Computer Hope

Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: stewie-Y on August 13, 2015, 11:09:24 AM

Title: Computer suddenly stopped finding hard drive when I tried reinstalling Windows.
Post by: stewie-Y on August 13, 2015, 11:09:24 AM

Hey guys. I have an old laptop here that was working fine, but I wanted to reinstall Windows. I inserted a Windows xp disk into an external disk drive that I have attached to the laptop via USB, I went into the BIOS and I set the USB CD drive to be the first boot device, and when I tried to install XP it said that it recognizes no mass storage devices.
When I try to boot regularly from the HDD, it shows the XP loading screen, but goes to a black screen. Any idea what happened?

Title: Re: Computer suddenly stopped finding hard drive when I tried reinstalling Windows.
Post by: DaveLembke on August 13, 2015, 11:49:26 AM

Either the HDD is junk, optical drive copied corrupt data, disc is damaged, or the driver for the SATA controller is missing to mount the drive to install the OS. Is this XP SP2 clean install or SP0 or SP1a etc? ( SP = service pack )

Title: Re: Computer suddenly stopped finding hard drive when I tried reinstalling Windows.
Post by: stewie-Y on August 13, 2015, 12:17:31 PM

It's Windows XP SP3.
By the way, it didn't install anything. It only booted into the CD and on the screen where it lets you pick your drive is when it displayed that it recognizes no mass storage devices.

Title: Re: Computer suddenly stopped finding hard drive when I tried reinstalling Windows.
Post by: Lisa_maree on August 13, 2015, 11:40:16 PM

Another post where there is no information on what "old laptop" you have. There is lots of reason why a hard drive that you are not booting from will not be detected by a windows install cd. But to narrow the possibilities the model of laptop would help.
Then I could check if it supports ACHI mode. to suggest one of the things that would cause your problem.