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Cannot format hard drive (Win XP)

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  Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 11:45 +0000
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 05:03 -0700
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 12:38 +0000
        Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Tazz <dmswaine@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 11:51 -0300
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> - 2011-11-02 07:18 -0500
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-02 12:36 +0000
    Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 11:45 -0700
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) none <dgoodnow@gmail.com> - 2011-11-02 13:28 -0700
      Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 15:18 +0000
        Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 12:09 -0700
          Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 22:27 +0000
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-03 22:39 +0000
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 18:09 -0700
            Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) dg1261 <dgREMOVE-THIS1261@cs.com> - 2011-11-04 22:04 +0000
              Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-11-04 15:28 -0700
                Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) dg1261 <dgREMOVE-THIS1261@cs.com> - 2011-11-05 08:06 +0000
              Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-04 16:09 -0700
                Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "~misfit~" <sore_n_happy@nospamyahoo.com.au> - 2011-11-06 11:36 +1300
              Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) "AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> - 2011-11-05 11:39 +0000
          Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) wrat@panix.com (the wharf rat) - 2011-11-12 09:36 +0000
        Re: Cannot format hard drive (Win XP) Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> - 2011-11-03 16:28 -0700

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#777 — Cannot format hard drive (Win XP)

My laptop is an HP 6710b. When I acquired it, I found that the only way I 
could insatall XP was to disable SATA in the BIOS. Since then, I have been 
trying to re-format the 160 GB har drive so that I can re-install XP using 
a an installation disc (created with the nLite program) that has the SATA 
driver files on it.

Unfortunately, Win XP professional is unable to format the drive during the 
setup process. It gives me a message saying something like: "Unable to 
format the drive because it contains essential setup files" (or something 
to that effect).

I tried going into XP recovery mode. That cave me a DOS-like C:/windows
prompt. So I typed in "format c:" and hit enter. I thought I was in luck, 
because it said "Are you sure you want to format C:? All data on the drive 
will be lost" (or words to that efffect). I hit "yes". However, I found 
that the C: was not formatted at all. All that apparently happened was that 
most of the files thereon had ben erased. 

I reinstalled Win XP, but found that SATA mode was still inoperable. I 
guess this is because the drive was not really re-formatted.

If that sounds likely, how do I genuinely reformat the drive in such a way 
that the SATA will work when I reinstall XP using the nLite installation 
disc?

Many thanks,

Al

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#778

On Nov 2, 6:45 am, "AL_n" <fgdfg...@fghfghfg.com> wrote:
> My laptop is an HP 6710b. When I acquired it, I found that the only way I
> could insatall XP was to disable SATA in the BIOS. Since then, I have been
> trying to re-format the 160 GB har drive so that I can re-install XP using
> a an installation disc (created with the nLite program) that has the SATA
> driver files on it.
>
> Unfortunately, Win XP professional is unable to format the drive during the
> setup process. It gives me a message saying something like: "Unable to
> format the drive because it contains essential setup files" (or something
> to that effect).
>
> I tried going into XP recovery mode. That cave me a DOS-like C:/windows
> prompt. So I typed in "format c:" and hit enter. I thought I was in luck,
> because it said "Are you sure you want to format C:? All data on the drive
> will be lost" (or words to that efffect). I hit "yes". However, I found
> that the C: was not formatted at all. All that apparently happened was that
> most of the files thereon had ben erased.
>
> I reinstalled Win XP, but found that SATA mode was still inoperable. I
> guess this is because the drive was not really re-formatted.
>
> If that sounds likely, how do I genuinely reformat the drive in such a way
> that the SATA will work when I reinstall XP using the nLite installation
> disc?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Al

Haven't we covered this?
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops/browse_thread/thread/ea8fd2c278169e67?hl=en#

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#781

Bob_Villa <pheeh.zero@gmail.com> wrote in
news:0f94a3a4-0431-4d2b-bb50-afd28b86da5d@s11g2000yqi.googlegroups.com: 

> Haven't we covered this?
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops/browse_thread/thread/ea
> 8fd2c278169e67?hl=en# 

That thread didn't cover this particular problem of not being able to 
format the drive.

