I was using my old laptop with SSD as a primary drive. After buying the SSD I formatted the HDD for storing just personal data, so I wiped it out (OS, MBR etc. - everything).
Now I moved the SSD to my new laptop (as primary disk again) and can't install Windows XP to the old one.
Firstly I got a BOOTMBR is missing error which seems logical because I formated the whole HDD and there is not any MBR now. I red about this error and the suggestions are to use Repair instead of a new installation. But I don't have any old OS on the HDD, so this is not working for me. Anyway, after inserting the installation disk (Windows XP) the files are loaded etc, I'm entering the setup but after choosing fresh install (tried with Repair, too) I am getting this error:
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computerThe disk is detected without a problem in BIOS, so it is not a hardware connection problem.
What to do now?
Note to exclude some suggestions:
- The laptop is not supporting booting from USB;
- I have not any external floppy drive if I will need HDD drivers or something similar;
- I have not any optical drive. The new laptop hasn't an optical drive (ultra bay is used for the SSD where is the OS) and it's the only computer which I can use for now.
I also want the data from the second partition of this HDD - i.e. my old D: partition before buying the SSD. On the old C: partition I have just 1 or 2 movies after formatting it so I do not need them. So, I prefer a solution without loosing the data (not very critical: movies, music, (e)books, photos) if it's possible. Or maybe I should copy the data somehow (maybe some Linux LiveCD and crossover cable, SATA to USB hard drive box etc.) before trying to install XP?
Any ideas?
51 Answer
I'm guessing that the Windows XP setup program doesn't recognize the HD controller. Is the bios set to use AHCI mode? (Disable AHCI) Is it a RAID type controller?
If that is the case, you will need to supply a driver. You can use a floppy disk, and press F6 at the prompt, or create a setup cd with the driver included. (Commonly refered to as Slipstreaming)
Or, you can install a modern operating system. Windows 7, Windows 8, or a current Linux distribution are more likely to support your hardware by default.
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