XP install

[eomonroe00]

trying to install xp on a laptop, put the cd in and i get a screen asking to set up xp or repair xp, when i hit setup xp it says could not find hard disk drives installed, i am using an old hard disk from a desktop that i put in my laptop, fits like a charm, but i cannot get in to the laptop to install drivers, i went to dell.com to grab the drivers, i didnt see a hard disk driver, i grabbed the one that said chipset, is that right? and put them on a usb and booted the computer to a message no bootable partition in table

thanks in advance for the help

 

[mailpup]

Is the hard drive SATA or PATA (IDE)? If it is a SATA hard drive, that error message is typical when you don't install the SATA/RAID controller drivers at the F6 prompt at the beginning of Windows Setup. You will need a floppy drive to use the F6 prompt, however. Do you have one or a separate external one? If not, you can also slipstream the drivers by making a CD that combines your original Windows CD with the SATA/RAID drivers. There are several guides on the internet that can tell you how. Google, Bing or whatever.

 

[dcclxxvii]

A "hard disk drive" does not necessarily require a "driver". And, it doesn't sound like
a SATA related problem. For instance, i have installed Windows up to the point
of its first restart. Having SATA enabled,while using an IDE drive.

Look at the drive,if it says Serial ATA(SATA),then enable SATA in your BIOS options using f10 at startup. If SATA is already enabled then disable it.


Try downloading "Partition Magic.iso" and write it to a CD. Boot from the CD,and when
you arrive at the desktop open the partition editor. Delete the current file system,
which will cause all data on the drive to be erased;so back it up,if you care. Create a new
ntfs partition and try installing Windows again.

Let me know if it works.

Do you have an external USB-hard drive or jump drive with more than 2gigs.
I could explain a -very- simple way for you to run xp from USB.