

 

[muckshifter]

How can I tell if my bios would support USB ?

You err, take a look ...

Either it will support USB booting, or it won't. If it does support USB booting, you'll probably have to enable the function, but that's relatively easy to do.

 

[refuso]

Lol cool, sorry I'm not with it - it's been a long day. Alright so I can definitely boot from USB - so presumably I just need to find the hard drive drivers, drop them onto my USB flash drive, and then manually install the drivers when I run the installer for Server 2003?

 

[muckshifter]

Well, it may, may not, be that simple ...


We don't want to actually "boot" from the drive, we just need Windows to "see" the drive, at boot time, so you can load drivers off it as you would a Floppy drive.

You shouldn't need to load SATA drivers, XP Pro with at least SP1 should work, but, as you see, looks like you may need them.

Have another look in the BIOS, see if there is another "disabled" feature, to do with SATA drives. Enable it.


Good luck!

 

[refuso]

Hmm I double checked the BIOS and there's not a lot in there that I can change really. I gave it a shot anyway, booted up into the Server 2003 installer, pressed F6 to see if I could load some drivers; and it didn't pick up on any hard drive - and also only looked for a floppy drive to grab the drivers from.

I think I'll have to make a custom boot disk, see if I can make the computer think I'm running the recovery disk which I have, except install Server 2003 on it. If that fails, I'm going to have to give Fujitsu a call and vent

Thanks for your help anyway guys, I'll let you know the outcome once I'm done!

 

[refuso]

Alright so I called tech support in the end, they basically said I need to buy an external floppy disk drive, and install the drivers that way instead. Total pain in the arse really. Anyway I was wondering if someone could help me find the drivers I need for my floppy disk. The guy said I had to download them from the website, but there's squat there for me to download. The hard drive model is Fujitsu MHV2080BH - I think it's discontinued now, so getting the drivers seems like a task. I've been looking for the past couple of hours through google etc, but still no luck!

 

[muckshifter]

You need to try ...


http://support.fujitsu-siemens.com/com/support/downloads.html

 

[refuso]

Hey, thanks.

I should have replied earlier but I completely forgot. I was looking for the wrong thing beforehand - I needed the host controller drivers. I have it all fixed now; bought myself a nice USB floppy drive and booted up Server 2003 without a hitch. I'm even on it as we speak

Thanks again for the input,


-Refuso

 

[muckshifter]

Glad you got it sorted ...

 

[london77]

hello guys im new here.. please be gentle


i have the same problem. i have philips x56 laptop with fujitsu mhv2080bh hard drive and vista ultimate installed in it.. i tried to install XP pro but its giving error at startup saying that it couldnt finf any hard drive ..

so i pushed f6 at startup to installdrivers which i have found in internet (
im not sure its the right drivers ) . unfortunatelyit didnt work...


so please help me to get rid out off VIsta.. if anyone has this drivers... please send it to me...

i will really really appreciate that..


pleaseeeee ...

thnks in advance

 

[refuso]

You need the SATA controller drivers; if your laptop uses intel you can download them here and copy them to a floppy: http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/25527.html

 

[london77]

thnks

thnks a million times...

i havent tried it yet.. as i am in the school and ftp is blocked..

as soon as i get home i will try it...

 

[london77]

ok thnks a million times..

i have tried it and it worked...

 

[refuso]

Awesome, glad that helped.