Hi
Trying to reformat a friends  laptop, he has no idea about computers, i have some idea. Gone into the BIOS of the system. Have told it to BOOT from the external usb cd drive, the on board CD drive appears not to work. However, after XP Pro setup  loads its files it says 'setup did not find an hard disk drives installed in your computer. Make sure hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to  your computer, and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer supplied diagnostic or set up program. Setup cannot CONTINUE. To quit setup, press F3.   I have taken out the hard disc reformatted it on another computer, so it appears that the hard disc does actually work,  put it back it to the original laptop, and still get the same problem, 'no hard disk drives installed.' BIOS does seem to see that a hard disc drive is actually connected., but XP cant find it.  Does this mean there is a major problem with his laptop? It does look well thrown about, perhaps its physically damaged.  Can someone suggest how I might logically try to sort out this problem?
thanks for your time
kwisjThis is common when trying to install XP onto a computer with SATA hard drives. This could be your issue, or it could be a USB issue. If BIOS LETS you change your SATA controller to regular IDE mode, you might be in business. If not, then post more details about the specifications of the system and someone will be back to you later.Hi  jkolak
Thanks for getting back to me. Will try to change to regular IDE mode. Oh and one other thing. My friend wants to know if i can get some data off his hard drive. But like i said i ran a quick format on it. Is it still possible to get back the data? I guess that all the data is there somewhere, but I said i would ask if it was possible to get it back easily. I know that there are programs that will restore erased data. Do you have any suggestions? He doesn,t want much this friend! But I dont mind cos i learn things trying to sort things out!
kwisjHi again jkolak
disabled the AHCI, which I think is the same as what you asked me to try, and everything appears to be working now. XP seems to be installing. Will let you know how it turns out. I think its curtains for his data though..dont you think.
cheers for your time
kwisjIf you are formatting his drive of COURSE his data will be gone.only way I know of to recover data from a formatted drive involves fairly expensive tools.thanks to all re recovering data. issue sorted. cheersthanks Alllen re installing XP all done system up and running all fine now. cheers for your time on this.
kwisjYou're welcome.