New SATA HDD for laptop is recognised in BIOS but wont allow windows install

DJMK4 · 7 Sep 2010 at 17:24

Basically iv been given a laptop to sort out, you could tell at first check the SATA HDD had gone, it was making a whining noise and clicking, so I chucked the HDD in my PC using a converter and it done exactly the same thing.

I ordered a new HDD which I have recieved, its a Western Digital 160 GB SATA Laptop HDD, installed in to laptop, booted xp install disk and although the disk was recognised in the BIOS, on windows installation it said it couldnt find any hard disk drives.

Anyway, i put it in my other laptop (as my laptop has a spare hdd slot) and booted) logged in to windows, it didnt see the drive straight away but could see it in disk management as unassigned, so I created an NTFS volume and formatted it, I could then see the disk in my computer.

Put the drive back in the other laptop im trying to install windows on and the windows installation still cant see any hdd's but I can see it fine in the BIOS, anyone got any ideas?

randal · 7 Sep 2010 at 17:29

What laptop is it? Sounds like Windows doesn't have the SATA controller driver if you're not seeing any drives...

DJMK4 · 7 Sep 2010 at 17:43

Its a gateway laptop (yuk) is there anyway you can manually load drivers for the installation?, strange iv never seen this issue before :S

DJMK4 · 7 Sep 2010 at 18:14

Surely if I have used this install disk before to install XP on a SATA HDD it should work :\

hp7909 · 7 Sep 2010 at 19:17

Is it an XP disc with SP3 slipstreamed?

DJMK4 · 7 Sep 2010 at 20:44

hp7909 said:
Is it an XP disc with SP3 slipstreamed?

Nah its an XP disk with SP2 on, im sure SP3 slipstreamed will make it work, is it just a case of downloading sp3 and slipstreaming it with the installation disk I have using nlite ?

hp7909 · 8 Sep 2010 at 04:27

I followed this guide

DJMK4 · 8 Sep 2010 at 08:09

Thanks I shall give this a go

Thanks

mame · 8 Sep 2010 at 10:21

Sorry, this is vague. When I first used a SATA drive, I had a bit of bother with this. IIRC, when XP installer first starts to load, the bottom line of text said something like "If you have SATA drivers on a floppy, press {key} now".

DJMK4 · 8 Sep 2010 at 11:50

Do you know where I could get the required SATA drivers?

randal · 8 Sep 2010 at 12:12

Got the specific laptop model? Should be easy enough to find.

DJMK4 · 8 Sep 2010 at 12:16

At home I do, its a Gateway laptop but not sure of the exact model until later.

I just found the following which someone had suggested on a link I found which said it worked with his Gateway laptop.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2115&DwnldID=18860&lang=eng

Im hoping this should work.

EDIT: Or this one http://rapidshare.com/files/191912341/Intel_SATA_Driver.rar

DJMK4 · 8 Sep 2010 at 22:13

Tried slipstreaming some SATA drivers for the mobile devices from intel, it gets past the not recognising HDD bit on the XP installation but after it copies over files and does the install, it re-boots then blue screens.

When I slipstreamed the drivers I downloaded the standard SATA drivers from Intel which containted a zip file with multiple drivers, i added all the mobile drivers in, im guessing what is happening is its conflicting so i need to find exactly which driver I need, however im having trouble finding any info on the web including gateways website.

The model number of the laptop is ML6226B

randal · 8 Sep 2010 at 22:32

AHCI mode issues if it's bluescreening?

Are you using one of these drivers?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...=Intel®+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel®+RST)

DJMK4 · 9 Sep 2010 at 08:30

randal24 said:
AHCI mode issues if it's bluescreening?

Are you using one of these drivers?

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Sea...=Intel®+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel®+RST)

I did try "32-bit Intel® RST Driver Files for F6 Install" from the above link but it didnt work?

randal · 9 Sep 2010 at 08:56

Does the machine have an option in the BIOS to switch it it AHCI mode on the SATA controller?

DJMK4 · 9 Sep 2010 at 10:03

randal24 said:
Does the machine have an option in the BIOS to switch it it AHCI mode on the SATA controller?

It doesnt no

its a very basic BIOS, i have though found a website which lists its intel chipset type - Intel 943GML, had a browse on google but not finding much, iv had one or two possible results and have slipstreamed them ready to test later.

Trying to work out what SATA controller the above chipset uses.