Installing, wont recognize Hard Drive

[islan_k]

Hi.

I am trying to install Windows XP on my new 1 TB SATA 3 hard drive so that I can upgrade to Windows 7. When it comes to the part to select the hard drive, Windows installer reports that there is no recognizable drives available.

I used a Live CD of Kubuntu to test that front, and when I go to install that it recognizes the hard drive just fine.

I have seen some other threads about "initializing" a new hard drive for Windows XP, but those all seem to require Windows XP to already be installed.

 

[itzdanielp]

What Motherboard do you have?

More than likely there was a CD that came with your MB, and when you start the XP setup you will have to load the SATA drivers

 

[islan_k]

It's a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H. It came with a CD, but it looks like XP setup only looks for drivers in the floppy drive (which I don't even have).

 

[itzdanielp]

Try following these steps.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

 

[islan_k]

That looks promising, thanks! I'll give it a shot.

 

[islan_k]

Well I got what looks like 4 drivers off Gigabyte's web site, one set of two for 64-bit and one set of two for 32-bit, each set having a floppy "install first" driver and a regular driver. Thinking that I the "install first" was the best bet I gave that a whirl with the 64-bit version since it is Windows XP 64-bit. No luck. I'll give the normal driver a try-out tomorrow.

 

[nkjvcjs]

I just went through this. Posted at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/285401-45-fresh-windows-install-recognizing-hard-drive#t1001459

I had to trick XP into thinking the drive was IDE rather than SATA by changing it in the BIOS.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8424811_configure-sata-ide-ahci.html

It worked, and windows is installing as we speak.

 

[islan_k]

I just went through this. Posted at http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/285401-45-fresh-windows-install-recognizing-hard-drive#t1001459

I had to trick XP into thinking the drive was IDE rather than SATA by changing it in the BIOS.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8424811_configure-sata-ide-ahci.html

It worked, and windows is installing as we speak.

Oh, nice trick. I'll give that a shot this afternoon, as the nlite method can take a good bit of time. Once you install Win XP and have all the drivers up to date, you should just be able to change the BIOS back to SATA right?

 

[islan_k]

Best answer selected by islan_k.