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hvserv

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BIOS find drive, Windows can't

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA drive in Dell 9150 experienced boot issues.  Tested drive externally on another machine.  File system intact +/- bootable.  So far so good.  CAN boot into diagnostic partition - drive passes all tests.  BIOS sees drive fine.  Try to use recovery console, or reinstall Windows from CD, get the following:

"Setup did not find any hard disks installed in your computer..."

Put a NEW Hitachi 7200rpm SATA drive in the box.  BIOS sees it and identifies it.
Same error when try to install XP from boot disk.

What is going on?

p.s. BartPE doesn't see it either.

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CPetrich12
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You will need to press F6 at the very beginning of WIndows setup and provide the drivers for the hard drive as Windows does not natively support some of the newer SATA features (AHCI for example). Or you could simply tell BIOS to recognize the Hard drive in "Legacy" mode. This will disable some of the features of your drive, but you'll never miss them (famous last words I know). I hope this helps.
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Download the drivers for your controller and put them on a floppy.  Hit F6 when prompted to load the drivers.
Screenshot of when and where you're supposed to press F6
xpnew1.jpg
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Lee W, MVP
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hvserv

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This (the Seagate) is the original drive that came with the system.  It is not part of a RAID setup.  it is simply SATA0.  Bios does not offer legacy option.  Did not find drivers on Seagate site (model ST3160812AS).
F6 sequence indicates that nothing is detected to apply drivers to.
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ASKER

Can add floppy if drivers are found.
If the drive came with the system, do you have a 'restore cd' that came with it as well?  That will likely have a modified installer that includes the drivers.
> This (the Seagate) is the original drive that came with the system.  
> It is not part of a RAID setup.  it is simply SATA0.

Irrelevant.

You're trying to install XP.  XP was released in 2001 - SATA didn't exist (or at least wasn't being sold).  Newer versions of XP (those with service packs) DO NOT add drivers.  YOU can do that using nLite.  

You're NOT looking for Seagate hard drive drivers.  The hard drive is irrelevant.  You need CONTROLLER drivers.  Those come from Dell and may be part of a chipset package.

Post a screen shot (your phone camera - a digital camera) of the error - you MUST press F6 EARLY in setup... later in setup is another prompt for drivers - at this point, it's too late.  Early in setup, you should get the prompt (when pressing F6).
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System did not come with recovery CD - I probably forgot to check the $10 box on the system configuration page at DELL, but I usually don't make that mistake.  I can boot into the diagnostic partition, I hoped might find a recovery option there, but no.
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ASKER

Got the drivers, added  the floppy drive, installed SATA (non-RAID) driver for "desktop" machine using F6 option.
seemed to be bubbling along then BSOD.

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF8962524,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)

When I first specified the driver from the list of (4), Setup indicated that it was newer than the
one on the CD and shouldn't I use theirs, but I assumed this message was simply triggered by
comparing dates and had nothing to do with suitability of the driver.

I've had this problem with some controllers in the past.  Installation works great until windows tries to take over.  The only solution was to use nLite as mentioned above to put the drivers into the installer.
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Got nLite.  Made ISO - turns out there are more than (4) drivers in set downloaded from DELL.  There are (11).  Windows setup gives a window which only shows (4) - need to scroll.  Only a few seem to apply to chipset I have.  Intel NH8201GDH.  Took the closest match (not too happy about that but have to keep moving forward) and put it into nLite ISO.  This time, setup saw the drive and got me as far as logging
into administrator using recovery console.  Then BANG she reboots.  I am trying to find better drivers on Intel site.  Will get back to group after that.
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nLite is very cool.  Thanks for the tip.