help hard drive issues

stabnormaly · 11-18-2008, 11:34 PM

recently my girlfriends laptops hard drive bit the dust luckily it was still under warranty so we took it in to get fixed and when we got it back they told us that they only fix hardware related problems so we have a new hard drive but the OS isn't installed on it. i want to install XP on it but when i try to it says theirs no hard drive. i have tried to use the program nlite and install the drivers for the SATA drive but it didn't work or i did it wrong im not sure. id like to think i have a higher then average knowledge of computers but things may have to be explained to me still. the new custom XP installer that i made only takes me to a page where it repeatedly asks me for my LAN internet cable and when i plug it in it cant find what its looking for. the laptop is a Toshiba satellite A200 -TJ7 that came with windows vista on it. unfortunately i don't have a usb disk drive otherwise this would be a lot easier. many thanks to anyone who can help me with this problem.

**blah789** · 11-19-2008, 10:46 AM

I'm not sure the exact procedure you followed, but as you probably figured out by now, XP doesn't natively support SATA. You have to press F6 at setup and provide the SATA drivers on a floppy, or if your BIOS allows it, you can force the SATA controller to act like a PATA one. You may have to look around the menus to find the setting. It might be named something like "legacy IDE" or maybe AHCI.
The nLite method puts the SATA drivers on the bootable XP CD, but you have to get the correct one for your SATA controller.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Insta...F6-47807.shtml
If necessary, you may have to look at your manual for the specific make and model of the SATA controller, or at least of the motherboard and chipset (since many SATA controllers are embedded on the motherboard these days, their drivers are often part of the chipset drivers). I can't find the A200 -TJ7 on the toshiba site, or I'd look up the specs.

11-18-2008, 11:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
stabnormaly Registered User Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: canada Posts: 2 OS: xp	help hard drive issues recently my girlfriends laptops hard drive bit the dust luckily it was still under warranty so we took it in to get fixed and when we got it back they told us that they only fix hardware related problems so we have a new hard drive but the OS isn't installed on it. i want to install XP on it but when i try to it says theirs no hard drive. i have tried to use the program nlite and install the drivers for the SATA drive but it didn't work or i did it wrong im not sure. id like to think i have a higher then average knowledge of computers but things may have to be explained to me still. the new custom XP installer that i made only takes me to a page where it repeatedly asks me for my LAN internet cable and when i plug it in it cant find what its looking for. the laptop is a Toshiba satellite A200 -TJ7 that came with windows vista on it. unfortunately i don't have a usb disk drive otherwise this would be a lot easier. many thanks to anyone who can help me with this problem.

11-19-2008, 10:46 AM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,236 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: help hard drive issues I'm not sure the exact procedure you followed, but as you probably figured out by now, XP doesn't natively support SATA. You have to press F6 at setup and provide the SATA drivers on a floppy, or if your BIOS allows it, you can force the SATA controller to act like a PATA one. You may have to look around the menus to find the setting. It might be named something like "legacy IDE" or maybe AHCI. The nLite method puts the SATA drivers on the bootable XP CD, but you have to get the correct one for your SATA controller. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Insta...F6-47807.shtml If necessary, you may have to look at your manual for the specific make and model of the SATA controller, or at least of the motherboard and chipset (since many SATA controllers are embedded on the motherboard these days, their drivers are often part of the chipset drivers). I can't find the A200 -TJ7 on the toshiba site, or I'd look up the specs.