XP Fails to detect SATA drive

[Guest]

A Windows XP Home computer of a friend of mine suddenly won't boot.

We suspected a HD crash, so we booted from a Live-CD (Ubuntu). From there we
were able to mount both his SATA drives and access files.

Still no luck in booting windows though.

The HDDs are _not_ in a RAID setup.

They are visible in BIOS.

We tried to do a repair install of Windows but the Windows XP installer
could not find any drives at all!

How can this be?

I find it confusing that the drives:
A) Show up in BIOS
B) Does not show up in Windows XP install. (The same install CD was used to
install the OS in the first place without need for specific SATA drivers) and
C) That the drives are accessible when running from an Ubuntu live cd.

A new HDD was tested in the computer, but it was not found by the Windows
installer either...

What can we try? We're running out of options and ideas?!

 

[jorgen]

A Windows XP Home computer of a friend of mine suddenly won't boot.

We suspected a HD crash, so we booted from a Live-CD (Ubuntu). From there we
were able to mount both his SATA drives and access files.

Still no luck in booting windows though.

The HDDs are _not_ in a RAID setup.

They are visible in BIOS.

We tried to do a repair install of Windows but the Windows XP installer
could not find any drives at all!

How can this be?

I find it confusing that the drives:
A) Show up in BIOS
B) Does not show up in Windows XP install. (The same install CD was used to
install the OS in the first place without need for specific SATA drivers) and
C) That the drives are accessible when running from an Ubuntu live cd.

A new HDD was tested in the computer, but it was not found by the Windows
installer either...

What can we try? We're running out of options and ideas?!

How far does it get in the boot process? If it is a driver problem, you
should at least be able to get to the F8-menu.

Your bios might have a sata ahci option, to switch between native sata
and ata compatibility mode. If it was running in compatibility before,
and got switched...

 

[Guest]

How far does it get in the boot process? If it is a driver problem, you
should at least be able to get to the F8-menu.

Your bios might have a sata ahci option, to switch between native sata
and ata compatibility mode. If it was running in compatibility before,
and got switched...

You know, that might have been a part of the problem!

We tried to reset the BIOS settings to factory default, and also only
running one HDD (a brand new). The Windows XP installer now finds the disk.

Before, we were able to get to the F8 screen when booting. When we tried to
boot further, windows complained about pci.sys being damaged. That is a real
problem I guess, and it might actually be a HD crash. At least partial...

Maybe a repair install would work on the old disk, but I think a fresh
install on a new disk is safer?

 

[frodo]

Your bios might have a sata ahci option, to switch between native sata

You know, that might have been a part of the problem!

most likely. the standard xp setup will not recognize "Native mode"
without doing an F6 and providing the driver on a floppy (usually called a
raid driver, but you'll still need it even if you are NOT setting it up in
raid mode). In "compatability Mode" the SATA is mapped as if it were a
standard IDE drive, and xp setup will "see" it just fine. But the drive
may not be operated at its optimum in this mode (tho you may never notice
that at all).

In some cases you may be able to set things up in Compatability Mode and
then switch it over to Native Mode after the fact; it can be tricky,
google around for instructions that can be applied to your
MoBo/Chipset/Bios.