I am a total newbie and lo tech user (hence the name) so please be patient!

I recently bought a second hand pc with a copy of windows professional installed but have since discovered that it was a dodgy copy. I then purchased a copy of xp home to replace it but found on trying to install this that the computer would not boot from the CD and that the bios was password protected. I checked out forums on the internet and found out how to get round this by swapping round the jumpers on the motherboard to clear the bios. On re starting the computer evrything was fine - no password needed so I altered the 'boot from' section so that I could boot from first a floppy then a cd drive. So far so good. I put the windows home cd in and proceeded to install it but got this message:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.
Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3.

I was then able to load up xp professional - back to the forums! I think that I need to get the drivers for my hard drive (Maxtor 6L200M0) but I can't find them and even if I could I am not sure about how to what the next stage is. Would I copy them to a floppy then hit F6 when prompted at the xp home set up stage?

I am completely stimied and would appreciate some help.

Change boot order to CD then Hard Drive.if you don't have your Hard Drive in the boot sequence it won't recognize it.

It also won't recognize the disk if it forgot what type of hard disk it is. The procedure to forget the password protection also makes it forget this.

If you can get Windows Install to run from CD, it might find the correct type. It might also format the hard disk.

Thanks for your help. I tried to change the boot order but the installation failed as the hard disc was not detected during installation.

When you say get windows to install from CD can I begin an installation of windows xp home after starting in win xp professional? Do I just put the disc in and try to install as I would with any other software, and what happens if the hard disc is not detected at this point? Would I have totally screwed things up? I really need some step by step help on this one!

/*I am a new member i had the same problem recently.This is what i figured out*/
1.go to BIOS
2.Check if there is any option like 'SATA'.
Disable it.
3.now boot from your CD(press F6 to install RAID drivers) and goto Recovery
console.
4.log onto your account by pressing 1 or try some other number
5.enter your password if present.
6.At C:\windows\ type chkdsk and follow the instructions