hi guys, i bought all new insides for my computer and everything seems to be working well, except when i go to install windows, i cannot as it sais there is no HDD connected, now i am 100% positive that it reconises the hdd because when i start the comp. up it sais maxtor 300029mb sata hdd, now in a previous forum someone said when installing windows to press F6 when it prompts me to, but when i do press it nothing happens, could someone please help me Kind Regars John

i believe that is because the windows install CD does not have SATA drivers. maybe the newer install CDs with SP2 do. anyhow, theres a number of ways around this. 1) Have a floppy disk with the drivers on it during install. I think during windows install, it will ask if you want to use additional drivers.. press f6 or somthing like that. 2) create a new Windows install CD with the drivers slipstreamed into it. google search slipstreaming 3) install windows on to IDE drive... install serial ata drivers. then do a disk to disk copy from IDE to SATA drive.

John, You have to get the SATA drivers from either the motherboard mfgr or the SATA card mfgr, whoever's SATA connectors you use. You put the drivers on a floppy or CD and when you START to install windows, you hit F6 when asked before it ever loads any windows drivers. It will read the floppy or CD and your drivers will be installed. Of course the floppy or CD must be recognized by the BIOS, si make sure you've enebled whichever you use to be read first. Good luck, Noel

Thanks for your help guys but im juist going to get a professional to do i as there is a high chance that the computer will finish with a bigger problem than what it started with if i attempt it lol. Cheers