URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED

robertelo · 10-23-2008, 11:47 AM

Hi everyone,

I have bought a new ACER laptop with VISTA installed, i didn't like vista and managed to install XP. I reboot with ULTIMATE BOOTBALE CD in a DOS environment... I used the utility FDISK, i deleted all the partitions and format it.. then i reboot with XP INSTALLATION CD insterted. but it says " THE HARD DISK IS UNDETECTABLE PLEASE CHECK IF IT IS CONNECTED OR WELL CONFIGURED........." something like that..

I really don't know what happened to my brand new hard disk.. I have many utilities in the ULTIMATE BOOTABLE CD but i don't now which one to use to fix this problem.

Please help me, urgent replies are appreciated

Thanks everyone

belfasteddie · 10-23-2008, 11:53 PM

You need to check to see if it will run XP. Some machines will only run Vista.

seriouschat · 10-24-2008, 12:53 AM

If you're hard drive is SATA then that is most likely the cause of your problem. In a nutshell, XP does not support AHCI out of the box - thus you need to install the drivers for SATA controllers, or change HD settings in BIOS to make it run as an IDE drive. Install by floppy, or incorporate into install CD. The other option is to enter BIOS and run the hard drive in IDE mode (wording may be different - disable AHCI). Either way, you're going to want the drivers, otherwise you'll be limited to IDE specs on a SATA drive.

robertelo · 10-26-2008, 08:52 PM

Dear sir, thank you so much for your kind reply. I did change it in Bios and i could install XP now.

However, could you tell me please how to install SATA drivers? because i noticed that some functions are missing in my XP.

If you think that SATA is better, please guide me to install sata drivers, i am just a newbie, i dont know how and where to integrate them into a CD, i know how to use NERO but i don't know which files i will add or replace etc.. i don't have a floppy disk.

Kind regards,

dai · 10-27-2008, 12:04 AM

did you collect all the drivers together for xp
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/index.html

10-23-2008, 11:47 AM	#1 (permalink)
robertelo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2 OS: VISTA	URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED Hi everyone, I have bought a new ACER laptop with VISTA installed, i didn't like vista and managed to install XP. I reboot with ULTIMATE BOOTBALE CD in a DOS environment... I used the utility FDISK, i deleted all the partitions and format it.. then i reboot with XP INSTALLATION CD insterted. but it says " THE HARD DISK IS UNDETECTABLE PLEASE CHECK IF IT IS CONNECTED OR WELL CONFIGURED........." something like that.. I really don't know what happened to my brand new hard disk.. I have many utilities in the ULTIMATE BOOTABLE CD but i don't now which one to use to fix this problem. Please help me, urgent replies are appreciated Thanks everyone

10-23-2008, 11:53 PM	#2 (permalink)
belfasteddie tech hardware team Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Belfast N.I. Posts: 1,552 OS: Puppy Linux 4.12	Re: URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED You need to check to see if it will run XP. Some machines will only run Vista.

10-24-2008, 12:53 AM	#3 (permalink)
seriouschat Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 68 OS: Ubuntu 8.10 / Vista	Re: URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED If you're hard drive is SATA then that is most likely the cause of your problem. In a nutshell, XP does not support AHCI out of the box - thus you need to install the drivers for SATA controllers, or change HD settings in BIOS to make it run as an IDE drive. Install by floppy, or incorporate into install CD. The other option is to enter BIOS and run the hard drive in IDE mode (wording may be different - disable AHCI). Either way, you're going to want the drivers, otherwise you'll be limited to IDE specs on a SATA drive. Last edited by seriouschat; 10-24-2008 at 01:03 AM.

10-26-2008, 08:52 PM	#4 (permalink)
robertelo Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 2 OS: VISTA	Re: URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED Dear sir, thank you so much for your kind reply. I did change it in Bios and i could install XP now. However, could you tell me please how to install SATA drivers? because i noticed that some functions are missing in my XP. If you think that SATA is better, please guide me to install sata drivers, i am just a newbie, i dont know how and where to integrate them into a CD, i know how to use NERO but i don't know which files i will add or replace etc.. i don't have a floppy disk. Kind regards,

10-27-2008, 12:04 AM	#5 (permalink)
dai Manager, Hardware Forums Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: west australia Posts: 53,622 OS: vista 32x 64x ultimate retail	Re: URGENT HELP PLEASE - XP- installation HARD DRIVE UNDETECTED did you collect all the drivers together for xp http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/index.html __________________