Hi guys, i have a custom built P4 3.4ghz, 1024ddr, 200gb Western Digital SATA drive. Due to some error i could not load windows so i removed the hd and formatted it in another pc. When i put it back to do a fresh install of windows it says Primary SATA not found, and says that there is no device on the primary IDE or slave IDE. But the harddrive is visible in BIOS. Anyway i set it to boot from CD and used the WinXP cd but it says "BOOT ERROR INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". Anyone got any ideas, thanks in advance.
Paul Stevens 0 Newbie Poster
richh0323 0 Junior Poster in Training
You have to have the driver disk for SATA drives. Check with the M/B site and find out what you need. Example my Gigabyte M/B uses SI3112 chipset, so I had to make a disk with the Silicon Image drivers. Make sure you have a 3 1/4" disk ready, and put the driver on it . Now start the install of Windows XP, when installing you will be asked if you want to install drivers, press F6 and then you have to load up the drivers from the disk. They may also be on the manufactures CD driver disk, but I would look at the web site for the latest and greatest.
Paul Stevens 0 Newbie Poster
OK, wait my first post was completely wrong, i can't belive i was so stupid. I do not have a SATA hard drive at all. The specs listed by the builder were wrong. When i checked i realised it is an EIDE hard disk, not SATA at all. But i still have the same problem, when i try to boot it says "BOOT ERROR" "INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER" It says this even when the windows XP cd is in the drive, so how can i possibly re-install windows. The bios is recognizing the hard disk so i don't know what can be wrong. Also, it is partitioned and formatted and correctly jumpered. :sad:
richh0323 0 Junior Poster in Training
MAybe this will help, I think you didn't partition and format right, here is some help.
It is currently recommended to use Window's XP to format and partition your drive if the BIOS supports the full capacity of the drive. The following are step-by-step installation instructions on how to use Microsoft's Disk Management to format and partition the drive.
Fresh Install:
Install hard drive. Set the BIOS to "Auto-Detect" the hard disks.
Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM and restart the system.
Follow on-screen prompts. At the "create partition" screen make sure the drive is highlighted.
Press "Enter" to set-up Windows XP
Or
Press "C" to create a partition.
Note: Windows XP will not allow you to create a FAT 32 partition greater than 32GB. To create a partition greater than 32GB you will need to format the drive using the NTFS file system.
Finish the rest of the installation.
Installing a second drive:
Note: If the second drive is pre-formatted or used in another system it is not necessary to re-format the drive. Follow the instructions below up to Step 2 and XP should recognize the drive.
Install the hard drive and set the system BIOS to "Auto-Detect" the hard disk(s).
Start Windows XP.
Go to the "Control Panel".
Click on "Performance and Maintenance", "Administrative Tools", "Computer Management", "Storage", "Disk Management"
In "Disk Management" you will see the active hard disks. Disk 0 is the Primary drive. Disk 1 and greater are considered secondary storage.
If the description of Disk 1 is "Not Initialized" then you must right-click on the "Disk 1" icon and select "Initialize".
Select the disk to be initialized and select "Continue".
Next, right-click on "Unallocated" region of a basic disk, and then click "New Partition".
In the "New Partition Wizard", click Next. Select the type of partition you want and follow all on-screen instructions.
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