Hi guys, I have a western digital sata hdd in my computer. I am trying to format it but I can't. Computer doesn't recognize the HDD when rebooting the computer with win xp. I even created the start up disk for the motherboard. Even when I reboot the computer with win xp cd and when at the start up where it says press F6 to install SCSI or RAID driver, I press F6 but noting happens neither it asks for the SATA driver. Please Help. Secondly I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and it has recovery partition built in. I wanna pick up all the data on the cds and delete the partition. Two reasons: wanna put a faster drive and secondly I don't have XP media center copy. Can anyone help me pick up all the data on the cds or dvd?
Uhm. SATA != SCSI. You shouldn't have to install a driver assuming the motherboard actually has SATA plugs, which it must, because you have the drive selected. Just let it install man! Problem 2... A LOGICAL drive is not the same as a PHYSICAL drive. The limitation being that you can have 2 IDE devices per channel...typically mobo's have 2 IDE channels, total of 4 ide devices, unless you add an IDE controller card. There is absolutely no reason why you can't put in a faster drive and keep the existing drive (unless you have more than 2 optical drives...or something like that). I did that for a long time, had one drive as the OS drive, and the other for all installed progs and downloads. Even if you delete the partition w/ fdisk and reinstall XP w/ the Dell recovery disc, it will reformat and repartition again. You'd have to do a full XP install. The guy over at AnalogX has a great tool for people who never want to get the "please insert the disc labeled windows xp" popup when changing settings or whatnot, you just copy the disc locally and point to it w/ his tool (it's a regedit) and away you go. Hope that answers your question...
I think you're not following me on the first one. I used to format that SATA hdd with the motherboard startup disk. but now it's not being formatted anymore following the same procedure. This is how I used to format the drive: Insert the Windows XP cd and restart the computer. when asks for the SCSI or RAID driver Press F6 and then insert the motherboard's start up disk and let it install the driver for the SATA and so on.... but now when I press F6 instead of asking for start up disk it just continues normally and then at the end it says there's no hdd installed in the computer. Intel P4 2.53 w/533fsb AsRock Mobo 80GB Western digital SATA HDD
I don't understand why you're pressing f6. If the motherboard supports SATA, it will be controlled by the onboard disk controller, should be no need for a "driver" as such, unless I'm missing something, which I probably am. Normally when windows tells you that you don't have a hdd, it means you forgot to plug the power back in to it (my normal issue, lol), you forgot to plug the data cable back in, or you changed/dislodged the jumper for the mode...master/slave/CS. Or...that the datacable on the motherboard side has jiggled loose...which is easy to do when you're fiddling around inside your case.
When I hit f6 doing an xp install it always asks for a floppy. I copy the drivers from the motherboard cd onto the floppy. If you did it before using the motherboard startup disk than maybe your keyboard f keys are not functional. Try another keyboard and see if that works. Make sure you keep hitting the f6 key when prompted, you don’t have a lot of time to do so. Also make sure you see your sata drive in the bios.
I think orb.fl is follwing me. I do see the sata in the bios. perhaps my F6 is not functional. otherwise I formatted this drive more 20 times already following the same process. Any other idea will be appreciated. Thanks Orb.fl
Your welcome. That is the only thing that I can think of. It happened to me on one of my computers. I couldn't get into safe mode because not just the F8 key didn't work but all the F keys. So I replaced the keyboard. Good luck.
