Friday 13 January 2012

Cannot Locate HDD When Trying To Install XP: FIX

I recently was given the task to remove windows 7 and install windows XP.

i entered the bios to boot from my windows XP CD,

But.... I got the error saying that it could not locate the HDD Drivers and to make sure they are powered on etc..

 so here i am showing you how to get arround this small bump the simple way.

there are quite a few options to do this;

you can either press F6 to insert the Flopy disc which contains your hdd drivers (but lets face it, who has floppy disks nowadays, i think microsoft need to get with the modern age and make it possible to use a USB flash drive ir a cd, but nah they cant be bothered with that.

You can also use a program called "nLite", with this program you extract all the information from your windows XP instalation disc and create an ISO then you download your HDD Driver and inject the drivers into the ISO  and re-burn it onto a cd and use this to install XP problem free :)

but the way im going to show you today is the simplest i know of and seems to work perfectly :)

When your computer starts up it will show the computers brand logo (be it Dell, Advent, Acer etc.) at the bottom it will ask you to press F2 to enter setup, press F2 you will then load up a blue screen.

scroll accross until you locate the Native SATA Control, you will need to DISABLE this option, if you cannot find this option look for the SATA device operation / SATA Mode, and change it from AHCI Mode to IDE Mode. and vise versa if it is set opposite.


Hope this helps all you guys out there :)