strange error when reinstalling XP home pro

[marceta]

Hey all. Just chucked in my XP pro disc to format my drive and reinstall XP, but i came across a REALLY strange error. IT boots up off the disc, then when i go to press enter to reinstall it says that it cant find any HDD's!!! wat the heck...ive installed XP for friends and on other PC's before and never had anything like this. How to i get it to recognise my Seagate Barracuda 120 GB drive, and reinstall itself?

Many thanks in advance.

[nanosani]

What are your system specs.

[marceta]

P4 3.0G 800FSB 1mb cache LGA775 CPU (@3700 [250x15]) cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 | Asus P5GD1 mobo | 2x512mb Elixir Pc3200 DDR RAM | Albatron 128mb 6600GT PCI-E (570/1160) | 120GB Seagate Barracuda 7.5k | Raidmax Cobra Black | Logitech X-530 5.1 Satelite Speakers | 8 Channel Sound Card

[Soupy]

P4 3.0G 800FSB 1mb cache LGA775 CPU (@3700 [250x15]) cooled by Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 | Asus P5GD1 mobo | 2x512mb Elixir Pc3200 DDR RAM | Albatron 128mb 6600GT PCI-E (570/1160) | 120GB Seagate Barracuda 7.5k | Raidmax Cobra Black | Logitech X-530 5.1 Satelite Speakers | 8 Channel Sound Card

Is that a SATA hard drive?

[marceta]

yes it is a Serial ATA drive!

[manutdrule1990]

Hi,
If you havnt used the same XP CD ignore everything im about to say.

When you say you installed Xp on friends pcs, Did you use the same XP CD because if you did, 1. it's illegal but if you didnt know i dont suppose its your fault. 2. after a few installations the CD regonises that youve used it on several pcs *security mesure by Microsoft* so the cd eventually starts to mess up!
May not be in your case

Hope this helps!

Dave.

[Soupy]

Hi, If you havnt used the same XP CD ignore everything im about to say.

2. after a few installations the CD regonises that youve used it on several pcs *security mesure by Microsoft* so the cd eventually starts to mess up! May not be in your case

Hope this helps!

Dave.

Hate to say it but that is absolutely NOT TRUE. CDs are not writeable...there is know way for the CD to 'recognize' how many times it has been used to install Windows. The 'security measure' that you're talking about is in place with the product key and Windows Product Activation.

When Windows XP is installed, the installer generates a hash which is a unique number used to identify the machine XP is being installed on. It is based on the type of hardware in the machine. Once the install is complete you activate the product, which ties that product key to the hash that was generated during the install. Technically, if you upgrade your computer (motherboard, processor and RAM) you are supposed to purchase another copy of XP. Good ol' Micro$oft.

Marceta: The problem is that the XP installer doesn't have built in drivers for SATA drives (well, SATA controllers, really). When the XP installer starts (right as you see the blue screen for the first time) you have to press F6 a bunch of times (The bottom of the screen will say "To load addtional Third party drivers press F6" or something to that effect.) Then you use your handy manufacturer-supplied driver floppy-disk from your motherboard box and stick it in your floppy drive. After that just follow the onscreen directions and you should be good to go.

Now...if you dont have a handy manufacturer-supplied driver disk, you can usually find a utility on your driver CD for your motherboard that will create one for you.

Let us know if it works!

Cheers
Soup

[manutdrule1990]

Hi,
I no that CDs that have OS on are not writeable and i thought the same as you (theres no way for them to know) but i was "assured" by Microsoft that they Can tell so, obviously theve bin tellin me lies!

Thanks, now i canupgrade my other PC to XP without spedning ££ or for you lot $$ lol. I only sed wht i was told :o :o

Dave.

[Soupy]

Hi, I no that CDs that have OS on are not writeable and i thought the same as you (theres no way for them to know) but i was "assured" by Microsoft that they Can tell so, obviously theve bin tellin me lies!

Thanks, now i canupgrade my other PC to XP without spedning ££ or for you lot $$ lol. I only sed wht i was told :o :o

Dave.

Oh the things that come out of the mouths of Microsoft CSRs. :rolleyes:

No worries dude!

Soup

[marceta]

A big thanks soupy. For my friends PC's they all have their own disc, i didnt want to use mine for the reason of the CD checking (which now i know for sure is fake). I have no floppy driver with my motherboard, but i have a CD. there isnt anything on the CD about drivers. So i went to seagates website and downloaded the Discette Creator program and hoped it would work but still nothing!

[JoetjeF]

What doesn't work? If you don't have a floppy drive it would be difficult to install these drivers anyway. If you've access to another PC you could build a new XP CD with the drivers integrated. nLite is one of the applications that is able to do this.

As for the 'XP knows you've installed the system on more PCs' story, whenever you activate Windows XP it sents information about your PC (and the Serial you used) to their database. This is why you cannot reinstall Windows XP (or change hardware in general) indefinitely.

[marceta]

What doesn't work? If you don't have a floppy drive it would be difficult to install these drivers anyway. If you've access to another PC you could build a new XP CD with the drivers integrated. nLite is one of the applications that is able to do this.

the thing that doesnt work is the floppy that the seagate program creates!

[JoetjeF]

You need to download Intel drivers for the Southbridge. Here is a nice explanation on how to install (and download) these drivers. Your motherboard has a ICH6R southbridge.

[Soupy]

You need to download Intel drivers for the Southbridge. Here is a nice explanation on how to install (and download) these drivers. Your motherboard has a ICH6R southbridge.

Technically he needs to download the drivers for his SATA controller on his motherboard. Generally these are seperate, but some have the controller built into the southbridge.

Marceta: You arent looking for drivers from Seagate, you are going to be looking for drivers from ASUS...first things first...see if you have a CD that came with your motherboard...go ahead and explore it and see if you can find a utility that will make the driver disk you need...couldn't tell ya exactly where it is on the disk, as its been a while since I've seen one. Also, I doubt it, but ASUS might have packaged a floppy disk in with the board that has the drivers on it.

Failing that, the link posted above from Joe would work...I am just wary that the ICH6R isn't what your drive is connected to.

Cheers!
Soup

Cheers!
Soup

[marceta]

Technically he needs to download the drivers for his SATA controller on his motherboard. Generally these are seperate, but some have the controller built into the southbridge.

Marceta: You arent looking for drivers from Seagate, you are going to be looking for drivers from ASUS...first things first...see if you have a CD that came with your motherboard...go ahead and explore it and see if you can find a utility that will make the driver disk you need...couldn't tell ya exactly where it is on the disk, as its been a while since I've seen one. Also, I doubt it, but ASUS might have packaged a floppy disk in with the board that has the drivers on it.

Failing that, the link posted above from Joe would work...I am just wary that the ICH6R isn't what your drive is connected to.

Cheers! Soup

Cheers! Soup

Thanks a lot Joe....sorry for my slow response. Thanks soup aswell, but i still cant find this disc :( ... Joes link worked :D