Windows XP Setup Could Not Detect and Find Any SATA Hard Disk Drive on AHCI Mode
When installing Windows XP on SATA hard disk drive, you may encounter problem where you unable to install Windows XP on the SATA drive as the Windows XP setup installation interface does not detect and recognize any of the hard disks mounted on S-ATA (Serial ATA) ports, and thus XP installer cannot find usable physical disks on the computer system and unable to continue to install XP, forcing you to quit by pressing F3.
On newer computer and workstation system, such as Dell Precision model, if the SATA HDD is not running on RAID, there is no additional driver needed even for older operating system such as XP to recognize the drive. On SATA based disk that requires a driver, normally the system OEMs or motherboard manufacturers will provide a floppy disk with needed SATA driver, which you can then use F6 button during initial setup stage to add in third-party RAID or SCSI drivers. On newer computer such as those from Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, and etc, you probably find that only diagnostics or drivers CD is provided. The worse problem is that you simply cannot extract the SATA drivers from the CD as the driver that wanted to be installed during XP setup must be accompanied by a file named oemsetup.txt, beside the usual driver files and .INF file, else the SATA driver cannot be installed by XP setup to detect HDD.
Here’s a possible solution if you’re in this kind of SATA hard drives not found situation. The trick is related to ACHI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) hardware mechanism which are designed to allow software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices such as host bus adapters with features not offered by Parallel ATA (PATA) controllers such as higher speeds, hot-plugging and native command queuing (NCQ). Windows XP (and any OS older than Vista or linux kernel 2.6.19) does not have came pre-packaged with driver to support AHCI/SATA mode, thus creating a very common error that Wikipedia also described as “when attempting to install Microsoft Windows XP or a previous version on an AHCI-enabled system will cause the setup to fail with the error message ’set up could not detect hard disk drive…’”.
The ultimate solution is by using OEM Windows XP CD which comes with your system, which usually has built-in appropriate driver for S-ATA harddisks running in AHCI mode. However, if you lose or do not have the OEM XP CD, or is given Vista DVD but decide to downgrade to XP, there are 2 options to install XP from scratch.
Users can install Windows XP or Windows XP SP2 (Service Pack 2) on an AHCI enabled system by changing BIOS setting to disable AHCI (or RAID which includes AHCI in its functions) and use native SATA IDE emulation mode (SATA/PATA). In SATA IDE Emulation mode, XP setup could find the SATA drives and proceed to continue to install XP properly. How to change the BIOS settings on SATA mode is depending on which brand or model or even motherboard of your computer system. Check your system manual for more information. For example, in Dell Precision workstation, press F2 to go into BIOS, and then go to “SATA Management” to select AHCI or SATA mode. If you don’t find any option in BIOS to change AHCI support for SATA ports, most probably the drives already runs in IDE (ATA) emulation mode and therefore doesn’t require the AHCI driver. It’s because AHCI support is depending on the chipset (commonly by Intel) and the HDD. In this case, you have to figure out what’s other causes that may stop your SATA disks from functioning.
A slightly more difficult but recommended method is to create a slipstreamed XP install disc with the Intel Matrix Storage Manager which is also the AHCI SATA Controller driver included. A slipstreamed XP setup CD with AHCI SATA controller driver allows the XP OS to support hard disk on AHCI and use its advanced features such as NCQ for faster access, read and write speed. While slipstreaming, users can also have the advantage to include all updates for Windows XP for up-to-date patched OS, without the need to download and install hotfixes later.
Related Articles
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Entries (RSS)
December 9th, 2008 22:32
[...] XP CD does not recognize. You will have to disable AHCI mode in the BIOS. For details, please read guide. Please try the steps suggested in this [...]
November 14th, 2008 07:40
Thanks Sir! Your solution is just great! It finally works! Thanks again!
November 12th, 2008 18:10
Four hours “Googling” wasted……should have come here first – you are GOOD.
Thank you for the help – I will come here first, next time.
Thank you for the tip.
November 11th, 2008 14:37
Hi,
I would like say many thanks for providing such a gr8 info regarding xp installation on laptops.
November 5th, 2008 20:28
Enlightening!! Been wondering why a BartPE boot disk won’t work on a Lenovo T60 when it works on all kinds of Dells. Can’t seem to find the hard drive and NOW I have a better idea why. Thanks!!!
November 2nd, 2008 11:57
Thank you for the ONLY sensible advice I’ve found in 3 hours of googling. I think the world is in deep trouble.
To the idiot who posted as:
Lenovo Y510 AHCI Drivers Wanted -
What makes you think you will find XP drivers on HP website? M$ has forbidden ALL mfrs to provide XP drivers as they want you to only use vista.
November 1st, 2008 22:22
Je voulais juste remercier la personne qui a créer ce tuto merci 1000 fois … J’ai désactivé le mode AHCI je poursuis actuellement l’installation de WIN XP PRO SP2 MErci !
