Cannot switch from Vista to XP

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LadyP

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Just recently bought a toshiba satellite laptop, vista equipped. Didn't like Vista from the start, want to get XP on it. Tech guy at the store said it might not support XP but we tried anyway and recieved the followinkg error message:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. Make sure any hard disk drives are powererd 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.

None of this makes any sense to me....any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
 
Go to the Toshiba support page for your model, and download the driver for your HardDrive

When Xp starts the Setup process, you will see a prompt (Press F6 to load driver)
Usually this driver is on a floppy disk, which when inserted Xp Setup will find.
 
did you change the boot order in order to boot from cd with the use of the F11 key ?
 
Can't find the drivers for this model anywhere (Satellite A200-MRO) is it possible that I'm stuck with Vista??
 
Are you from Canada by any chance? When I checked I didn't find that model in the USA site but I think I found it in the Canadian site.
 
Okay. Then try this website page . Fill in your notebook information and click on the "Go" button and you should find XP drivers (along with Vista drivers too) for your notebook. It won't let me link directly to the results page so you'll have to fill in the info yourself.

Edit: You posted the same link while I was composing my message. If you don't have a floppy drive to install the SATA controller drivers, you can make a slipstream CD that combines the XP CD with the SATA/RAID drivers which you then use to install Windows XP. The SATA/RAID drivers are needed so Windows will recognize your SATA hard drive and continue with the installation of XP. Do a google search for the procedure to make a slipstream CD. It's not that hard although I've never had to do it myself.

If this all seems overwhelming, you can take it to a shop and have them do the installation. At least you found the drivers for XP.
 
kimsland said:
Go to the Toshiba support page for your model, and download the driver for your HardDrive

When Xp starts the Setup process, you will see a prompt (Press F6 to load driver)
Usually this driver is on a floppy disk, which when inserted Xp Setup will find.
Click to expand...

How many modern laptops come with a floppy drive?
 
Has a USB floppy Drive, but I'm not sure if this comes as standard with the Laptop (probably not)
Anyway CD or will do
 
So, that website has a whole list of drivers, but nothing that looks like the hard disk driver which is what I'm looking for....someone mentioned using drivers for the A100 series, would that work?
 
If you had an internal floppy (which you don't) the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager (SATA) - Floppy drive image" contains the AHCI controller drivers you need. Keep in mind that you aren't looking for a hard drive driver but rather a SATA/RAID (AHCI) controller driver. Anyway, I downloaded it, unzipped it and found an executable file (.exe). Double clicking on it required me to installed it to a floppy. I did so and found AHCI drivers on it. You can probably use them to make the slipstream CD.
 
hmm, ok then....now, I think I may have access to an external floppy drive, would that cause any trouble if i used that??

thank you, so much!!
 
You can try it and see. At least according to the Toshiba instructions you linked to, a USB external floppy should work.
 
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