I purchased a new hard drive (my old one died). I can see it in the BIOS, but I still get a no fixed disks present message. If I type a c:, I get invalid path. I have triple checked all my connections and jumpers. No matter what setting the jumper is in, I get the same response. Why is it showing in BIOS, but nowhere else? Pls Help!

I'm confused, if your old harddrive failed you currently are without an OS, where else would you expect to see the drive?

Are you getting this message when you are attempting to install Windows? Is the drive a SATA interface?

It does need to be setup...the new hard drive.
Should be a disk in the box with the new hd.

The dell os disk...boot from cd should see the new disk and set it up (format it)as well.

I would recommend using the utility that came with the hardrive as apposed to fdisk.

Then the Dell os disk.

There was no disk with the hard drive. When I use the Dell Windows Installation disk, I get the message that it can't access the disk. I'm ready to give up. When I access the BIOS, it shows up in the IDE Detection. UDMA is disabled. Even when I enable it, it disables itself. Even the LED lights up when it's trying to access the hard drive.

Just set the drive listings all to Auto and don't worry about what it says there.

If you didn't get a CD with the drive you can download a utility for setting up the drive from the manufacturer of the drive.

What size is the drive? A P2 isn't going to configure a drive larger than 127GB. This is due to the P2 being 28 bit LBA compliant and drives larger than 127GB need to have a 48 bit LBA compiant BIOS. Your BIOS would not be a candidate for an update to allow the large drive. If the drive is larger than 127GB and you want to use it anyway you can use a PCI based add in controller card. Post back with a response.

In addition to the above you must have the cables or jumpers set wrong, or the IDE controller you are connecting to is disabled. With a dell I would try cable select jumper setting (CS).

WinXP with only 128MB RAM? Yikes!

All you needed to do was take out the old HDD, check to see how the MA/SL/CS jumper was set, then setup your new HDD the same way. Then partition/format the drive. Since you said you didn't get a disc, go to the HDD manufacturer's website & download the software.

If it is a P2 the Hard Drive Limit may be as low as 8GB or 32GB, first update the BIOS to the latest available from DELL.

If your hard drive is outside the limit of the BIOS spend $25.00 on a bootable PCI IDE card.

Lastly to install XP is a mistake W2K would be better.....

The floppy doesn't work on this machine... too old. Anyway, I was using cable select, but to no avail. So then I plugged the hard drive up to the second ide channel. New message, but still failure. Now I get a error reading system area message.

Did you fdisk the hd yet?

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
- Mark Twain

As was stated above you need to determine what the drive size limitations are. What size drive was the old one?

The old one was a 60 gb, and this one is an 80. The fdisk message reads "error reading system area - can't continue." I currently have the jumper setting to master, which is no jumper at all.

Your version of fdisk may be the old one, which doesn't work well on drives larger than 64GB.

If you have a Western Digital drive it may require a jumper in a special position for Master alone (no drive on second connector). Look at the link below for the amended version of fdisk (fdisk64). Just replace the old with the new.

http://radified.com/Files/

No floppy on this machine... Master jumper setting is jumper off.

Well it sounds like you have a real challenge on your hands. But when you get it up and running I think you will find it well worth it.

Being a p2 did you replace the old ribbon cable as well? They do get brittle.

How were you using fdisk with no floppy? If you had a 60GB the 80GB should be OK. You just need to configure correctly. If there are two drives of any kind on the same cable they both must be jumpered using the same method I.E. Both CS or use Master/ slave. Can't use Master/ CS.

What's the service tag number on the back of the Dell? What's the model # of the hard drive? Why are you using fdisk if you're installing XP?