Al

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#782

On 02/11/2011 9:38 AM, AL_n wrote:
> Bob_Villa<pheeh.zero@gmail.com>  wrote in
> news:0f94a3a4-0431-4d2b-bb50-afd28b86da5d@s11g2000yqi.googlegroups.com:
>
>> Haven't we covered this?
>> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.laptops/browse_thread/thread/ea
>> 8fd2c278169e67?hl=en#
>
> That thread didn't cover this particular problem of not being able to
> format the drive.
>
> Al


Have you tried fdisk?

If you wanted to really erase the drive and start from scratch try 
Darik's Boot And Nuke (http://www.dban.org/download). It'll write to and 
erase the drive multiple times to ensure nothing gets left behind, 
although I've heard it takes a while since it does the whole drive.



-- 

</Tazz>

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#779

In news:Xns9F91770AE4A35zzzzzz@130.133.4.11,
AL_n typed:
> My laptop is an HP 6710b. When I acquired it, I found that the only
> way I could insatall XP was to disable SATA in the BIOS. Since then,
> I have been trying to re-format the 160 GB har drive so that I can
> re-install XP using a an installation disc (created with the nLite
> program) that has the SATA driver files on it.
>
> Unfortunately, Win XP professional is unable to format the drive
> during the setup process. It gives me a message saying something
> like: "Unable to format the drive because it contains essential setup
> files" (or something to that effect).

Wow! I never heard of that error before. Unless you copy the setup files 
to the hard drive or something. In that case, you should make a second 
partition to hold them.

And formatting the drive should wipe all files out and not some of them. 
If some of them are still there, something is seriously wrong. I dunno, 
bad hard drive, bad controller, loose cable, or something.

> I tried going into XP recovery mode. That cave me a DOS-like
> C:/windows prompt. So I typed in "format c:" and hit enter. I thought
> I was in luck, because it said "Are you sure you want to format C:?
> All data on the drive will be lost" (or words to that efffect). I hit
> "yes". However, I found that the C: was not formatted at all. All
> that apparently happened was that most of the files thereon had ben
> erased.
>
> I reinstalled Win XP, but found that SATA mode was still inoperable. I
> guess this is because the drive was not really re-formatted.
>
> If that sounds likely, how do I genuinely reformat the drive in such
> a way that the SATA will work when I reinstall XP using the nLite
> installation disc?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Al

It should work without any problems. Unless something is wrong like I 
mentioned above. Or the wrong SATA driver or something. The BIOS doesn't 
support RAID mode, does it? If it does, turn it off.

-- 
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2 

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#780

"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:j8rcea$lpm$1@dont-email.me:

> It should work without any problems. Unless something is wrong like I 
> mentioned above. Or the wrong SATA driver or something. The BIOS doesn't 
> support RAID mode, does it? If it does, turn it off.

There is no mention of RAID in the BIOS. Would it be worth trying some kind 
of low-level formatting utility or something? 

Al

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#786

AL_n wrote:
> My laptop is an HP 6710b. When I acquired it, I found that the only way I 
> could insatall XP was to disable SATA in the BIOS. Since then, I have been 
> trying to re-format the 160 GB har drive so that I can re-install XP using 
> a an installation disc (created with the nLite program) that has the SATA 
> driver files on it.
> 
> Unfortunately, Win XP professional is unable to format the drive during the 
> setup process. It gives me a message saying something like: "Unable to 
> format the drive because it contains essential setup files" (or something 
> to that effect).
> 
> I tried going into XP recovery mode. That cave me a DOS-like C:/windows
> prompt. So I typed in "format c:" and hit enter. I thought I was in luck, 
> because it said "Are you sure you want to format C:? All data on the drive 
> will be lost" (or words to that efffect). I hit "yes". However, I found 
> that the C: was not formatted at all. All that apparently happened was that 
> most of the files thereon had ben erased. 
> 
> I reinstalled Win XP, but found that SATA mode was still inoperable. I 
> guess this is because the drive was not really re-formatted.
> 
> If that sounds likely, how do I genuinely reformat the drive in such a way 
> that the SATA will work when I reinstall XP using the nLite installation 
> disc?
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Al

What's keeping you from downloading the live GPARTED CD and booting that
to partition/format your drive?

I don't understand your particular situation, so I'll rattle off some issues
I've had.

Drive passed diagnostics and SMART. I could read/write it in an external
USB enclosure, but would not format.
Turned out to be a bad TRACK 0.  Drive was toast.

