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    XP SP2 Cannot Read Hard Drive Upon Boot

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by ThinkPad, Jun 28, 2007.

  1. ThinkPad

    ThinkPad Newbie

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    I'm having difficulty dual booting Windows XP and Windows Vista on my T61 (came with Vista). In Disk Management, I shrank the hard drive and formatted it (NTFS). Upon booting the XP SP2 CD, it reads that it cannot install because it cannot detect my hard drive. Out of about ten tries, it read the hard drive once, but then it did not show the partitions. Instead, it showed the entire hard drive as C:\. It has never recognized the hard drive since. This is my first attempt at dual booting, and am hoping I have simply missed a step. Thanks in advance for you help!
     
    ThinkPad, Jun 28, 2007
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  2. colm

    colm Notebook Consultant

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    Make sure that your controller is set to 'compatability' mode in the BIOS. XP cannot read SATA drives natively.
     
    colm, Jun 28, 2007
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  3. Surfer666

    Surfer666 Notebook Consultant

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    Will this work in allowing SATA hard drives to be read? If so that's a first I've ever heard of this, and I might have to explore further. I've been just using nLite to remake a Windows XP CD so that it'll have all the patches and drivers.
     
    Surfer666, Jun 28, 2007
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  4. colm

    colm Notebook Consultant

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    Yes, I switch my controller to compat mode when I boot from WinPE to image my machine.
    I can view all partitions without any problems in compat mode.
     
    colm, Jun 28, 2007
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  5. fd9_

    fd9_ Notebook Guru

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    Wait, aren't most hard drives SATA?
     
    fd9_, Jun 28, 2007
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  6. vedavin

    vedavin Notebook Geek

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    Yes it does........
     
    vedavin, Jun 28, 2007
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  7. ThinkPad

    ThinkPad Newbie

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    Yup, I was under the impression that SP2 had drivers for Serial ATA Hard Drives. I too slipstreamed XP and SP2... I'm sure I'm misunderstanding something... but changing to "Compatibility Mode" worked. Thanks Colm.
     
    ThinkPad, Jun 28, 2007
    #7