I got Vista w/ partitioned drive but XP setup wont find HDD

So basically I got 3 partitions, one has Vista, one is an HP recovery drive and the other is an empty drive (used to have Mac but was too glitchy). All formatted for NTFS and primary. I want to install XP on the empty drive but the setup says "Setup did not find any hard disk drives".

By the way, this is on an HP laptop (see sig).

 

that's because XP does not have the SATA drivers for newer hard-drivers preinstalled. Your going have to either use a Slipstreamed XP install CD that has the drivers, or manually add in the drivers during the installation when XP asks you if you have any 3rd party drivers.

 

refer to http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=125539

 

i read up on the slipstreaming, might go with that. how can i manually add drivers tho when i got no floppy drive.

 

you download nlite and then add the required drivers....

 

Put in a flashdrive, go into bios and set it up as "emualte as floppy disk". Some computer have that option and some don't.

 

there is a tutorial too....its very detailed..... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=193872

 

thx guys, appreciate it

 

So I'm back. I did the nLite thing but the the setup froze when the iastor.sys was missing. when I select the the folder with my intel storage driver do i need all the extracted items from the x64 (i have a 64 processor) folder within the .exe?

 

There are 8 files in it, around 500 KB in total, and I think you need all of them. It only choses iaAHCI.ini but I think they're all linked in one way or the other.

 

k thx, cuz i read a tutorial and it said only to choose inf files and that kinda threw me off.

 

back again. so i made a new disc with all the files contained in the 64 folder but now it says iastor.sys is corrupt. its getting to be a real pain.

 

Do you want me to RAR and upload the extracted files that I have on Rapidshare? I have Intel_Matrix_Storage_Manager_x64_8.7.0.1007.

 

ya that'd be cool if u can. but i just have one more question, am i supposed to use the 64 bit version if I have a 64 bit HDD or the 64 bit Windows XP? (cuz i might have the 32 bit version, not sure.

 

There is no 64 bit HDD!

Which OS are you trying to install, a 64-bit OS, or a 32 bit OS? You need 64-bit drivers for a 64-bit OS.

 

ok, i think i might actaully be installing the 32 bit XP SP2 Pro. It doesnt say x64 anywhere. that might be my problem right there

 

Classic! At least you didn't blame the OS!

 

wow, thanks buddy. works now, that was stupid, totally just wasted about 3 or 4 CD-R's doin this.