Many laptops got downgraded from Vista to XP.
No knowledge of Vista, but Win7 creates a hidden partition at the front
of the drive.  I had all manner of problems with any low level tools like
drive image backups until I repartitioned/reformatted the drive without
that hidden stuff using GPARTED.  Don't have any real facts, but it appears
that the BIOS creates a table of partitions and passes it to the OS.
Win7 starts booting, then substitutes its own DIFFERENT table and complains
that it can't find the drive it's been booting from.  Pulls the rug right
out from under itself and crashes.

My SATA experience is mostly with desktops containing both IDE and SATA
drives.  I've been unable to get the system to boot from an IDE drive if
a SATA drive is installed and turned on in the BIOS.  Doesn't matter whether
the partition table thinks it's not bootable, it ALWAYS attempts to boot
the enabled SATA drive and crashes. This too, sounds like a partition 
mapping issue.

I've tried to image an IDE "C" drive and restore it to a SATA "C" drive.
Was never successful.  I'm guessing that it's the same problem as the hidden
partition.  The BIOS and the OS have different pointers to partitions.
The system starts to boot, then pulls the rug out from under itself.

I have zero experience running a SATA drive in IDE mode.  Gotta be
some hardware abstraction in the middle.  I don't expect you can
install an OS in one mode and switch to the other 'cause of the suspected
mapping issues.

NO real facts, just things to think about.

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#787

For drive preparation, I found that Format /mbr saves headaches. Then,
for drive partitioning and formatting, I favor either the drive
manufacturer's boot disk utility (as some of these will load the SATA
driver for XP to find during installation) or GParted. When all else
fails, I hook it up to my Apple G4 and do a secure-erase with format
to Mac FS. Next time Windows sees that drive, it will want to
repartition and format it.

BTW, early in XP install, Set-up asks you for any necessary storage
device controller drivers. That is a good time to load them, whether
from drive A or a USB stick or a slip-streamed directory.

My experience is mostly with industry-standard Pentiums, and a few
thousand Dells, mostly OptiPlex and Latitude, of P-II to P-4/CoreDuo
vintage. My experience with them says they work, and installs go
smooth (if you have the right install disks). My experience with HP's
computers is limited to a few dozen, but a lot more models. They are
extremely fussy to do installs on, and I would only own one from their
business line (like my Opteron workstation is).

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#791

mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j8s37n$ne5$1@dont-email.me:

> What's keeping you from downloading the live GPARTED CD and booting
> that to partition/format your drive?

I put the drive into a USB caddy and formatted it on my Vista PC. It 
formatted without problems.

I reinstalled the drive into the laptop and then ran Gparted to create a 
new partition (I made it the full capacity of the drive, almost). I then 
formatted it to NFTS, and then installed XP again, ising a disc created 
with nLite, with the SATA driver slipstreamed onto it. 

I did hit f2 when prompted when I started installing XP. I then saw it 
loading a bunch of drivers. I'm not sure if the SATA driver was among them. 
I don;t think so.

Unfortunately, the system still won't boot into XP wen SATA is enabled in 
the BIOS.

I shall continue to hunt for another means of installing the SATA drivers 
so that they eable me to use SATA. The 160 GB drive is a Hitachi 5K320-160
Model: HTS543216L9A300

Al 

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#792

AL_n wrote:
> mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j8s37n$ne5$1@dont-email.me:
> 
>> What's keeping you from downloading the live GPARTED CD and booting
>> that to partition/format your drive?
> 
> I put the drive into a USB caddy and formatted it on my Vista PC. It 
> formatted without problems.
> 
> I reinstalled the drive into the laptop and then ran Gparted to create a 
> new partition (I made it the full capacity of the drive, almost). I then 
> formatted it to NFTS, and then installed XP again, ising a disc created 
> with nLite, with the SATA driver slipstreamed onto it. 
> 
> I did hit f2 when prompted when I started installing XP. I then saw it 
> loading a bunch of drivers. I'm not sure if the SATA driver was among them. 
> I don;t think so.
> 
> Unfortunately, the system still won't boot into XP wen SATA is enabled in 
> the BIOS.
> 
> I shall continue to hunt for another means of installing the SATA drivers 
> so that they eable me to use SATA. The 160 GB drive is a Hitachi 5K320-160
> Model: HTS543216L9A300
> 
> Al 
I got no experience with running a sata drive in ide mode.
.
But, let's check some things.

