Hi, This is a second post to se if someone can help. Basically I'm looking to install Windows XP Professional and when I go through the Set Up process, my hard drive is not being recognised. I think I might need to install a driver for the hard drive or (a Raid driver or something?). The details of my motherboard are ASUS A8V-VM 939, and my hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda SATA 2 200Gb, 7200 rpm 8mb. Would you know what driver I need to install Windows XP Profesional successfully? Do I need to change any BIOS settings? Any help would be appreciated. Kind regards

Where is your hard drive not being recognised? If the BIOS isn't seeing it then a driver will not help. You may need to change some BIOS settings. Is this a SATA hard drive? It is possible you could have an issue with the BIOS not being able to work with hard drives larger than 137GB. Boot into the BIOS (Del) screens. The first screen is probably where the drives are configured. Set all lines to Auto. On a screen further back you should find options to enable both the IDE channels and Any SATA controllers. You should enable all. If the drive is a SATA type then connect to the lowest number SATA port. Be sure to also connect a power connector to the drive. Watch teh POST screens at start up to verify all the drives are being identified by model and FULL capacity. Post back how that went before proceeding further. If the POST screens don't show then Disable both Logo screens in the BIOS settings.

Hi thanks for your reply. I am seeing the 'not recognised' message during the Set Up process after it has copied certain files. Basically, after I have started to boot up from the Windows XP disk and before the drive can be formatted. I want to fully format the drive and install Windows XP prof. My hard disk is a SATA. I know the set up asks if I want to install any 3rd party drivers. I assume that I do not have to do this?

Is the drive being recognized in the BIOS? If it is, then your problem is likely the lack of SATA drivers during the install. You'd have to press F6, then install the drivers from a floppy. Here's the driver: http://www.viaarena.com/default.asp... Here's the instructions: http://www.viaarena.com/default.asp...

Boot into the bios and follow the steps OtheHill suggested. In addition, check to see if the sata drive is set to ide mode, and not raid or ahci.

Listen guys, many thanks for all your responses and advice. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll carry out your instructions over the next few hours and see how it goes and will post the results here. I really appreciate your support. Just to answer Jam's question, no the drive isn't being recognised in the Bios. Basically, for the Primary ID Master and Primary IDE Slave, the devices are my DVD writer and my CD writer respectively. For the Secondary IDE Master and Secondary Slave, the narrative alongside them is 'Not detected' resectively. Is this why I need the drivers to which you have provided the links, Jam? Regards

The bios doesn't need any drivers to recognize an sata drive. It would *not* be listed as IDE. Did you connect the drive to the lowest number SATA port ? Did you connect it to a power connector ?