Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Installing XP

shindb81 · 10-04-2006, 10:22 PM

Hi all.
Can you help me if you have the time to read this?

I just bought a used desktop. It is Dell Precision Workstation 370.

It's missing all manuals and even recovery CD, but Windows XP was installed and it worked fine. But then, I decided to make a new partition to store data, and used partition magic to do the job. The hard drive is 80GB, by the way.

Because I formated each partition, I tried to install Windows XP from the beginning.

And I have done this before on other computers..

Suddenly, on the installation screen, it says, "Hard drive is not installed on your system", and I cannot install Windows XP. I have installed Windows XP with this CD before.

I tried it changing the file system of the hard drive to both FAT32 AND NTSF system, and neither works.

So I thought then Partition Magic screwed up, so I used fdisk to just make it back to one partition. And I can't think of any reason why that shouldn't work, but it just doesn't work. The same message, "Hard drive is not installed in your system".

Weird! It was running just fine before. And strangely, when I was running the fdisk, deleting all partitions and creating a new one, it said the total space was 10GB when it was supposed to be 80GB. Then when I confirmed it, suddenly it said, "recalculating disk space" and showed 80GB back again.

At this time, I was thinking, there must be something wrong with this hard drive.

And another strange thing was...when I tried installing Windows 98 SE, it worked! Then I tried to upgrade it to Windows XP, and there comes the blue screen.

I need Windows XP on this computer, and don't know how to deal with this.

Oh, it's a SATA hard drive by the way. I've never used a SATA drive before. Could this be a problem? Do I need a new hard drive?

10-04-2006, 10:22 PM	#1 (permalink)
shindb81 Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP	Installing XP - Hard Drive not installed?! Hi all. Can you help me if you have the time to read this? I just bought a used desktop. It is Dell Precision Workstation 370. It's missing all manuals and even recovery CD, but Windows XP was installed and it worked fine. But then, I decided to make a new partition to store data, and used partition magic to do the job. The hard drive is 80GB, by the way. Because I formated each partition, I tried to install Windows XP from the beginning. And I have done this before on other computers.. Suddenly, on the installation screen, it says, "Hard drive is not installed on your system", and I cannot install Windows XP. I have installed Windows XP with this CD before. I tried it changing the file system of the hard drive to both FAT32 AND NTSF system, and neither works. So I thought then Partition Magic screwed up, so I used fdisk to just make it back to one partition. And I can't think of any reason why that shouldn't work, but it just doesn't work. The same message, "Hard drive is not installed in your system". Weird! It was running just fine before. And strangely, when I was running the fdisk, deleting all partitions and creating a new one, it said the total space was 10GB when it was supposed to be 80GB. Then when I confirmed it, suddenly it said, "recalculating disk space" and showed 80GB back again. At this time, I was thinking, there must be something wrong with this hard drive. And another strange thing was...when I tried installing Windows 98 SE, it worked! Then I tried to upgrade it to Windows XP, and there comes the blue screen. I need Windows XP on this computer, and don't know how to deal with this. Oh, it's a SATA hard drive by the way. I've never used a SATA drive before. Could this be a problem? Do I need a new hard drive?