Slacker6000
n00b
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2004
- Messages
- 48
I tried using my windows XP reinstallation CD and when I tell it to install it says I have no Hard drive and that it cant continue.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
How do you format comp?
- Thread starter Slacker6000
- Start date
Slacker6000
n00b
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2004
- Messages
- 48
Where would I get the drivers for my disk controller?
dark_reign
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2005
- Messages
- 2,314
Intel, NVIDIA, VIA, etc. depending on the motherboard chipset. You need to put the drivers on a floppy and hit F6 when it tells you during the install.
dark_reign
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2005
- Messages
- 2,314
For SATA drives you sometimes need a disk controller driver ready on a floppy (or possibly a USB flash drive--I never tried it) BEFORE you can partition and format during the WinXP install process. I had to do it with my P4 system when I upgraded to a SATA hard drive. Once the drive is detected, you can partition and format like normal from the WinXP install menu.
Really need to know some hardware details about your PC. What motherboard is in it? What drives do you have and how are they connected up?
Doesn't matter how many drives/partitions are in your system, or which drive/partition you want to install Windows to. The Windows installation needs to be able to access the primary boot partition to be able to write the boot loader files there. If it can't you'll get a report that no suitable drives were found.
As mentioned, some systems with SATA hard drives need to have a device driver loaded before the drive can be 'seen' by the windows installer. That's uncommon on more recent systems, but was frequently found on older systems with VIA chipsets in particular. If your machine is of that type you'' need to load the SATA RAID driver from floppy early in the Windows install, or it won't even find a SATA drive to install to.
Even if that isn't the case your SATA drive will need to be on SATA channel 0 or, alternatively, your BIOS setup will need to be pointed at a different channel to ensure that a primary bootable drive is present.
If you have IDE hard drives then one of them will need to be 'Master' on IDE channel 0 or, again, The Windows installer won't be able to locate a bootable drive.
It sounds to me that you're experiencing a hardware configuration issue of this nature.
Doesn't matter how many drives/partitions are in your system, or which drive/partition you want to install Windows to. The Windows installation needs to be able to access the primary boot partition to be able to write the boot loader files there. If it can't you'll get a report that no suitable drives were found.
As mentioned, some systems with SATA hard drives need to have a device driver loaded before the drive can be 'seen' by the windows installer. That's uncommon on more recent systems, but was frequently found on older systems with VIA chipsets in particular. If your machine is of that type you'' need to load the SATA RAID driver from floppy early in the Windows install, or it won't even find a SATA drive to install to.
Even if that isn't the case your SATA drive will need to be on SATA channel 0 or, alternatively, your BIOS setup will need to be pointed at a different channel to ensure that a primary bootable drive is present.
If you have IDE hard drives then one of them will need to be 'Master' on IDE channel 0 or, again, The Windows installer won't be able to locate a bootable drive.
It sounds to me that you're experiencing a hardware configuration issue of this nature.