Getting XP back on Laptop

OK I did a bit of a school boy error and put a copy of Vista on a laptop that I already had installed on my desktop.

Anyway to cut a long story short I want to get XP back on my HP Compaq 6710b, but I get the following message during install

Windows XP Home Edition set up did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly conncted to your computer and that any disk related hardware configaration is correct.

This may involve running a manufacturer supplied diagnostic on set up.

Set Up cannot continue F3 to exit

Help!!

I though I could just install it and get XP back, Why would the hard drive disappear too??

Can anyone offer a step by step guide of how to put ity right. I want to give my laptop to my sister before she goes to Uni on Wednesday ;-)

 

You're gonna have to integrate the SATA drivers in the XP disc. This will help. To find out what driver you need, look at HP for your model and check the drivers available under Storage. It'll most likely be "Intel Matrix" something. Download the drivers for XP (if HP doesn't have they can be found with a little googling) and integrate them into the disc following that tutorial. Burn the finished product onto a CD, reboot and enjoy.

 

Nlite seems to have gone??

 

That comes as a bit of a surprise... You can grab it on Softpedia.

 

Got Nlite now, only challenge now is how do I extract the driver from the HP download?? To include it on Nlite

 

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/cs-020825.htm

There you have the instructions. You are only interested in step 1 which says how to extract the driver files from the installation package, nLite will do the rest for you.

At the bottom there is a link which says "Matrix Storage Manager", click on it and download the latest version from the page that appears, do not use the HP version.

 

Getting there but I'm no expert, how do I do this??

To extract these files, run the executable (e.g. IATA88ENU.EXE for Intel® Matrix Storage Manager version 8.8) with the following command line options: -A -A -PC:\<path>, as described in the Advanced Installation Instructions section of the README.TXT.

 

Grab the latest driver package off that second page, download it on your desktop. The file should be named IATA89ENU.EXE. Click the Start orb, type cmd.exe in the search box and hit enter. You should be now presented with the command prompt, and it should default to C:\Users\Your name>

Type in

Code:

cd desktop
IATA89ENU -A -A -PC:\sata

and wait till the prompt returns. The driver will be in the sata folder on your desktop.

 

Done this and it seemed to go OK, but where is the SATA folder so I can include the files in Nlite?

 

Well it should be on your desktop. If it's not, look in c:\

 

I followed the instructions and it says successfully extracted, the file is on my desktop, but there is no SATA folder anywhere I just need that file to include as the single driver on Nlite any idea where i'm going wrong?

 

You know, Windows has a search function for a reason.

 

LOL Hopefully the OP figures this out

Cant get get simplier than that.

An alternative is to go in the BIOs and turn off the SATA Enhancement.

 

The only problem being that it isn't available on most laptops.

 

Cheers for all your help managed to get it all on a disc into the laptop only trouble is now when it trys to install windows I get a load of fatal errors....great

 

At which point do you get errors?

 

X is on the machine but loads of fatal errors it is phase 4 of set up.

 

It says that certain files are corrupted or something? Could be a bad CD. Try burning another at a slower speed.

 

I have got my mate to help and he has got XP on the laptop but there is no sound and the graphics are not working correctly. He has told me I need the driver disc, is it possible to download this from somewhere? The laptop is a Compaq 6710b