XP Professional installation/repair; "System did not find any hard disks"

jonathan92mm

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Jun 6, 2013
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10,510
I need to repair a heavily corrupted XP Professional installation on a Dell Dimension 5150; I don't know the circumstances but System and System32 got nuked. I am trying to use the XP install disk to run a repair but no matter what I try it always says it can't see any HDDs.

The system is running a RAID 1 array with two Western Digital 80 GB HDDs. I've loaded the drivers via floppy disk (Intel ICH7R) but that doesn't solve the problem. The installation process will get to the point where you choose to install XP or launch the recovery console. No matter what choice I select it tells me it can't see any HDDs.

There's also no option in the BIOS to disable AHCI either. I've run diagnostics on the HDDs just to be certain and they come up fine with no errors. I can even see them in Parted Magic. I don't think there's a problem with the HDDs or the RAID controller since Parted Magic can see them just fine (including reading and writing to them).

Anybody have any suggestions? I'm a bit lost on this one.

If any other information would be helpful, please let me know. Thanks!
 

mbreslin1954

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Perhaps the repair process does not use any drivers loaded during the initial boot? Have you tried booting up with the install disk and "F6-ing" the RAID drivers, then proceeding to the Install page as if you were going to re-install XP Pro from scratch, and seeing if the RAID array shows up at that point? Going to that screen won't touch the hard drives, but it will allow you to see if the install disk can see the array. I suspect it won't from you've seen so far.

If you cannot see the disks during the install screen where XP asks you where you want to install the OS, then there is something missing. Do you have a separate RAID controller card with its own BIOS, or is this software RAID from a chip on the motherboard? I'm wondering if maybe the RAID controller is not initializing first, and therefore not presenting the XP Install/repair disc with what looks like a single drive.
 

jonathan92mm

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Jun 6, 2013
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I'll get to the part where it says "Welcome to setup". If I choose "Install XP" it instantly gives me the error message. If I choose the other option, Recovery Console, it gives me the error message too.



I can. They show up with all their information correctly.
 

mbreslin1954

Distinguished
My understanding is that XP boots now, from the RAID array, although Windows XP is corrupt and you want to repair it. That means that the current install of XP has all the drivers it needs to see the array. However, the boot disk for XP does not see the array, which means that despite whatever drivers you've loaded during the boot of the XP install disk, it does NOT have all the drivers it needs to see the array.

It seems pretty straighforward to me -- despite what you think, not all the necessary drivers are being loaded during your boot of the install disc.

But then I don't use RAID on a regular basis, although I have used it a few times in past years, and worked on a few installations that use it.