October 23rd, 2008 07:22
Obrigado….Agradecemos tambem a Deus pelo criador deste tutorial para que possamos desfrutar deles.
Atenciosamente
Leonardo de Azevedo Gonçalves.
October 6th, 2008 12:31
If anybody need a CD for installing windows XP on sata hard drive for any compaq model with sata hard drive.
Write me ………or send me an Email.
September 26th, 2008 21:04
U dha maan!
really, u hit on the rightttttttttt target – very first time itself…
kudos!
thank you so much friend, appreciate it a lot
God bless you!
September 18th, 2008 04:34
thx a million dell wanted to charge me to find out all i had to do is change bios
ur grreeaaattt!
September 11th, 2008 13:34
Hi friend,
I should say “TOO GOOD”. I have been trying every useless shit including Windows 98 installation, Partition managers, antivirus and antispyware softwares and what not. Thanks for such a simple solution which never came to my mind. GOD BLESS U.
Thanks again,
R R Nathan
September 7th, 2008 00:01
Excellent tip on the SATA to ATA emulation. Worked perfectly on this Dell and my blood pressure is back to normal.
Thank you!
August 31st, 2008 20:59
Thanks Seamus
August 25th, 2008 04:59
To install XP on the Acer 5315 Press F2 on boot up, Change sata option to IDE, enable F12 boot option.Insert XP disc Restart pc while pressing F12 Choose dvd drive with disc inserted and hey presto, You can now install XP.It worked a treat for me.The driver package is available on soulpass website.
August 18th, 2008 02:17
i lost my cd that came with my laptop and i can install windows xp i need help
the laptop is Philips Freevent X52
August 17th, 2008 06:43
Thanks so much for this article! It helped me with the installation of Windows XP on my Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop.
In case anybody else has this problem with a 1720, here’s what happened to me: The setup.exe on the XP installation CD said “Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.”
If you reboot the machine, at the blue-and-black Dell splash screen, you press F2 to get into the BIOS setup.
August 8th, 2008 05:11
HP 6710s Go into bios settings and change sata hard drive setting from normal and it finds hard drive danm what a relief…
August 3rd, 2008 00:27
hey guys, its very easy to install xo on lenovo y510… follow up th steps.
Windows XP Operating System Installation Notes:
1. Power on and press F2 to enter in BIOS stetup Utility.
2. Choose “Advanced”, and change the “SATA Controller working mode” from “AHCI” to “Compatibility”.
3. Saved the change.
4. Restart and install XP Operating System.
July 19th, 2008 15:30
Thanks a lot for this post mate!! It help me, saved precious time.
July 5th, 2008 06:35
Yeap there is. Some new brand name computers now have lock-down SATA mode to SATA only, you can’t set to IDE native at all. A friend had me installed XP Pro to her new Acer laptop and I figured to slipstream XP SP1 installation CD with SATA drivers plus SP2. Before you whack your Vista, be sure to see Device Manager so you know what drivers to install.
July 5th, 2008 05:54
There is a way to integrate SATA drivers on the install CD using a little free program called nLite
June 18th, 2008 13:24
thanks a million! i searched everywhere and your solution was just so simple!! you saved me a couple of bucks and eased my mind
May 19th, 2008 10:12
I’ve just purchased a Lenovo Y510 Idealpad. I reformatted the hard drive and installed XP Sp3. Everything works, including the web camera that uses veriface recognition. The BIOS offers an SATA IDE Emulation mode which I had to use to install XP SP3. Unfortunately, Lenovo doesn’t provide the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) drivers so I could use the AHCI mode instead.
I would like to be able to take advantage of the SATA hard drive, so as to use the higher speeds, hot-plugging and native command queuing (NCQ).
Can anyone tell me what I need to know to download the correct AHCI drivers for this Lenovo Y510 mobile PC?
I’m thinking of using Nlite to slipstream the AHCI drivers, being how there is no floppy drive available. If there is a better way, I’m all ears…
Lenovo at least does offer Windows XP hardware drivers on their website for downloading, unlike HP and Dell. The face recognition works nice, even without any lights in bed. I bought it for $599 at TigerDirect. For anyone wanting to use XP this is nice…
May 11th, 2008 22:26
Great post with some useful info… however I still can’t get my disk to work in AHCI mode.
I have a Philips MT5000 running XP SP2 and the controllers are listed as:
Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 FAmily) Ultra ATA Storage controllers- 27DF
Intel(R) 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 FAmily) Serial ATA Storage controllers- 27C0
I’ve tried installing several versions of Intel Matrix Storage Manager (iata70_enu.exe, iata78_enu.exe, iata_enu.exe) but it says “The computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software” and exits. Yet this is the download Intel lists for the 945GV Chipset.
Whenever I try switching to AHCI in BIOS it hangs as soon as XP load screen starts but in IDE mode all’s well. Any ideas/drivers appreciated?