missing hard drive

[paddybongo]

Hi all,been helping a friend with his acer extensa 5620z laptop running vista.
Problem was it kept rebooting,tried chkdsk but no good and start up repair,so i formatted the drive with g parted and then attempted to install windows xp,
but i keep getting this era {setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer}Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer,and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct.This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Any help would be most appreciated

[Egren71]

I don't know how new the laptop is, but XP doesn't necessarily have drivers for the new type of hard drives (SATA) build into the install disk.
So when it asks you during the install if you have any manufacturer supplied drivers that you need to install you need to supply the drivers for the hard disk. Your Hard disk should the be visible to XP and you should be able to complete your install.
This can be a problem if you don't have a floppy disk on your computer as XP only seems to look for drivers on a floppy disk and not on USB or anything else.

[rg66]

When XP setup starts and you see at the bottom to press f6 to load drivers, you need a floppy with the SATA drivers on it.

Or go into the BIOS setup and see if the HD controller has an option for legacy mode, you wont need to have the drivers for that. XP might run a bit slower but I doubt you'll notice.

[Cod3waX]

install windows 7 64 bit if it can take it & hopfully u wont get any problems

[Canker_Canison]

If you have the XP disk as an ISO on another PC, you can streamline the SATA drivers into the ISO.

It will help if you have a system disk aswell, otherwise you have to download the Sata drivers from the manufacturers website.

I had to do this with a Vista laptop when downgrading for mobile phone unlocking.

If you want to give it a go, PM me & I'll dig out the software needed. Might help if you include a link to this thread so I can upload it.