I am trying to reformat my hard drive and reinstall windows to get rid of all the unnecessary junk that has built up and such, but when I boot from the disk, the error message "setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer" comes up.

How do I prevent/fix this so I can reinstall windows?

Thanks

Can you give us the pc specs and how si the hard d rive coneected... etc

Sounds like a sata drive or drives on the sata controller and you might need to install he mass storage drivers for SATA through the f6 option...

but we will see when you give us th especs of your rig...

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

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Windows XP
512 MB RAM
AMD Athlon XP 2700+
2.17 Ghz Processor

I don't really know what you mean by how the hard drive is connected. Sorry, I'm not great with the hardware of computers, I've only even opened my computer case to install a graphics card once. Anyway, I have searched many sites for this problem, and It seems that it might be a RAID driver or something like that. I know it is not the BIOS, because I've checked and made sure that the HDD is the first thing to boot up.

What I need to know is this ???

The ahrd drives how many and what type eg IDE or SATA ???

The typeand brand of mother board ??

How is the bios setup is raid set to enable ?? etc...

The reason I ask these questions is cos what you have described sunds like eather a raid setup or a SATA setup, with sata controller on its own and the XP installer needs the correct drivers at the very start before it will recognise the hard drive.

When you actualy boot the computer, do you get a Raid bios configuration line after the initial post screen ????

So till i know that part ican realy say to much as I might be poointing you in the wrong direction...

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

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Hard Drive: Maxtor 6 Y080M0 SCSI Disk Device
(how do you find out whether it is IDE/SATA)

(once again how do you find the type of motherboard)

The BIOS is set up to boot the hard drive first, then floppy, then CD drive. I beleive the RAID is set to enable, but I am not sure.

When I start up the computer, I don't get a RAID/BIOS configure screen as far as I know, It says "press DEL to enter Setup" , which is what I did to change the BIOS so that the hard drive would boot first.

Thank you for your help and sorry for being such a newb about the whole thing

upon further inspection it is an IDE drive

Thanks for the info..

The fact the Raid is set to enable says its looking for har drives connected to the raid controller.

That is why it is not recognising the hard drive when you do the install, it is looking for the raid driver which needs to be isntalled through the f6 opting right at the start when the xp cd boots the computer..

Now

You can find the brand and model of the mother board by looking at the board itself..

There should be white lettering on the board somplace eather close to the cpu and ram sockets or in between the pci slots.

It should have the brand eg Asus, than the model eg. p5pe800 - delux etc

The fact its an ide drive i presume its a single drive or are there 2 of them ???

A rid setup can be done with a single drive, but only on certain mother boards etc..

Pls let me know what other components you have eg cd rom dvd rom dvd/cd burner etc and how many.

Once I have all the info I can tell you exactly what you need to know.

But just going on what you have told me it very much looks like a raid setup..

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

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ok, thank you very much. I cant open up my computer case right now because I am short on time, I'll do it later tonight, but I can tell you that I have 1 Rewritable CD drvie (not DVD, I have an external burner but that isnt attached to my PC right now)

I'll find the rest of the info later tonight.

Ok, sorry for not replying, I've been away all weekend. Anyway, about the number of IDE drives, how can I tell?

I'll open up my case in an hour or so and bring back the results :D

The SATA hard drives will be connected via thing flexible cable, usuasly red in colour.

The IDE hard Drives will be connected with a wide 80 wire ribon cable, usualy grey in colour...

Other IDE components will be connected with a similar type of cable but it will be a 40 wire type, it is usualy thicker than the other 80 wire cable...

The primary IDE connector is usualy Blue in colour.... the secondary IDE connector is normaly black in colour, the floppy drive connector is also black in colour but it is much more narower than the other two..

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
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ok, I thought it would be easier just to take some pictures with my camera and upload them for you to see, because chances are I'd make a mistake. Here you go

Full Case:
http://img29.echo.cx/img29/9291/picture0326qr.jpg

Top Left:
http://img29.echo.cx/img29/5223/picture0338ts.jpg

Bottom Left:
http://img29.echo.cx/img29/6356/picture0341zo.jpg

Close up on Motherboard/Processor/Thingy:
http://img92.echo.cx/img92/5003/picture0357ed.jpg

As you can see, my photography skills closely rival my skills with computer hardware.....

http://asia.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/FileList/Manual/manual_sata_raid_os_via8237_e.pdf

http://asia.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/FileList/Manual/manual_7vm400am(f)_e.pdf

Hi

Thanks for the pics good move much easier than writing....

A.. With care remove the ram module hold it by the edges of the pcb, and use a soft brush to clean lint and dust from it, and than place it aside in a anti static bag if you have one or just place it carefully on a ceramic dish out of the way..

1. Remove the video card and clean the heatsink and fan on it. Use a soft brush to loosen the lint and the dirt form the card and just give it a good blow to remove it.

2. With care remove the cpu fan from the heatsink by removing the 4 screws holding it in place, clean the fan... Without removing the heat sink use the soft brush to loosen the lint and dirt and just give it a good blow also. reinstall it in the reverse order of removall...Dont forget to reconnect the cpu fan connector.