If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you probably
have to set it either way before you do anything else and LEAVE IT THAT 
WAY FOREVER.

When you used GPARTED to partition/format the drive, did you remember
to set the "bootable flag"?


What's the error message when you try to boot xp from the HD?
Did you try booting the install cd into repair mode and running
fixmbr
and
fixboot
?

Your description suggests that the xp installation completed 
successfully.  During that process, the system had to reboot at least once.


Refresh my memory...did this laptop boot/run with this disk before you
started messing with it?  Which OS?  Which service pack? Or did you 
acquire it this way?

Where did you get the XP  ones and zeros for the nlite disk?  Which
service pack?  Was the hardware designed to run XP or was it downgraded from
Vista or Win7?
There are
a lot of potential issues with this process.  M$, in efforts to discourage
piracy, has made it very difficult to do anything other than a standard
install from a standard XP CD to standard hardware.  While it's possible to
extract the ones and zeros from a laptop reinstall directory/partition
and modify it with tools like nlite to create a custom install CD,
that process is fraught with little details that can scuttle the project.

Sounds like the scope of your problem is too big.  Try to divide it into
smaller chunks.

Did you try a different hard drive?

When you had the drive USB'd to your Vista system, did you look at the
SMART data or try to run a disk diagnostic on it?
Some usb drive controllers can look at SMART, some can't. Just gotta try 
it.  But even that's not conclusive.  I've had drives pass SMART, but 
still fail to run.

Did you try installing linux to the HD on the laptop?
Different distributions have different problems with different hardware.
I like PUPPY linux cause it's small and quick and very easy to install. 
  Ubuntu is popular, but recent versions have had lots of issues.
Making linux work would verify that your hardware can be made to work.
Then you can go back to looking at the XP install CD to find the problem.

If  you have a genuine unmodified XP SP2 or SP3 CD, I'd try that.
IRRC, there are SATA issues with SP1 and earlier.

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#794

mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j8up0b$nie$1@dont-email.me:

> I got no experience with running a sata drive in ide mode.
> .
> But, let's check some things.
> 
> If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you
> probably have to set it either way before you do anything else and
> LEAVE IT THAT WAY FOREVER.
> 
> When you used GPARTED to partition/format the drive, did you remember
> to set the "bootable flag"?

No - I didn't see any mention of a "bootable flag".

> What's the error message when you try to boot xp from the HD?

There is no error message. If I enable SATA Native Mode in the BIOS, XP 
just won't load. You briefly see an XP color logo screen, then it goes 
black and reboots up to a point where it invites me to choose between 
staring Windows in Safe Mode vs Normal etc. If I choose either, it just 
restarts and boots back to that same screen. If you hit "start Windows 
Normally, it takes you as farr as the first XP colored logo screen, then 
the system restarts.

> Did you try booting the install cd into repair mode and running
> fixmbr
> and
> fixboot

No, I didn't. Should I do that?
 
> Your description suggests that the xp installation completed 
> successfully.  During that process, the system had to reboot at least
> once. 

Yes. But I had to set the BIOS to "SATA Native Mode disabled"
> 
> 
> Refresh my memory...did this laptop boot/run with this disk before you
> started messing with it?  Which OS?  Which service pack? Or did you 
> acquire it this way?

I acquired it (and the hard drive) in used condition. The hard drive had 
been formatted. The only OS I have ever loaded onto it is XP pro. 

> Where did you get the XP  ones and zeros for the nlite disk? 

The ones and zeros? Sorry I don't understand...


 Which service pack? 

SP3

 Was the hardware designed to run XP or was it
> downgraded from Vista or Win7?

I have no idea. I think this HP 6710b laptop was first available around 
2007, judging by the dates of reviews and user comments on the web.


> There are
> a lot of potential issues with this process.  M$, in efforts to
> discourage piracy, has made it very difficult to do anything other
> than a standard install from a standard XP CD to standard hardware. 
> While it's possible to extract the ones and zeros from a laptop
> reinstall directory/partition and modify it with tools like nlite to
> create a custom install CD, that process is fraught with little
> details that can scuttle the project. 
> 
> Sounds like the scope of your problem is too big.  Try to divide it
> into smaller chunks.
> 
> Did you try a different hard drive?

