Win XP cannot detect hard disks while setting up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Valentine Thow
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Valentine Thow

Can someone help me with this problem? I am setting my Win XP on my
computer but it seems that Win XP cannot detect my hard disks. I have two
hard disks: master (80GB) and slave (8GB). I have a 450Mhz Pentium Celeron
and I originally had a 8 GB hard disk. But I added a 80GB hard disk
sometime ago and made it the master hard disk. I don't know why I cannot
install Win XP on my computer and why Win XP cannot detect my hard disks???
I am using Win Me currently. When I start my computer up, it'll go into a
screen with two choices: 1. Win ME and 2. Win XP Installation. Anyone?
 
Valentine said:
Can someone help me with this problem? I am setting my Win XP on my
computer but it seems that Win XP cannot detect my hard disks. I have two
hard disks: master (80GB) and slave (8GB). I have a 450Mhz Pentium Celeron
and I originally had a 8 GB hard disk. But I added a 80GB hard disk
sometime ago and made it the master hard disk. I don't know why I cannot
install Win XP on my computer and why Win XP cannot detect my hard disks???
I am using Win Me currently. When I start my computer up, it'll go into a
screen with two choices: 1. Win ME and 2. Win XP Installation. Anyone?
Click to expand...
I think you can disconnect the slave HD first.
After installation of WinXP,
try to add the slave HD back.
 
Can someone help me with this problem? I am setting my Win XP on my
computer but it seems that Win XP cannot detect my hard disks. I
have two hard disks: master (80GB) and slave (8GB). I have a 450Mhz
Pentium Celeron and I originally had a 8 GB hard disk. But I added a
80GB hard disk sometime ago and made it the master hard disk. I
don't know why I cannot install Win XP on my computer and why Win XP
cannot detect my hard disks??? I am using Win Me currently. When I
start my computer up, it'll go into a screen with two choices: 1. Win
ME and 2. Win XP Installation. Anyone?
Click to expand...

Valentine

Check the jumpering of the disks again, make sure one is master and one
slave.

Does your BIOS recognise both disks at their full capacity? If not them
you may need a BIOS upgrade. There is no point in trying to do anything
with Windows unless the BIOS properly recognises your disks.

There were various points at which HD's became unrecognisable on older
machines, if you machine is an older one you may have hit the 32GB
barrier.

If both your HD's are recognised try selecting option 2 Win XP
installation as it appears the original installation may have failed.
 
I did something similar with a Celeron 400--only I used the smaller HD as a
master and the larger as a slave. Because the BIOS (even after installing
the latest update) couldn't handle that large a HD, I had to jumper it to cap
limit to "trick" the BIOS. Once I got XP installed, I was able to jump it to
dependent slave. This worked fine and I had no problems from that point
onward. OTOH I never tried to make the larger drive the master.
 
Valentine said:
Can someone help me with this problem? I am setting my Win XP on my
computer but it seems that Win XP cannot detect my hard disks. I have two
hard disks: master (80GB) and slave (8GB). I have a 450Mhz Pentium
Celeron and I originally had a 8 GB hard disk. But I added a 80GB hard
disk sometime ago and made it the master hard disk. I don't know why I
cannot install Win XP on my computer and why Win XP cannot detect my hard
disks??? I am using Win Me currently. When I start my computer up, it'll
go into a screen with two choices: 1. Win ME and 2. Win XP Installation.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, it may be a BIOS issue. The best solution would be to update
the BIOS, but this article may help to work around that if an update isn't
available. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316505
I'd guess that you already have had to use one of the boot manager programs
to get Millennium to see/use that 80GB drive.
 
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