Clean the case fan also, and just blow out the dust from inside the case as well.

Once all is done and back in its place reinstall the ram module..make sure it is seated correctly...apply a small amount of downward pressure on the ram module until the retaining clips lockthemselves into place..The ram goes in one way the notch on the module must line up with divider in the ram slot.

Next ..

To load the operating system you must have a floppy drive with the correct drivers on it, which must be installed at the very start of the windows load cycle.

So when the XP CD boots the computer and the first blue screen appears, there will be a message at the bottom of the screen telling you to press PF6 to install additional devise drivers.. You must press pf6 at this stage, let the installer do the rest of its job for the moment, than it stop at a screen with a message to press S to install additional devices..

Insert the floppy drive and press the S key a list will appear with a number of options this is where you will highlight the correct driver and hit the enter key, the drivers will be copied form the floppy into the memory, once done you will get another screen asking you to press S , ignore this one and press the enter key to continue, don't remove the floppy drive, the rest of the installation is as per normal..

At some stage you will see a warning message telling you that the drivers don't have a digital signature, if that is the case just press OK or continue, this is not important for the installation, it just means that MS haven't had their fingers in them...

The links above will take you to the pdf version of the manuals for your board, the model is GA-7VM400AM..

As to the bios configuration, there is two ways one with raid set-up which the first link talks about... Or a normal SATA set-up, but whichever way you set the bios up you will need the floppy drive with the drivers on it. The first link also explains this and shows you how to copy the drivers to the floppy disk.

So if you decide to set the hard drive up as raid you will need to choose the first driver option on the list, if you set the hard d rive up as a normal SATA drive you will need to use the last driver option on the list..

From what I can see on the photos everything seems to be connected correctly, the yellow cable is a ATA133 cable, connected to your optical drive, this is good....

The second link at the top of the page will take you to the main on line manual for you mother board.

I hope this is of some help to you..

Any questions on the info, pls just ask.

have fun

Regards

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

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An of course i forgot the most important part didnt I ..

Make sure that you disconnect the pc from the power socket before doing any work on it...

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

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I've searched everywhere, and I CANT find the actual drivers they talk about in
Section 4. Making a SATA Driver Floppy

I don't have a motherboard driver CD that they talk about which you're supposed to copy the drivers from, and I cannot seem to find any place to download those exact files that I need.

Do you know where I could find these drivers? I've googled "sata driver VT8237" and searched through page upon page of results, but cant find the right download.

This is the closest I got to finding it:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_list.php?part=1&kind=4&CHIP=4&ID=1

but the VT8237 driver isn't the same as they talk about in the 1st pdf file up there.

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7VM400AM.htm

HI

The link above will take you to the first page of your mother board. When lloking for specified drivers always go the the manufacturers web site.

Whan you get there you will see your board and all its spcifications, directly bellow the photo is a group of options, one of them being Drivers.

That will take you the driver page, select the ones you need/want and just down load them...

AS you dont have a CD you will need to down load all the majour hardware drivers also, Chipset, sound, lan, etc...

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
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Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

I decided I should download all the drivers from this page: http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/Driver/Driver_GA-7VM400AM.htm

They include all the ones you talked about (audio, lan, chipset, in addition to the usb2.0, and VGA Driver).

Now for the Sata RAID Driver, because it is simply an exe file (and I presume the others are the same, they are downloading right now), do I just put it on a floppy by itself without any other files for it like the MENU.exe mentioned in the first pdf you gave to me?

Also, for the chipset, lan, audio, etc drivers, do I just put them on a floppy and run them while booting too?

Te answer to you question is NO the only drivers you need to copy to the floppy drive is eather the raid driver, or the SATA driver. Depending on which setup you choose..

All others you will need to install after your have the system loaded and the thing boots for the first time..

If the rid driver comes down as and EXE that means it is a floppy setup exe.. You will execute it than it will ask you to isnert the floppy disk into the drive, than it will create the disk for you..

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
GV-NX6600128D PCIX Graphics Card
Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

okay thank you VERY much, i really really appreciate all the help you've given me. I need to get a few floppy disks tomorow (stupid radioshack doesnt carry any, which is ridiculous), so I'll do all of this tomorow night

Not a problem.. You are welcome..

Hope everything works ok for you !!!

Yeha I do know how that feels, when you want something simple and the place you think should have it doesnt !!! A thorough pain...

Have fun and enjoy

IF IT AINT BROKE, DONT FIX IT

A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD X64 3500+ Wnchst
Corsair 2x512 DDR400 Dual Channel
GV-NX6600128D PCIX Graphics Card
Ggbyte GT Pro CPU Cooler
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cool

OK unfourtunately another problem has arisen. When I run the raid driver exe file, it asks me if i want to ovverwrite these files and when I press yes/no, a VIA Setup Wizard Comes up and wants me to select whether to update or remove the SATA RAID driver.

When I click Update, it says : "Sorry, the setup wizard can't find the supported hardware in your system. You should check your hardware and try again."

I am almost positive it is the right driver, since it even says VT8237 on it.

How can I get it to put the drivers on the floppy?