No, not yet. I do have a Western Digital 'Scorpio' WD25008EVS (250 gb) 
laptop drive, circa 2008, that would fit. it's full of data and has no 
OS. I could save the data to my Desktop, at a pinch. 

> When you had the drive USB'd to your Vista system, did you look at the
> SMART data or try to run a disk diagnostic on it?
> Some usb drive controllers can look at SMART, some can't. Just gotta
> try it.  But even that's not conclusive.  I've had drives pass SMART,
> but still fail to run.

No - but I did run a Hitachi drive fitness test from a bootable disc. It 
did lots of differenttests, and returned no errors at all.

> Did you try installing linux to the HD on the laptop?

No - I don't have any Linux discs.

> Different distributions have different problems with different
> hardware. I like PUPPY linux cause it's small and quick and very easy
> to install. 
>   Ubuntu is popular, but recent versions have had lots of issues.
> Making linux work would verify that your hardware can be made to work.
> Then you can go back to looking at the XP install CD to find the
> problem. 
> 
> If  you have a genuine unmodified XP SP2 or SP3 CD, I'd try that.
> IRRC, there are SATA issues with SP1 and earlier.

Thanks for your suggestions. If any of my answers above provide any new 
clues, please let me know!

Al

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#795

"AL_n" <fgdfgdfg@fghfghfg.com> wrote in news:Xns9F92E3E9A784Czzzzzz@
130.133.4.11:

PS...

There are some utilities here, offered by Hitachi (my drive is Hitachi):

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

Do any of them look like they might solve my SATA issue?

Al

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#797

AL_n wrote:
> mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j8up0b$nie$1@dont-email.me:
> 
>> I got no experience with running a sata drive in ide mode.
>> .
>> But, let's check some things.
>>
>> If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you
>> probably have to set it either way before you do anything else and
>> LEAVE IT THAT WAY FOREVER.
>>
>> When you used GPARTED to partition/format the drive, did you remember
>> to set the "bootable flag"?
> 
> No - I didn't see any mention of a "bootable flag".

Somewhere in the menus for GPARTED there's something like "edit flags"
Brings up a bunch of checkboxes, one of which is "bootable".
Try right clicking the line that describes the partition.
> 
>> What's the error message when you try to boot xp from the HD?
> 
> There is no error message. If I enable SATA Native Mode in the BIOS, XP 
> just won't load. You briefly see an XP color logo screen, then it goes 
> black and reboots up to a point where it invites me to choose between 
> staring Windows in Safe Mode vs Normal etc. If I choose either, it just 
> restarts and boots back to that same screen. If you hit "start Windows 
> Normally, it takes you as farr as the first XP colored logo screen, then 
> the system restarts.

Sounds like a driver problem to me.  I'd bet it revolves around
SATA native mode disabled.
If you press F8 during the boot to get the boot options screen,
there's an option to log the boot process.  That should spew out
what it's doing while it boots.  The last thing printed is either the last
successful thing or the thing it was trying when it failed.  you'll have
to look up which if it matters.  Problem is that it will likely flash up
for an instant before it reboots.  Should end up with a bootlog file
that you may be able to read if you can boot a linux Cd and mount the 
C-drive.

I'd go ask the question in the HP laptop forum.  Gotta be one somewhere.
> 
>> Did you try booting the install cd into repair mode and running
>> fixmbr
>> and
>> fixboot
> 
> No, I didn't. Should I do that?

can't hurt
Your system seems to be booting from the hard drive, but crashing
when it gets to the part where drivers are loaded.
Can't hurt to run a memory test. There's a live Cd version of memtest86.

>  
>> Your description suggests that the xp installation completed 
>> successfully.  During that process, the system had to reboot at least
>> once. 
> 
> Yes. But I had to set the BIOS to "SATA Native Mode disabled"
>>
>> Refresh my memory...did this laptop boot/run with this disk before you
>> started messing with it?  Which OS?  Which service pack? Or did you 
>> acquire it this way?
> 
> I acquired it (and the hard drive) in used condition. The hard drive had 
> been formatted. The only OS I have ever loaded onto it is XP pro. 
> 
>> Where did you get the XP  ones and zeros for the nlite disk? 
> 
> The ones and zeros? Sorry I don't understand...

