I have a three month old Dell Deminsion 8400. 3.0 ghz P4, 1 Gig Ram and a 160 gig SATA Hard Drive. When I got the computer I used the files and transfer (PC Relocator) utility. And had a bunch of unwanted extras that came with it. I'm having a Sattelite Internet system installed and they wanted a clen install of windows XP. So I opened the owners manual and got out the reinstalaton disk and the problems began. By the way Dell tech support's only response has been to say gee thats not right, and would send a tech sometime after Christmas. Anyway heres step by step what I did.
I boot to the Dell reinsalation disk. The windows setup screen appears and loads files. The next screen says welcome to setup and offers three options . 1-to setup XP press enter. 2 To repair XP press R 3 to exit without installing XP press F3
I press enter and the following message comes up. Setup did not find any hard disk installed in your computer. Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected. And any disk related configuration is correct.ect. press F3 to quit. It dose this if I try repair also.
Dell had me check the connectios to the HD and Motherboard. There good. And debug the hard drive. No luck. Everything worked fine untill I put in the reinsalatin disk.
Any help would be welcome.

XP format hard drive error'

Hey Trigger I am currently having the same problem you are with my dell 8400 i was wandering if you were able to resolve your problem. If so how did you do it. Thanks