Setup can't detect Hard Drive

[Bullio]

I need some serious help here. I'm begging.

My buddy has a Dell XPS Generation 2. He customized his order on the website and has been gaming on it for the past year or whenever Gen 2 came out. Anyway, I just got off a three hour phone call with him trying to help him do what should be a fairly simple wipe and reload. He managed to aquire a number of viruses and his system keeps rebooting. It's pretty vicious.

However, when we boot from the CD and try to run XP setup, it says it can't detect an installed HDD. Which is odd because it'll boot to Windows if we don't boot off the CD.

I don't know if my Google Fu is weak, but I couldn't find a solution. I caught some allusions to him needing to press F6 and install the SATA drivers somehow, but his driver disks don't have any SATA or RAID drivers on them and I don't know how to find the correct driver for him online. This would be easy if he wasn't clear across the continent from me, but, sadly, that's not the case.

So, how can we get Windows Setup to detect his Hard Drive so we can run a format and get him a fresh install?

Any help here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

P.S. Stupid Dells.

 

[Vile]

I need some serious help here. I'm begging.

My buddy has a Dell XPS Generation 2. He customized his order on the website and has been gaming on it for the past year or whenever Gen 2 came out. Anyway, I just got off a three hour phone call with him trying to help him do what should be a fairly simple wipe and reload. He managed to aquire a number of viruses and his system keeps rebooting. It's pretty vicious.

However, when we boot from the CD and try to run XP setup, it says it can't detect an installed HDD. Which is odd because it'll boot to Windows if we don't boot off the CD.

I don't know if my Google Fu is weak, but I couldn't find a solution. I caught some allusions to him needing to press F6 and install the SATA drivers somehow, but his driver disks don't have any SATA or RAID drivers on them and I don't know how to find the correct driver for him online. This would be easy if he wasn't clear across the continent from me, but, sadly, that's not the case.

So, how can we get Windows Setup to detect his Hard Drive so we can run a format and get him a fresh install?

Any help here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

P.S. Stupid Dells.

A friend of mine had a similar problem, and it was because setup needed drivers for the SATA hard drive.

I found the driver online at Dells page, so it should be available there.

Just have your friend enter the service tag or pull up the system manually on the support/driver page, download it, put it on a floppy and load them during setup.

After doing this for my friend, setup worked just fine.

Also, did his system come with a restore/recover disc? If so, and if you use the disc, it'll load it automatically.

Is this his system?
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=gen&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_XPS_G2&os=WW1&osl=EN

 

[djnes]

P.S. Stupid Dells.

I'm not one to always defend Dell, but why is it their fault, that your friend has no idea what chipset he has, and can't go to Dell's website for the drivers?

Just because XP sees the drive doesn't mean the setup routine does as well. I'm not familiar with these XPS machines, but I'm sure you can get the files to make a floppy from either Dell's website, or the chipset makers site, such as Intel, etc.

I second the notion of using a recovery disc as well. It will be easier for him to do.

 

[Bullio]

A friend of mine had a similar problem, and it was because setup needed drivers for the SATA hard drive.

I found the driver online at Dells page, so it should be available there.

Just have your friend enter the service tag or pull up the system manually on the support/driver page, download it, put it on a floppy and load them during setup.

After doing this for my friend, setup worked just fine.

Also, did his system come with a restore/recover disc? If so, and if you use the disc, it'll load it automatically.

Is this his system?
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=gen&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_XPS_G2&os=WW1&osl=EN

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. I'm not too familiar with his system. He's semi-illiterate when it comes to PC's so I feel like I fly blind when I'm trying to help him over the phone. I'll ask him about the recovery disk. I'm pretty sure it didn't come with one though. As far as getting the driver from Dell's website using the tag number; damn I wish I had thought of that. Thank you so much. You've been a big help. I'll see if this works.

'm not one to always defend Dell, but why is it their fault, that your friend has no idea what chipset he has, and can't go to Dell's website for the drivers?

Sorry man. I didn't mean it personally. It's sort of an ongoing joke between a bunch of my friends and I. I'll try not to insult major computer companies billions of dollars richer than I am in the future.

I'm pretty sure it's because it's not loading the SATA drivers on setup also. I just found it odd because I'm running SATA also and never ran into this issue on a wipe and reload. Hell, if they don't have a recovery disc, maybe there'll be one available for download somewhere.

 

[djnes]

I just found it odd because I'm running SATA also and never ran into this issue on a wipe and reload. Hell, if they don't have a recovery disc, maybe there'll be one available for download somewhere.

There are always drivers available for the chipsets, it's just a matter of what chipset it is. Some are supported natively, and some are not. For example, I've never had to load a driver for an Intel chipset board to install XP on an SATA drive. That's what I was alluding to earlier. It depends on the chipset, not the fact that it's an SATA drive. You've probably always used chipsets yourself that have native support. His XPS system, does not. That being said, you will definitely find drivers on Dell's site.

What I meant about the Dell comment is that it gets frustrating on here sometimes seeing people always point the finger of blame elsewhere, to cover up their own lack of understanding on a topic. You're friend is computer-illiterate (as you've stated), and you didn't know some chipsets aren't natively supported. So, it was clearly someone else's fault, and in this case, that meant Dell. See what I mean? If you read around on here enough, you'll see quite a few examples. I'm waiting for the thread that blames gas prices on Microsoft.

 

[Bullio]

There are always drivers available for the chipsets, it's just a matter of what chipset it is. Some are supported natively, and some are not. For example, I've never had to load a driver for an Intel chipset board to install XP on an SATA drive. That's what I was alluding to earlier. It depends on the chipset, not the fact that it's an SATA drive. You've probably always used chipsets yourself that have native support. His XPS system, does not. That being said, you will definitely find drivers on Dell's site.

What I meant about the Dell comment is that it gets frustrating on here sometimes seeing people always point the finger of blame elsewhere, to cover up their own lack of understanding on a topic. You're friend is computer-illiterate (as you've stated), and you didn't know some chipsets aren't natively supported. So, it was clearly someone else's fault, and in this case, that meant Dell. See what I mean? If you read around on here enough, you'll see quite a few examples. I'm waiting for the thread that blames gas prices on Microsoft.

Ah, that explains it. So when I buy a mobo, I'm looking for native SATA support in the chipsset? Sweet. I guess I can learn something new every day. Thanks for that. I need to utilize the forums outside of Genmay more often.

I can understand that frustration. I try not to point the finger. I know I only have basic skills as far as PC's go. I utilize Google a lot and plod my way through problems as if it's a battle. I do see what you mean about pointing the finger. I wasn't blaming Dell, I was making a lame attempt to be funny. It didn't work, so it's all good.

 

[Bullio]

You guys rock. Thanks so much for your help. He's got it formatted and is installing the updates now.