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I'm building my own computer, for the first time, and I'm having a strange problem. The BIOS can find the harddrive, it sets up fine including installing from the CD that came with it, yet when I go to install Windows XP, the setup can't find the harddrive. Any ideas?
Using an Intel motherboard, Intel CPU, and a Western Digital 500GB harddrive. If any other info is needed request and it will be given.
is this sata or pata/ide hard drive. Is it because you need to load some drivers to enable windows to access the hard drive.
When you start installing windows, before it gets to the bit where it looks at the hrad disc, i think it says something along the bottom line of the screen telling you to press a certain key now if you need to load third party drivers for the disc controller
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Is this a SATA hard drive where you need to press F-6 and install SATA drivers ?
Also,SATA controller could have been switched to AHCI in the BIOS.
Did you check the BIOS?
Did I post late cliffpage ? LOL
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As above.
Might even have to slipstream a cd with the sata controller drivers.
Your motherboard doc's might offer info.
See also.
http://www.techarp.com/showfreebog....
"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10
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If it's a recent motherboard, you may not need the SATA drivers. As Street1 suggested, make sure first that the SATA controller is IDE and not AHCI in the BIOS.
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I've done that. It's set to IDE and ya, it's a brand new board. Just took it out of the box on Friday.
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If the XP setup sees the hard drive, but with unallocated space, then you would tell it to partition and then format. If the XP setup doesn't see the hard drive at all, even as unallocated space, you could try other programs to format the hard drive first and then return to the setup CD.
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If the motherboard didn't come with information then go to the Intel site. They will have the exact manual. Bet it would tell you how to use thier CD and you XP disk to get it loaded.
Not all motherboards and XP and sata are easy. You may have to make a floppy from the CD intel gave you. You might even have to slipstream your XP cd with extra drivers or even service packs.
"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10
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Intel gave me floppy discs.
I found this site durring a Google search:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/wind...This guy is using the same motherboard that I am. I set up everything the way he did and I go to install Windows, I hit F6 to install third party drivers. It gets to where it says to put the disc into Drive A then hit Enter. So I do so and hit Enter. It thinks for a few seconds then the same screen pops right back up. I'm thinking that maybe there's also a problem with my floppy drive. The light comes up and all the plugs are in properly, however. But ya, The BIOS sees the hard drive perfectly fine and I can run the partition software that came with the drive, but Windows can't see the bloody thing.
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Hi
what a horrible set up & useless manual,
ive plagerised from the intel web site f6 install method , maybe you missed a step out.
Pre-Installation Using the F6 Method.
Note:
the F6 Floppy disk utility provided by Intel. This utility can also be downloaded from the following website.
These methods are applicable to systems configured for RAID or AHCI mode.http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Pro...
*Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (RAID) driver version 7.8.0.1012 *
1. Extract all driver files from the installation package.
2. Create a floppy containing the following files in the root
directory:
iaAhci.inf, iaAhci.cat,
iaStor.inf, iaStor.cat,
iaStor.sys, and
TxtSetup.oem.
For Windows XP or later operating systems:- At the beginning of the operating system installation, press F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.
- When prompted, select 'S' to Specify Additional Device
When prompted, insert the media (floppy, CD/DVD or USB) you created in step 2 and press Enter.
6. At this point you should be presented with a selection for one of the following depending on your hardware version and configuration:
- Intel(R) 82801IR/IO SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH9R)
- Intel(R) 82801IR/IO SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH9R)
- Intel(R) 82801HEM SATA RAID Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E)
- Intel(R) 82801HEM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH8M-E)
- Intel(R) 82801HBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH8M)
- Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH8R)
- Intel(R) 82801HR/HH/HO SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH8R)
- Intel(R) 631xESB/632xESB SATA RAID Controller (Workstation ESB2)
- Intel(R) 82801GHM SATA RAID Controller (Mobile ICH7RM)
- Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M)
- Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA RAID Controller (Desktop ICH7R/DH)
- Intel(R) 82801GR/GH SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH7R/DH)7. Highlight the selection that is appropriate for the hardware in your system and press Enter.
(ok i dont know which one is yours not a raid tho very informative intel!)Press Enter again to continue. Leave the floppy disk in the system until the next reboot as the software will need to be copied from the floppy disk again when setup
is copying files.confirm install, (xp working is a good clue but ...)
Systems Configured for AHCI Mode:
Select the 'Device Manager' button.
5. Expand the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' entry.
6. Right-click on 'Intel(R) 82801IR/IO SATA AHCI Controller'
Select 'Properties'.
8. Select the 'Driver' tab.
9. Select the 'Driver Details' button.
10. If the 'iaStor.sys' file is displayed, the installation was successful.any luck?
also the mobo seems to have 8 sata connectors check your connecting to the primary black,
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Got it working. Had to reset SATA to be recognized as IDE and I was using the wrong floppy disc. Working great now, formatting the HDD as I type. Soi thanks for all your help guys.
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