[SOLVED] Laptop HDD not found when trying to reformat

I booted into the windows disk as usual. I formatted the partitions and it was supose to go right into windows installation. It ended up restarting and going back to windows as if I had done nothing to it. I trying it again but it said that it could not detect a hard drive on the lap top. Please give my your thoughts. Thanks BBz
Answer #1
Is it still showing in the BIOS ?
Have you loaded the SATA drivers?
Answer #2
You could have destroyed your harddrive. I know how to check for that on a MacBook, but dunno about Windows.
Can the computer boot into Windows? If it can, and you know Windows is on the harddrive then I’m clueless.
Answer #3
What OS are you trying to install?
If XP..then you have the dreaded problem of XP not detecting the sata drive…No point of repeating what been said many times over..The Helpdesk packed with the same problem as yours..Try searching..
Answer #4
Yes XP, Ok thank you and friends!!! Im off to check the BIOS
Answer #5
most laptops have recovery cd with the sata divers on it (so that the windows installation detects the harddrives)
you could try nlite and put the drivers on the windows cd
Answer #6
I have an external floopy drive, where can I get the SATA drivers? Are they standard or must I find out the make and model of the HDD? I could use Nlite and make a whole new CD if i had to… please advise =)
Answer #7
Check the latop’s manufacturer website, look up the drivers for your model and download them.
Answer #8
DUH!!! haha shoot…should have thought of that. Thanks! =)
edit: I found � Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver..do i now have to use Nlite and put it in a copy of windows?
Answer #9
Yea..just run nlite and select the 2 options..Integrate drivers and bootable ISO:


Answer #10
WOW! Thats beast! Ill just try it out and let you know the results. Thanks again and again!!
Answer #11
I am stuck, I am at the HP website for drivers and support. I see the download for Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver. The only problem is that it is an EXE file. How can i get the inf file itself?
Answer #12
rt click the file and see if winrar will open/extract it
Answer #13
it extracted to an EXE, made to be written on a floopy. I checked out the laptop and the BIOS is outdated. I went to update the BIOS and it is an exe file aswell. I cant flash it unless I am in windows or somthing. This is an horrible situation because my hard drive is wiped and the computer does not recognize the hard drive.
Answer #14
you have a DVD drive ?
get “active boot disk” in appz section and see if you can flash the bios from that
in the bios
do you have a “hard drive controller” option that can be changed from AHCI to IDE
that might make the drive visable without the AHCI driver
an other option is to get an XP CD that hast the AHCI drivers intergrated already
Answer #15
I do have a DVD drive. I can get active boot disk…. My bios does not have a Hard drive controller..I think that is in the updated bios. Im going to check out active boot disk now.. brb
Answer #16
I think that is in the updated bios.
lets hope so
Answer #17
active boot disk needs windows to be installed is seems. I cant run it =(
Answer #18
a boot error ?
I have run it to recover a bad (unreadable) hard drive
Answer #19
is it an iso? do you make a bootable iso from it? i downloaded it on my desktop but it is an exe etc…
Answer #20
what thread you get it from ?
did you get the creator you want the pre-built ISO
this is who I got it from
http://www.google.com?t=2255646&highlight=
Answer #21
ah! yes, there we go… ty, dling now. please check back from time to time, I am going to school and I wont be able to try anything out till 9-930 PST. Thank you very much for all your help, it means a lot to me!
Answer #22
please check back from time to time
will do !
Answer #23
Darn it! I am stuck. So i booted with active and I tried to install the BIOS but it errors. It says that the file can not be accessible.
Answer #24
So I successfully flashed the bios. I used Hirens boot cd to go into mini xp and used 7-zip to extract and execute. Unfortunately that did not do a damn thing … I just tried to install windows and it still says that setup did not find any hard disk drives.
EDIT**** SUCCESSFUL FIX!
This is what I did. I had noticed that the inf files were embedded in an exe file to be copied on to a floppy. All I did was insert the Windows xp pro disc in and pressed F6 ” Press to install third party SCSI or RAID” … I had my external floppy connected and inserted the files I put on the floppy disc. At that point it installed the drivers needed and proceeded to xp installation. Thank you very much for you guys always helping me out. You know I would do anything I could for you guys. Just let me know!