HDD not recognized?

[Falcone]

I just got done building my new computer. I boot up WinXP Pro from the CD-ROM (I don't have WinXP floppy's) and everything's fine until I get to the screen where it says three different things. I forgot the exact words, but here's a general list of what my choices are.

1. Press Enter to install WinXP
2. Press R (or something) to recover
3. Press ESC to quit and not install WinXP

Now, I press Enter and the next screen that pops up is a screen that says WinXP cannot continue with the installation because it doesn't recognize a "hard disk drive." I don't know if I didn't connect the HDD correctly to the motherboard or if it's something in the BIOS.

Mobo: Soltek K8TPro
HDD: WD 160GB SATA HDD

Any and all help is appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Qrilock]

WinXP doesn't understand SATA by itself, it needs some drivers first. When the instalation first begins you will see some text at the bottom of the screen that tells you to press F6 to load a 3rd party controller driver. You should press F6. Put in a floppy disc with the SATA drivers for your mobo. It *should* have come with the mobo like the driver cd did, if not, the SATA drivers are on the cd, you just need to copy them to a floppy disc. Further in the instalation it will have you press "S" (i think) to pull the drivers from the floppy and give you the option of which driver you want to load (there is usually 2 or 3 options) Pick the one for XP. continue instalation as normal....

 

[mechBgon]

That is good advice, and to add to it, the mobo in question has two different SATA controllers, so which drivers Windows needs will depend on which SATA fitting your cable is plugged into at the motherboard. Consult your manual to discern which are on the VIA southbridge's SATA controller and which are on the Promise SATA controller. Or just give WinXP both types of driver floppies so it can see into all of the SATA jacks, and it'll find the drive. Hopefully.

 

[Ajwhipple]

I had the same problem with my SATA drivers a short while ago. I had to scrounge up floppy drive to load my drivers, but it did the trick.

You might also want to make sure you set your BIOS to recognize USB mouse and keyboard, in case you have them.