Hard drive not detected

[CEV]

Trying to reinstall windows on Toshiba laptop. The pc will boot into windows just fine. I try booting to a WinXP install disk and select to install WinXP, but then proceeds to tell me that it cannot detect a HD and will not continue. Obviously the HD is functional in that I can boot into windows. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[pcgeek11]

Trying to reinstall windows on Toshiba laptop. The pc will boot into windows just fine. I try booting to a WinXP install disk and select to install WinXP, but then proceeds to tell me that it cannot detect a HD and will not continue. Obviously the HD is functional in that I can boot into windows. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks

You need to load the SATA Driver or change the Drive controller to IDE mode in the BIOS. To load the drivers you will need a floppy drive or slipstream the drivers into your XP Installation Disk.

pcgeek11

 

[CEV]

In the BIOS the drives are set to SATA and I am not able to select them to change them to IDE.

 

[RebateMonger]

Toshiba's Support site typically has most/all of the drivers needed for a re-install of your OS. If your PC is still bootable, I recommend going over the Device Manager and making a list of the EXACT devices that are currently installed. It can be helpful if you aren't sure what hardware is in the laptop.

As pcgeek11 noted, you'll either need to restore XP from an image (such as a Toshiba PC System Restore disk), or will need to slipstream the drivers for your SATA disk controller into your XP Install CD. Use nLite for this. Might as well slipstream the Install CD XP to at least SP2 at the same time if it's not already there.