Trying to reformat T4220 with a fresh XP disk. HD not found. screwed?

[rickyrodd]

So I was casually browsing YouTube on my Fujitsu T4220 and it froze up and could only be restarted by holding the power button down. Then it went into a constant loop of Boot up bios>try to boot windows>safe mode?>crash back to booting up bios. I stuck a windows XP cd in (lost my recovery disk) and got to the reinstall menu, but then the installation would tell me it couldn't find the harddrive. Did the HD crash? Am I screwed?

[hdood]

It might be that the machine has a SATA hard drive. XP is very old and predates the SATA standard, so you have to provide the SATA drivers yourself, either on floppy disk (yes) or by creating a custom XP CD that has them slipstreamed. Another option is to look in the BIOS for an option to emulate IDE. Many machines are capable of doing this. If you find that, it should install as normal.

[The Dark Knight]

Strange...

Try rebooting the laptop, then press the key for entering the BIOS menu. Once there, look out for Storage capacity or something similar and see if anything is listed. If not, then your HDD is either loose (unlikely as its a laptop) or it's dead.

Edit: hdood is right, it could also be that the HDD is SATA, which is why XP is not detecting it.

[+KibosJ Subscriber²]

It might be worth trying to boot windows and telling it not to restart automatically, that way we can try and find out why it is restarting.

Keep tapping F8 on startup until you get Windows boot options and choose 'Disable automatic restart on system failure'. If your machine is 'blue screening' we can see what the blue screen is and maybe find out what is causing it.

If it just restarts anyway then it may be worth running Hard Drive diagnostics on the machine. Diagnostic tools can normally be found on the Hard drive manufacturer's website.

The other option is going into the BIOS settings and look for something called AHCI. If this is enabled you can turn it off and Windows will usually find the hard drive.

[rickyrodd]

It might be that the machine has a SATA hard drive. XP is very old and predates the SATA standard, so you have to provide the SATA drivers yourself, either on floppy disk (yes) or by creating a custom XP CD that has them slipstreamed. Another option is to look in the BIOS for an option to emulate IDE. Many machines are capable of doing this. If you find that, it should install as normal.

Just did some googling, the harddrive is in fact a SATA. With no floppy drive how can I possibly fix this machine?

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Just did some googling, the harddrive is in fact a SATA. With no floppy drive how can I possibly fix this machine?

Check the BIOS for an option to disable SATA. The drive will then be seen as IDE hard drive, which XP can be installed on.

[rickyrodd]

Going into the bios, going to take some pictures. Be back shortly.

[rickyrodd]

Here's Bios pictures along with the blue screen I'm getting. Ideas?

http://imgur.com/C7gSf.jpg

http://imgur.com/Z0kvi.jpg

http://imgur.com/y8Yxt.jpg

http://imgur.com/FVWRW.jpg

http://imgur.com/Xbayt.jpg

http://imgur.com/kXBEu.jpg

http://imgur.com/96Sp5.jpg

[rickyrodd]

Check the BIOS for an option to disable SATA. The drive will then be seen as IDE hard drive, which XP can be installed on.

No option to disable SATA :(

[Intersect]

on this screen

http://i.imgur.com/kXBEu.jpg

select your hdd and more options will show up. in there should be an option to change SATA from AHCI to IDE or compatable. some times

its called some thing else.

or one more more place it will be is under the advanced menu/ internall device config

or the miscellaneous configuration

you dont have to disable SATA you jsut need to change the configuraton of the SATA mode. windows xp will then see the drive and controler

and allow you to install the OS onto the drive, once you have installed windows xp, install the chipset drivers and SATA drivers.

restart the system and enter the bios and change the SATA contoler mode back to what it was before so you can then use the drive

as intended.

[sc302 Veteran]

use nlite to slipstream your drivers into the install...problem solved.

http://www.nliteos.com/

install, and follow directions. shouldn't be too hard if you can read, comprehend and not click through. it isn't a next next next next finish utility, it involves a slight bit of reading the screens that pop up and it involves you having the drivers. I could train a monkey to do it in five min.

[+BudMan MVC]

'I could train a monkey to do it in five min. "

But we are not talking about monkeys -- they are easier to train than users ;) hehehehe

edit: btw when your done, your bios is quite old version, I just looked and 1.18 is the latest dated 2009 vs your 2007 ;) Maybe it added support for changing hdd mode?

edit2: just took a look at the manual and sure shows you can disable AHCI to me

Edited July 29, 2010 by BudMan

[Charisma Veteran]

Do what you can, but remember it is possible that your HDD actually is trashed, judging by the initial problem it was having even before you tried to reinstall.

[rickyrodd]

you dont have to disable SATA you jsut need to change the configuraton of the SATA mode. windows xp will then see the drive and controler

and allow you to install the OS onto the drive, once you have installed windows xp, install the chipset drivers and SATA drivers.

restart the system and enter the bios and change the SATA contoler mode back to what it was before so you can then use the drive

as intended.

Okay so I went in and disabled SATA and enabled IDE. The Win XP install disk now recognizes

C: Partition1 [NTFS] 74137 MB Free

D: Partition2 [NTFS] 1561 MB Free

I went ahead and formatted the C partition. Setup formats the drive just fine. Then Setup copies files to the windows installation folder. It makes it through 100% then the computer reboots and brings me back to the format drive screen.

EDIT: Install is working as it should right now, hopefully no more speedbumps between here and full install. Thanks for the help so far, will follow up

[rickyrodd]

So, the install finished all the way through, the computer rebooted and then went straight back to the "format disk screen"

[Dom]

Are you sure you're not booting off the XP CD again?, if setup copied all the files, the only way to get back to the format screen is through it, try removing it and booting the machine again

[+BudMan MVC]

yeah once it copies the files it will reboot, and you normally see a screen "press a key to boot of CD" -- don't press anything ;) Or as suggest remove the CD.

[Sikh]

remove the disc after you boot. Also install the sata drivers after your in windows and then turn AHCI back on.

[sc302 Veteran]

remote in, install nlite for him, make a answer key file with drivers using nlite, burn the new install disk, tell him to put the disk in and boot off of it and leave it for an hour, when he comes back (barring any actual hard drive issues) the desktop will be staring at him when he walks back to it.

[LiquidSolstice]

So, the install finished all the way through, the computer rebooted and then went straight back to the "format disk screen"

I would say you should remove teh cd on restart.

[notuptome2004]

question have ya though of getting a copy of windows 7 for your notebook just curious as the obvious notebook is very much capable of windows 7 and would run it very very well and better then XP

[Intersect]

remote in, install nlite for him, make a answer key file with drivers using nlite, burn the new install disk, tell him to put the disk in and boot off of it and leave it for an hour, when he comes back (barring any actual hard drive issues) the desktop will be staring at him when he walks back to it.

iam not going to bash the OP for his isues with the SATA contorler config. and for getting to take out the install cd after everthing was done.

but lets not confuse him even more with Nliteing his install disk. lol

congrats on getting your problem sorted out now you know a little more about your pc.