[SOLVED] Windows XP can't find hard drive on installation

May 18, 2021
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My motherboard dies on my Dell Dimension 8400. I found a very clean used 8400 and want to re-install Windows XP pro on the newer 8400. Windows installation loads from CD but it says no hard drive found. If I boot it from a floppy the C: drive is there in DOS. I tried to reformat the drive in DOS to FAT32 but no go. The hard drive was originally a clone of the drive from the older 8400. I've tried formatting it on a different computer with Windows 7. Tried deleting the volume on the disk but that didn't work either. The disk shows in the BIOS setup. Why can't Windows installation find it?
 
Solution
If I boot it from a floppy the C: drive is there in DOS. I tried to reformat the drive in DOS to FAT32 but no go.
If you have fdisk on that floppy try that to partition the disk.
But it looks like the drive may be broken.

It might also just need a special driver for the hard drive controller, in that case you would have to download it uncompress it put it on a floppy disk and then press F3 when the windows XP installations prompts you for drivers.

I would try with this driver first.
Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.5.0.6515, A01
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/dimension-8400/drivers

Endre

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My motherboard dies on my Dell Dimension 8400. I found a very clean used 8400 and want to re-install Windows XP pro on the newer 8400. Windows installation loads from CD but it says no hard drive found. If I boot it from a floppy the C: drive is there in DOS. I tried to reformat the drive in DOS to FAT32 but no go. The hard drive was originally a clone of the drive from the older 8400. I've tried formatting it on a different computer with Windows 7. Tried deleting the volume on the disk but that didn't work either. The disk shows in the BIOS setup. Why can't Windows installation find it?

If the drive ain’t faulty, you should be able to enter DOS mode, delete all partitions (logical, extended, and primary - if all of them exist); then re-create partitions and format them.

First of all, enter DOS mode, type in:
C:
scandisk
(See if there are issues with the drive). This will take a pretty long time.
 
If I boot it from a floppy the C: drive is there in DOS. I tried to reformat the drive in DOS to FAT32 but no go.
If you have fdisk on that floppy try that to partition the disk.
But it looks like the drive may be broken.

It might also just need a special driver for the hard drive controller, in that case you would have to download it uncompress it put it on a floppy disk and then press F3 when the windows XP installations prompts you for drivers.

I would try with this driver first.
Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.5.0.6515, A01
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/dimension-8400/drivers
 
Solution
May 18, 2021
3
1
10
Okay, I tried the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.5.0.6515, A01 but windows install gives me an error "file iastor.sys caused an undocumented error (4100) at line 2113 in D:\xpsp\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c."
The only other serial ATA driver file, Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.5.0.6515, A08, is too large to fit on a floppy. I'm still lost as what to do.
 
May 18, 2021
3
1
10
I finally got it working. The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, v.4.5.0.6515, A01 didn't work, so I downloaded the previous version which is A00. That did the trick, it's loading now.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
 
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