Reinstall XP OS, no HDD shown?

[Alladaskill17]

I brought my old Gateway down to school so my friend could have a PC that would run Diablo 3 (lol @ D3 months later - waste) and play with me. We just finished and I've got the computer at home now, and man is it F'd up, so many viruses and software that I don't know how to describe other than - its obvious its doing things in the background and I definitely didn't download "PC quick fix" etc.

Anyways! The XP install disc cannot locate ANY HDD's on the computer, the 320GB main drive, or the backup drive.

What do I do? The current Vista is shot to s*** and I really want to get this computer up and running for my younger brother to use for his older games. Any help will be beneficial, also, got a BSOD after attempting to use the Up and Down arrows to access those "empty" drives. Otherwise it boots fine into Vista, there's just all of those viruses, etc.

[c.grz]

Go into the BIOS and look for a "SATA Mode" or something similar and set it to "Compatibility".

Or you can integrate the necessary drivers using an application like nlite.

http://news.softpedi...-F6-47807.shtml

I say; you download this (http://driverpacks.net/driverpacks/windows/xp/x86/mass-storage/12.09) for the mass storage drivers and then this (http://driverpacks.net/driverpacks/windows/xp/x86/lan/12.05) for NIC drivers and integrate that into your Windows install. The mass storage drivers will allow you to install Windows XP on pretty much any device that's already out and the NIC drivers will allow you to get the machine to a usable state where you can download the remaining drivers and Windows updates easily.

[n_K]

Or alternatively patch it using the patching program (forgot what it's called, should be a thread about it on neowin somewhere) to include the drivers for your system and boot from that ISO/USB/CD instead.

[Alladaskill17]

Go into the BIOS and look for a "SATA Mode" or something similar and set it to "Compatibility".

Or you can integrate the necessary drivers using an application like nlite.

http://news.softpedi...-F6-47807.shtml

http://imgur.com/a/3Sx8o#0

Those are the BIOS options available to me. So not recognizing the HDD's is a driver issue? Because this machine originally had XP Media Center, and was a "free upgrade eligible" machine for Vista - so we only have the XP discs.

[f0rk_b0mb]

If the computer is running Vista, there may not be drivers for XP. If I remember right you have to slipstream SATA drivers onto the XP installation. But, really---for the love of God---throw Windows 7 or 8 on it instead of XP. Let it die in peace. :)

You may also want to try a Gparted live CD to zero the drive and make sure there's nothing hiding on it.

[Alladaskill17]

If the computer is running Vista, there may not be drivers for XP. If I remember right you have to slipstream SATA drivers onto the XP installation. But, really---for the love of God---throw Windows 7 or 8 on it instead of XP. Let it die in peace. :)

You may also want to try a Gparted live CD to zero the drive and make sure there's nothing hiding on it.

No discs for 7 / 8 and I'm not buying them for my younger brother to goof off on, otherwise I'd love to agree with you.

[c.grz]

http://imgur.com/a/3Sx8o#0

Those are the BIOS options available to me. So not recognizing the HDD's is a driver issue? Because this machine originally had XP Media Center, and was a "free upgrade eligible" machine for Vista - so we only have the XP discs.

What options do you have under "Drive Configuration" under the "Advanced" tab?

[f0rk_b0mb]

http://imgur.com/a/3Sx8o#0

Those are the BIOS options available to me. So not recognizing the HDD's is a driver issue? Because this machine originally had XP Media Center, and was a "free upgrade eligible" machine for Vista - so we only have the XP discs.

Try the recovery partition.

http://support.gateway.com/s/software/microsof/Vista/7515910/7515910su9.shtml

[Laslow]

if you can't find drivers, run set the SATA mode to IDE/Legacy in the BIOS, then try.

[kaffra]

did the hdd come back together with the PC?

check the sata/pata & power cables and enter bios to see if the drives are detected

[Alladaskill17]

Ended up finding a copy of Windows 7, mounting it and going with that, decided it was actually worth it in comparison to slipstreaming etc. Runs like a brand new machine and he's installing some of his steam games now. Thank you guys for the informative responses!