Windows xp installation problems

[marcgoddard 10]

i am trying to install windows xp on my brothers laptop for him, he currently has vista but doesnt like it and wants xp instead. i am booting it from the xp installation disc but after so long it says it cannot find a hard drive and cannot complete the installation then just tells me to press f3 to quit, can anyone help please?

[E-lectrican 10]

is the hard drive detecting in bios?

[sidbobs 10]

Does the laptop have a SATA hdd by any chance?

[E-lectrican 10]

possible you may need to install SATA drivers 1st via usb

[swarfendor437 14]

The drivers are one point, the other is that laptops with Vista usually have a hidden partition for recovery and XP is probably seeing that first and reporting back that it does not see a hard drive because of this - have encountered similar problems when attempting to install GNU/Linux. This netbook for instance has 4 partitions - 1 with Windows 7 starter and 3 hidden ones - they are all primary partitions - the maximum number of primary partitions on any hard drive is 4 (explains when I made space on the visible one why GNU/Linux would not install when I resized Win7 Starter!

 

swarfendor43

Edited November 13, 2010 by swarfendor43
typo/keyboard error!

[sinbad88 10]

you need to install your sata driver the only way you can do it is by download it from online and transfer file to usb floppy drive then boot threw xp cd and press f6 . send me your laptop model and i will send you link .