Somewhere, you got the original files for the XP install disk that you
nlited.  Was this a real XP disk or something downloaded or copied
off an existing system?

There's a thing called the hardware abstraction layer that gets loaded
at the original install and is based on hardware detected.  If that's wrong,
I don't think there's any easy way to fix it.  You have to reload the OS.
Configuring the hard drive emulation AFTER the HAL is loaded may
give you problems.
> 
> 
>  Which service pack? 
> 
> SP3
That oughta work dandy with sata???  Someone else chime in here.
> 
>  Was the hardware designed to run XP or was it
>> downgraded from Vista or Win7?
> 
> I have no idea. I think this HP 6710b laptop was first available around 
> 2007, judging by the dates of reviews and user comments on the web.

Should be specs and drivers on the HP site???
> 
> 
>> There are
>> a lot of potential issues with this process.  M$, in efforts to
>> discourage piracy, has made it very difficult to do anything other
>> than a standard install from a standard XP CD to standard hardware. 
>> While it's possible to extract the ones and zeros from a laptop
>> reinstall directory/partition and modify it with tools like nlite to
>> create a custom install CD, that process is fraught with little
>> details that can scuttle the project. 
>>
>> Sounds like the scope of your problem is too big.  Try to divide it
>> into smaller chunks.
>>
>> Did you try a different hard drive?
> 
> No, not yet. I do have a Western Digital 'Scorpio' WD25008EVS (250 gb) 
> laptop drive, circa 2008, that would fit. it's full of data and has no 
> OS. I could save the data to my Desktop, at a pinch. 
> 
>> When you had the drive USB'd to your Vista system, did you look at the
>> SMART data or try to run a disk diagnostic on it?
>> Some usb drive controllers can look at SMART, some can't. Just gotta
>> try it.  But even that's not conclusive.  I've had drives pass SMART,
>> but still fail to run.
> 
> No - but I did run a Hitachi drive fitness test from a bootable disc. It 
> did lots of differenttests, and returned no errors at all.

That's a good sign.
> 
>> Did you try installing linux to the HD on the laptop?
> 
> No - I don't have any Linux discs.

Depending on which version of GPARTED live CD you have, you may be able 
to exit
out of that program and have some limited linux capability running.
Don't know exactly.
Puppy download is less than 100MB.
> 
>> Different distributions have different problems with different
>> hardware. I like PUPPY linux cause it's small and quick and very easy
>> to install. 
>>   Ubuntu is popular, but recent versions have had lots of issues.
>> Making linux work would verify that your hardware can be made to work.
>> Then you can go back to looking at the XP install CD to find the
>> problem. 
>>
>> If  you have a genuine unmodified XP SP2 or SP3 CD, I'd try that.
>> IRRC, there are SATA issues with SP1 and earlier.
> 
> Thanks for your suggestions. If any of my answers above provide any new 
> clues, please let me know!
> 
I'm outa ideas.
> Al

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#800

AL_n, I agree with mike's two posts:

"Sounds like a driver problem to me.  I'd bet it revolves around SATA
native mode disabled." 

"If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you probably
have to set it either way before you do anything else and LEAVE IT THAT
WAY FOREVER." 


You installed XP without a SATA driver, so it isn't there when you
change the BIOS setting.  The boot process is likely failing at the
point where it switches from Real Mode to Protected Mode--i.e., the
point where it switches from using the 16-bit BIOS driver to using a
32-bit Windows driver.  Because of the way it was installed, it's trying
to boot with the wrong Windows driver. 

I think you need to reinstall XP with the BIOS already set to SATA mode.
 (If it won't install that way, then I think the culprit is probably your 
slipstreamed CD failing to use the SATA driver.) 

If you don't want to reinstall, see if this article helps:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294

I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard people claim the following 
technique, derived from the above article, works: 

- leave the boot hard drive in IDE mode;

- temporarily add a second hard drive, configured in SATA mode;

- boot XP and let it install the SATA drivers for the second drive;

- shutdown, remove the extra drive, reset boot hard drive to SATA mode;

- boot XP in SATA mode.

I suppose the process of temporarily adding a second hard drive in SATA
mode causes XP to install the proper driver for it, which XP can then
subsequently use for itself after the BIOS setting is changed. 

