Pandemic187 Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 Hey all,For whatever reason, XP won't install on my laptop. It's an HP and it comes with Vista preinstalled, but of course many people prefer XP to Vista. I like to play games on my laptop and XP is better for gaming so that's one of the reasons I'd like to install XP. But when I try to install it, it says that it can't find any hard drives. I'm typing this post out on my laptop right now, so obviously, I do have a hard drive. Has anyone seen this problem before? Is there anything I can do about it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Welcome to the Windows Forum.How are you trying to install XP - replace Vista, or install in a second partition (as a multi-boot system)?If you are trying to replace Vista, I think you need to format the drive/partition first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandemic187 Posted December 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Hey Pat,Thanks for the reply. I actually have Ubuntu Linux installed as well, so I'm running a dual-boot system. As a side note, I did try to install a pirated version of XP to see if there was something wrong with my XP CD - it wasn't bootable, but it was able to format my Windows partition and install successfully. I'm really not sure what the difference is. But if I were to format my Windows partition before installing, how would I go about doing that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Sorry, I don't understand your question - you did format your partition, then install Windows XP; that's what I meant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandemic187 Posted December 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 I'm not sure what you mean by that...my legal copy of XP does not work. So I still have a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hb_Kai Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Are there any errors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandemic187 Posted December 25, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 Are there any errors?No - just that it can't find any hard drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 If it is a SATA H/D you may need to install the SATA drivers for it in order for XP to properly install (press F6 when it tells you). Some of the "pirated" versions have SATA drivers already built in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandemic187 Posted December 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 If it is a SATA H/D you may need to install the SATA drivers for it in order for XP to properly install (press F6 when it tells you). Some of the "pirated" versions have SATA drivers already built in.That might be right, Boris. Can you give me any more info on installing SATA drivers? I tried to do it but it said it couldn't find a floppy drive to get drivers from, which, duh, I don't have on my less-than-year-old laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted December 27, 2008 Report Share Posted December 27, 2008 If you do not have a floppy, you can either slipstream the SATA drivers into your XP CD using nLite.http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.htmlOtherwise, you could try this suggestion ? ( which I have not done myself, but have been told that it works)In the BIOS, change the mode in the SATA controller section to "IDE mode".The OS will then apparently think it is an IDE drive and install XP, and you don't need a floppy or the drivers. Then after the OS is installed, load the motherboard chipset drivers (inc. the SATA drivers) and then change the mode back to SATA in the BIOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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