Windows XP Won't Recognize Mass Storage Device for Dual Boot

by **Chortdakooba** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:26 am

Hi all, I am trying to dual boot my new computer. I have a HP with 320GB SATA HD with Vista pre-installed and would like to install a copy of XP Pro that I just bought.
I have done all the steps in the disk management as far as shrinking the current Vista volume and creating a new volume to load XP. The new volume is D and has 126 GB space left. I have also read about disabling SATA Native Support in the Bios, but I cannot find that option when I hit the F10 button (setup) during a reboot.
When I put my XP set up disc in and reboot I can go through the XP setup right to the point where it wants to pick a drive, but it does not recognize any disks. It will say Unknow Disk. I can't push "C" to create or anything, I finally just get an error message.
I have tried pushing F6 during setup to load RAID drivers but it doesn't seem to work. I get this message: "Setup could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices installed in your system, or you have chosen to manually specify and adapter. Currently, setup will load support for the following mass storage devices (none)".
If anyone can tell me what I may be missing that would be greatly appreciated.
On a last note, can Windows Vista be completely formatted over so that I can just run my XP Pro?

by **NT50** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:34 am

If you want XP Pro only you will need to find the drivers on the internet for your computer. Boot to the XP disk and wipe out the partitions completely and recreate and start over.

If not you will have to have the Sata drivers during XP boot form disk. Contact HP and ask them where to find them. There still should be an option in setup somewhere for disabling the sata native support or HP has eliminated that.

by **Chortdakooba** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:41 am

Which drivers am I looking for? XP drivers for the SATA HD?

by **NT50** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:49 am

With an HP just about everything. HP are unique and they have non generic hardware. In other words they good luck on finding anything for HP. You will have to spend a lot of time looking for drivers. You might find some drivers not from Hp that will work.

by **Chortdakooba** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:00 am

If I was to disconnect my HD and take it to another computer with a disk utility program that could format the drive and wipe it clean and then bring it back and re-install in my computer and run my XP disc, will that work or will I get the same problem that it won't recognize it?

by **NT50** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:11 am

XP should see the sata drive IF it is XP SP2,

BUT why do all of that when you can boot to XP disk with SP2 and you should be able to see the drive then and delete the partitions and start completely over that way. I would do this that way I know if XP will see them or not.

by **JabbaPapa** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:06 pm

You should look for chipset drivers either from the manufacturer of your motherboard, or from the manufacturer of the chipset that it uses (not from HP).

If you can correctly identify the motherboard model, then finding the chipset drivers for XP should be easy ; but even if you are lacking specific Vista drivers for your hardware, in many cases the older drivers should allow you to use the motherboard anyway :yesnod:

Can you please tell us EXACTLY which HP you have ? Not just the brand name, but the EXACT model as is described on the sticker on the back/bottom/side of the rig ?

First step is to determine from there which chipset they used for that model :yesnod:

by **Chortdakooba** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:06 pm

Hi all, sorry for the late repy, had to do full recovery again this morning.
I have tried rebooting using the XP disk to start all over and delete the partitions, but when XP gets to that point it doesn't recognize the drive, all slots will say "unknow disk" and from there it will just crash to the error message screen that says look for updated drivers and such. I did try something different, in the setup at reboot there was a setting to change the HD from RAID to IDE. When I changed it to IDE and rebooted with XP then it was able to recognize the partitions. However, after installing XP it won't load up under this setting.
I am wondering, if used the IDE setting again to recognize the partitions and instead of loading XP, just used it to delete the current vista partition would that work? I would have to set back to RAID to install XP but not sure if it will recognize again at that point.
The model of my HP is "a1720n"

by **JabbaPapa** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:16 pm

Hopefully several guys will chip in to try and help here, as you appear to have a complex issue that might include both hardware and software aspects.

Some patience may be necessary on your part, as we are all volunteers ; mainly though because it will most likely take some time to narrow down the possible causes of your trouble to find the culprit.

Either you have drivers issues, or you have hardware problems with the SATA, or with the connecting cables, or similar. All is not well though, in the Kingdom of SATA ...

by **Chortdakooba** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:42 pm

Well, I found the chipset, 945G, and downloaded some drivers from Intel which are to be for XP Pro. 3 drivers, one for graphics, one for SATA and RAID and one that helps with AGP and USB settings. Do you think it would hurt to try all 3?

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Windows XP Won't Recognize Mass Storage Device for Dual Boot

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