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#802

dg1261 wrote:
> AL_n, I agree with mike's two posts:
> 
> "Sounds like a driver problem to me.  I'd bet it revolves around SATA
> native mode disabled." 
> 
> "If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you probably
> have to set it either way before you do anything else and LEAVE IT THAT
> WAY FOREVER." 
> 
> 
> You installed XP without a SATA driver, so it isn't there when you
> change the BIOS setting.  The boot process is likely failing at the
> point where it switches from Real Mode to Protected Mode--i.e., the
> point where it switches from using the 16-bit BIOS driver to using a
> 32-bit Windows driver.  Because of the way it was installed, it's trying
> to boot with the wrong Windows driver. 
> 
> I think you need to reinstall XP with the BIOS already set to SATA mode.
>  (If it won't install that way, then I think the culprit is probably your 
> slipstreamed CD failing to use the SATA driver.) 
> 
> If you don't want to reinstall, see if this article helps:
> 
> http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=294
> 
> I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard people claim the following 
> technique, derived from the above article, works: 
> 
> - leave the boot hard drive in IDE mode;
> 
> - temporarily add a second hard drive, configured in SATA mode;
> 
> - boot XP and let it install the SATA drivers for the second drive;
> 
> - shutdown, remove the extra drive, reset boot hard drive to SATA mode;
> 
> - boot XP in SATA mode.
> 
> I suppose the process of temporarily adding a second hard drive in SATA
> mode causes XP to install the proper driver for it, which XP can then
> subsequently use for itself after the BIOS setting is changed. 
> 
> 
Clever, but probably hard to do in most laptops.

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#807

mike <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote in news:j91p0k$8pc$1@dont-email.me:

> Clever, but probably hard to do in most laptops.


Ah... forgot about that part.

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#804

"I think you need to reinstall XP with the BIOS already set to SATA
mode.
 (If it won't install that way, then I think the culprit is probably
your
slipstreamed CD failing to use the SATA driver.)"

Isn't this what I have been saying...?

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#811

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Bob_Villa wrote:
> "I think you need to reinstall XP with the BIOS already set to SATA
> mode.
> (If it won't install that way, then I think the culprit is probably
> your
> slipstreamed CD failing to use the SATA driver.)"
>
> Isn't this what I have been saying...?

I have two desktops and four laptops all running in AHCI (SATA) mode, after 
having initially XP installed in IDE Emulation mode.

It all started with my first SATA machine, back when I didn't know better. 
However, once I read about the advantages of NCQ and decided I wanted it, I 
excercised my Google-Fu and found pages like this one: 
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831  and before you know it I 
was up and running in AHCI mode with all of the benefits of NCQ.

As that was so successful I didn't bother using the 'F6' method with later 
installs on later machines, instead simply enabling AHCI post-install. 
However that's just me. I know of some folks who hook up a floppy and use 
the F6 method and others who do the slipstream thing. <shrug> I find my way 
easy enough so that I haven't bothered with either of those.
-- 
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a 
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1) 

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#809

dg1261 <dgREMOVE-THIS1261@cs.com> wrote in
news:Xns9F9399516159DdgREMOVETHIS1261csco@88.198.244.100: 

> I think you need to reinstall XP with the BIOS already set to SATA
> mode. (If it won't install that way, then I think the culprit is probably
>  your slipstreamed CD failing to use the SATA driver.) 

Thanks for the input. The first time I tried to install XP, it was using an 
XP-pro (SP3) installation disc (with nothing slipstreamed onto it).

It wouldn't recognise the drive until I disabled SATA Native Mode in the 
BIOS.

I do have an orignal XP Home Edition disc (not sure which SP). I could 
reformat the drive, and see if that will load with SATA enabled in BIOS. If 
it does, then I can perhaps then install the XP Pro as an upgrade.

I can't try the second hard drive tip you suggested, as it's a laptop 
(unless the method will work using a USB hard drive caddy).

Al

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#861

In article <j8up0b$nie$1@dont-email.me>, mike  <spamme9@gmail.com> wrote:
>AL_n wrote:
>
>If you use BIOS emulation to run a SATA drive in IDE mode, you probably
>have to set it either way before you do anything else and LEAVE IT THAT 
>WAY FOREVER.

	That's not true.  It's SOP to install using emulation or compatibility
mode then load the drivers and reset the bios options.

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