Need help installing windows xp

[trussell456]

My hard drive recently crashed on my gateway laptop. I have the microsoft windows xp media center edition disks. When i put the first one in it says press any button to boot from cd. i press a button and it starts to load. Once finished it comes to a screen that says Windows XP Professional Setup at the top of the screen. And then it says to set up windows xp now press enter. i do so and i press f8 at the license agreement to continue. The it comes to the partitions list on the list it says Unknown Disk (there is no disk in this drive.) It tells me to use the up down arrow keys to select an item on the list, but if i hit any of the buttons it tells me to, ENTER to set up windows, C to create partition, and D to delete partition it goes to another screen that says there was a problem detected and windows has been shut down. How do i install this on my laptop?

 

[insoman]

Have you been into your BIOS and checked that it has detected the new HDD? What choices are you making? Are you deleting the partition?

 

[skarmory2002]

Also, you may need to check and see if you have a sata hdd. if this is the case, then your laptop may need you to install Sata/Raid drivers before being able to properly detect the HDD. This is done by downloading them from the manufactures website, loading them on a floppy disk, and pressing F6 when prompted to by Windows setup. It will search the disk, and then you just have to select the right on for your operating system.

 

[tuant]

Have you replaced/repair the original hard drive (the one that crashed) with a new one? The recent crash may have the cause the hard drive to be unusable.....Just a thought...

 

[trussell456]

Have you been into your BIOS and checked that it has detected the new HDD? What choices are you making? Are you deleting the partition?

yes the new hard drive is detected.

The boot priority order is:

1. IDE CD:
2. SATA HDD:
3. USB: CDROM
4. USB KEY
5. USB HDD
6. USB FDC
7. Boot to LAN

When i get to the screen where i delete the partition i cant do anything because no matter what choices i make it says there was a problem and windows was shut down to protect my computer. does this mean i need to install the sata or raid drivers? do i just go to the gateway website and search for raid drivers and load them to a CD?

 

[skarmory2002]

I would try it first. Windows is telling you that it is not properly detecting the drive. If you put the drivers in then Windows may be able to detect the drive properly. Then you should be able to go ahead and finish the rest of the installation.

 

[trussell456]

how exactly do i do that? my girlfriend has a mac book. can i download it on that computer and the put it on a cd? or do i need to use a computer with windows?

 

[skarmory2002]

You can download it on the macbook, but it has to go on a floppy disk. I would suggest to do it on a Windows Pc just to be sure the files maintain the same formatting. But Floppy Disk is a must.

All you have to do is go to you laptops manufacturer, search up you model number, look at drivers menu (may have to search for downloads) then fins SATA/RAID drivers. Download that, then copy the files to the floppy. It may be a zip file or rar file in which case they will have to be extracted, or if it is a program that makes the disk for you then just put the disk in the floppy drive and double click on the icon. Hope this works for you

 

[krait]

Why would windows XP need a SATA/RAID driver for a single HDD? AFAIK you need those only if you are installing Windows to a RAID setup. I've installed XP on SATA drives plenty of times without needing anything other than the XP install CD.

I think your hard drive has a hardware fault. My suggestion would be to download the HDD manufacturers diagnostic tools from the website, make a bootable copy and run it to check the health of the drive. First ensure that the drive is okay before attempting a Windows install.