Hi, I have a Medion MD-98200 notebook - damn good deal from Aldi - well it would be if i could get rid of Vista and install the still very shiny XP. Trouble is when i boot from the XP CD it cant find the hard drive!! Help - Vista is rubbish for want of a more spiteful word Cheers Kit
When you say it can't find the HDD, do you mean at the stage where you choose where to install XP to (where you can format & partition), or later on after the install has started does it fail?
It asks the question setup new xp, or repair etc Choose to set up a new version of XP and then it says it cant find the HDD Cheers
Ok ive done a bit of research and it appears xp can't see the HDD as it is on a SATA interface, you'll need the sata drivers for XP, but it doesn't look like they even exist on their site. Don't know if someone here will be able to suggest a workaround? EDIT: How old is the XP install CD you are using, you might get lucky if you get new slipstreamed one which comes with all the updates and extra drivers? EDIT no 2: Found this thread, someone having the same problem as you, not much extra info though.
After some digging, I found the information about the chipset. It is an Intel 915 or 945 chipset. I found a utility to build a driver floppy disk for both chipset families right here. Use it to create a driver disk. then insert the floppy disk into the laptop. Then during the boot process of the XP cd you should look at the white status bar for the text Press F6 to load a non-microsoft or raid driver (or something familiar). Then press F6. Setup will now include the raid driver from the floppy disk into the setup. Then the harddisk should be recognised. I fully agree with that.
Sure, you could use an external floppy drive. You can't use a USB stick or external harddrive because XP setup searches for a driver floppy only.
If you have no external floppy I think your only other alternative is going to be to make a slipstream copy of xp with the sata drivers on that. Guide Here
Slipstreaming means injecting service packs, updates and drivers into an existing XP cd. You extract the data from the cd to your harddrive (including the boot sector of the cd), then inject everything and burn the cd with the bootsector. You can find the information by following the link that Ferg has provided, or on Google.
Hi missed that guide bit - do i just dump all the files from the floppy disc into the appropriate folder of the slipstream disk? or do i only need specific files? Cheers
All my programs are different versions to those mentioned in the guide - got lost and failed - guess ill have to try and find a USB FDD - bugger
The drivers are the INF, SYS and CAT files. [ot]Just needed to say that [/ot] Those aren't expensive.
Getting there - Got a floppy drive, got it recogised, got the xp user agreement, set up partions, and formatted the drive - now it wants - Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver Now what? anybody?
Create an additional floppy disk with this utility. edit: If the setup asks for more drivers, just keep 'em posting and I'll give you download locations.
That utility is the same one as before - but that doesnt seem to be the problem. It says in sert the disk and press enter when ready. When i press the enter key it doesnt even check the disk drive hmmm!! So it doesnt matter what is on the disk Cheers Could it be checking the wrong drive location? i.e. floppy drive is not A as it is specifically asking for A
Salted - dodgy Floppy drive would not work after the dismount (formatted c: drive - then check drives - Fail at this point Dell USB/internal fdd - rubbish
Salted - dodgy Floppy drive would not work after the dismount (formatted c: drive - then check drives - Fail at this point Dell USB/internal fdd - rubbish Thanks guys
