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Reinstalling windows

CraKaJaX

CraKaJaX

Lifer
My friend is having a problem with his laptop and is trying to reformat it. He currently has Windows Home installed. He has the Windows Home disk in his drive. It gets to the windows setup and everything, and when he presses "Enter" to install Windows, he gets that there is no hard drive connected and to make sure it's working, etc. The thing is, he can boot to his desktop perfectly fine without the Windows CD in. Does anyone know what the problem is? His hard drive is certainly connected if he can boot into Windows with no problems at all. Windows setup on the other hand says there isn't one connected. Any ideas?

Thanks.
 
I take it that your friend is using either an OEM or retail disc and not the factory restore disc(s)? If it's a fairly new notebook then I suspect it has a SATA hard disk connected to a SATA controller for which the drivers are not accounted for on a stock Windows installation disc.

Can you provide the notebook model?
 
no live linux boot cd? boot floppy? usb boot disk? these can be used to verify that the drive is there.

go download a linux live cd sometime.
its good to have in a pinch.
 
Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
no live linux boot cd? boot floppy? usb boot disk? these can be used to verify that the drive is there.

go download a linux live cd sometime.
its good to have in a pinch.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a shot.

He also just told me that when he simply opens a folder on his desktop his CPU usage goes to ~35%. If he goes to play a game, it goes over 75% and his computer shuts down. WTF? I tried format from cmd prompt, but it says it cannot do it because it's currently in use. It asks if I want to force it and I did, but it says the drive is currently locked and cannot proceed. I'm out of ideas right now.
 
you can't format in windows. cmd. you cannot format c if you booted from it. windows command prompt isn't real command prompt.
you have to boot from a bootdisk, or just use windows installer from boot disc to format. format is one of the options during install.
format is also possible after you boot knoppix or whatever live cd.

go to manufacturers site to check laptops drive type and download laptop drivers. laptops need a buncha drivers for touchpad and everything else or you get a really ugly lousy windows experience. if its sata there will be drivers there.
 
Originally posted by: CraKaJaX
It's a retail disc, yes. The model of the laptop is HP Pavilion DV8000.
Click to expand...

XP or Vista?

Is it a DV8000 (AMD) or DV8000t (Intel) CTO model direct from HP or a retail model (should have a longer part number)?

Since the notebook will boot from the existing Windows installation but not from the install disc, i'm going to assume it's an Intel-based model and continue with my earlier suspicion. If that is indeed the case, you will need to download the driver for the SATA controller and put it on a floppy (XP, press F6 when prompted during setup to load the driver... or you could integrate the driver on the XP install disc, see Google for guides) or USB flash drive (Vista, select "load driver" during the where to install portion of setup).

Alternatively, you may be able to cheat if the BIOS allows you to put the SATA controller into IDE or "compatibility" mode. Personally, I prefer to load/install the appropriate driver, but modifying the BIOS could be a workaround for now.

Has your friend backed up any data currently saved on the notebooks hard drive? If not, do that first.
 
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