New hard drive no operating system found

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Last response: February 6, 2011 3:39 AM in Windows XP

guoclu

January 27, 2011 4:11:17 PM

I have a dell dimension 8400. MY old hard drive had a fatal error, and I replaced with with a new hard drive. I tried to install the os into it, but it says system cannot find hard drive after I push f12 and chose to boot from cd and pressed enter to set up window xp. Can anybody please help?

More about : hard drive operating system found

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aford10

Driver Expert

January 27, 2011 4:15:57 PM

Was the old hard drive IDE? Is the new hard drive SATA?

What version & service pack of XP are you using?

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guoclu

January 27, 2011 4:21:15 PM

xp home edition
the new one is sata, I am not sure about old one; it is a Seagate, Barracuda 7200.7 160 g bytes

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guoclu

January 27, 2011 4:22:47 PM

I think both of them are sata

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aford10

Driver Expert

January 27, 2011 4:58:15 PM

What service pack is your XP install disc?

It's real easy to tell if you look at the connector. IDE is a wide pin connector, and SATA is a small squarish connector.

Look in the BIOS, and see if there is an OS install mode. If yes, enable it.

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guoclu

January 27, 2011 5:21:20 PM

svc pack 3 xp. both of hard drives are sata connectors. How can I look into the
BIOS and ck if it is enable or not? thanks.

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aford10

Driver Expert

January 27, 2011 5:55:47 PM

Tap the delete key repeatedly on startup. That should get you into the BIOS.

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pietrzj

January 29, 2011 6:42:33 PM

Once in Bios, go to advanced BIOS features and check "Hard disk boot priority" and "First/Second/Third Boot Device" check your new disk is detected and selected appropriately. F10 to escape from Bios and answer Y if you made any changes you want to keep.

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guoclu

February 6, 2011 3:39:50 AM

Thanks a lot for those who tried to help. I tried these steps you recommend and it didn't work out. Maybe there are some hidden problems that I don't know about. I am going to get rid of the computer and get a new one.

Again, thank you very much.

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