XP install - no hard drive found

[Kevin]

I am having this problem trying to re-install windows XP. I have tried
booting from boot disk, and from the XP CD. The hard drives (2 Maxtor
IDE133 drives, one 30GB one 40GB) show up fine in BIOS, and from a boot
disk. They also show up fine in every utility I have tried. I have fdisk'd
them, reformated them, repartitioned them repeatedly. Installing Windows XP
keeps giving me the same error - no hard drives found. MS KB has been no
help in this. Anyone know anything else I can try please?

 

[RoadRunner]

Hi ... If you have an Windows xp disc ? Then you wouldn't perform fdisk to
reformat the drives , You can reformat the drive with the xp disc , have a
look at this website in how its done , just select clean install on the left
side pane

http://michaelstevenstech.com/

.....

 

[Kevin]

Thanks for the reply, but no I can't. The WinXP CD can't find any hard
drives. That is my problem. Neither can the Win2000 CD. Yet they are
there, they are functional, and can copy files too and from them. But XP
can't see them.

 

[Anna]

Thanks for the reply, but no I can't. The WinXP CD can't find any hard
drives. That is my problem. Neither can the Win2000 CD. Yet they are
there, they are functional, and can copy files too and from them. But XP
can't see them.
Kevin

Kevin:
When you say you can read (and presumably write) to both of those drives,
you're referring to the situation where you've installed them in another
machine and they seem to function OK as data/storage (non-booting) drives.
Is that right? So it's clear from this that you know the drives are not
defective. Is that it?

Or do you mean that you've installed them in the another machine with
another bootable drive and they function OK as data storage/backup drives?

In any event, there doesn't seem to be any mechanical/electronic problems
with those drives, right?

Now you're trying to install XP on one (or both?) of those drives? Or are
you simply trying to use them as second (and third?) storage drives in your
computer, in that you have a bootable drive installed in that machine?

Could you clarify all this and we can go on from there. In doing so, please
report *precisely* how you've connected/configured/jumpered *all* the hard
drives you're using.
Anna

 

[Kevin]

No, I mean on this machine I can read and write to the drives using things
like Ghost, or Maxplus, or just DOS boot disks. I am trying to install XP
onto the master drive. They are set up correctly as master/slave. Nothing
in the hardware has changed since I started trying to reinstall XP (bought a
new pc, and want to give this one to my daughter clean) Every utility I
have tried, including windows boot disks can see the drives. But when I try
to install XP it says no hard drives detected.

 

[Anna]

No, I mean on this machine I can read and write to the drives using things
like Ghost, or Maxplus, or just DOS boot disks. I am trying to install XP
onto the master drive. They are set up correctly as master/slave.
Nothing in the hardware has changed since I started trying to reinstall XP
(bought a new pc, and want to give this one to my daughter clean) Every
utility I have tried, including windows boot disks can see the drives.
But when I try to install XP it says no hard drives detected.
Kevin

Kevin:
Forgive my denseness but I'm still not clear on your situation...

You obviously have a machine with a bootable XP OS since here you are
posting a message from (I assume) that computer.

Now, for one reason or another, you want to install XP on one (or both?) of
the drives in question, the 30 GB & 40 GB drives on that same machine. Do I
have it right so far?

If I do... You disconnect the Primary Master and install the 30 GB drive and
try to install XP on that drive using, of course, the XP installation CD.
But you can't because you get a message that no HD is detected on your
computer. Now you disconnect that 30 GB drive and install 40 GB one. And the
same thing happens.

Do I have it right now?
Anna

 

[Kevin]

No, I built a new machine which I am posting from. The old machine, I am
giving to my daughter, so I wanted to install XP fresh and get rid of years
of accumulated junk. When I started this task, you could still boot to XP.
I first tried installing from in Windows, and when it rebooted, it couldn't
find any hard drives. It could still boot to Windows safe mode, but no
where else. I then tried reformating both drives. No problem, but XP setup
still couldn't see a drive. Every utility I've tried has no problem seeing
them. I even installed DOS 6.0 onto the drive, and can boot from that.
Then run WINNT from the CD, and again, no drive. So right now, I have a
machine, that was running XP with no problems. I've made no hardware
changes, and no BIOS changes. DOS can see and run on the drive. In setup,
if I hit F6 to load drivers (I figured maybe it had a problem with the
motherboard controller) and put in the driver disk for the HD controller, it
says it already has those drivers in Windows. But it still doesn't see the
drive.
Thanks for your help Anna.

 

[Anna]

No, I built a new machine which I am posting from. The old machine, I am
giving to my daughter, so I wanted to install XP fresh and get rid of
years of accumulated junk. When I started this task, you could still boot
to XP. I first tried installing from in Windows, and when it rebooted, it
couldn't find any hard drives. It could still boot to Windows safe mode,
but no where else. I then tried reformating both drives. No problem, but
XP setup still couldn't see a drive. Every utility I've tried has no
problem seeing them. I even installed DOS 6.0 onto the drive, and can
boot from that. Then run WINNT from the CD, and again, no drive. So right
now, I have a machine, that was running XP with no problems. I've made no
hardware changes, and no BIOS changes. DOS can see and run on the drive.
In setup, if I hit F6 to load drivers (I figured maybe it had a problem
with the motherboard controller) and put in the driver disk for the HD
controller, it says it already has those drivers in Windows. But it still
doesn't see the drive.
Thanks for your help Anna.
Kevin

Kevin:
I think (although I'm still not entirely sure) that I understand your
situation...
You have a computer (containing XP, right?) that's actually working fine. It
boots with whatever bootable drive is in that machine. But you want, (for
some reason I'm not particularly clear about), to install XP on some older
30 GB & 40 GB drives and install (I guess) one of them as the new bootable
drive. You know those drives are not defective because when they're
installed as (we'll call them) secondary drives, i.e., for storage/backup
purposes, the system detects them and there's no problem accessing data on
those drives. But you can't install XP on either of those drives because
when you use the XP installation CD to install the OS, it reports there are
no hard disks present.

So if I have it right now -- why can't you simply use that "good" bootable
drive that works in that machine and be done with it? Delete whatever
programs/data you don't want on that drive. Use one or both of the other
drives for storage/backup purposes.

What is this business about "I hit F6 to load drivers" because "maybe
(there's) a problem with the motherboard controller"? We're not talking SATA
drives or some RAID setup here, are we? What "driver disk for the HD
controller"?

We'll get to the bottom of this yet, Kevin.
Anna

 

[Kevin]

No, I have more than one computer. You wondered how I was posting if I
didn't have Windows. I have another computer. I am trying to get my old
computer back working after formating the hard drives. It is that, that is
the problem. As for applying drivers on setup, I have been trying
everything I can think of to get it to work, including that. No, it is not
SATA or RAID (both are auto detected by XP anyway).

 

[Guest]

I've got exactly the same issue.

I've been experiencing intermittant crashes in XP Home Edition SP2 and have
decided to bite the bullet and carry out a clean installation. My PC can boot
from CDROM so after backing up all of my data I have rebooted with the XP CD
in the drive. My PC recognised the CD and transfers the installation files,
BUT, when I select [Enter] at the prompt to Setup XP I am taken to a blue
screen that says that no hard drives have been found - even though I can
still successfully boot to my existing installation of XP. My only option
from here is to quit the installation. Successive attempts have met with the
same result.

The only thing that I can think of is that a RAID (stripe) setup for two
additional disks that I have is interferring with the installation - but I
don't see why it should as I want to install onto the existing 'C' drive
(which isn't part of the RAID configuration.

Have you managed to resolve this one?

Thanks, Steve