Gateway 500 GR SATA Help

[punge]

I got this computer yesterday, just the tower for only $100 from a friend. I have a copy of Windows that I tried to install last night but when it asks me to press C to create a new partition, D to delete a partition, or Enter to install on the current drive. Unfortunately I can't choose any drives that are listed, nothing is listed actually. <unavailable> is what comes up. I also get these msg's if I try to delete partition.

"You can only install to GPT disks on IA64 machines and MBR disks on x86 machines"

"You can only upgrade installations on GPT disks on IA64 machines and MBR Disks on X86 machines"

So I started to research and found that it isn't connected w/an IDE connection but with an SATA and I have no idea on what to do. I went to Gateway's site and downloaded all the updates on my other computer, but really don't have any direction as in what to do to install windows and to recognize the drive. Any help or directions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gigabyte1024]

see if you can get the oem windows disk from your friend.
It'll have the needed SATA drivers built in.

 

[unhappy_mage]

Try zero-filling the disk. My guess is it's got a GPT on it for some reason, so Windows can't install to it. DBAN will serve to zero-fill; just doing it for 30 seconds is probably sufficient to get Windows to stop recognizing it, although it may be checking for the footer as well. In that case, let the wipe run all the way through and it'll stop recognizing it as GPT.