unable to format hard drive

[nexolus]

Here is my laptop system information:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1
Model 4, Stepping 1

2x512 DIMM RAM

bios: Phoenix Technologies LTD
Ver 1.00PARTTBL
PTLTD - 6040000

Motherboard:
CLEVO D900T

ATI MOBILITY RADEON X800 w/256 RAM

MATSHITA UJDA760 DVD/CDRW

WinXP Promise SATA378 (tm) IDE Controller

HARD DRIVE:
SAMSUNG MP0603H SCSI Disk Device
Size: 60GB


I've been trying to reformat the drive and reinstall windows xp. I've done everything. The original problem was as follows: i rebooted with the cd and chose install xp (option 1.) Then it displays all of the available drives to format and install. Only my external hard drive (maxtor onetouch 300gb) was being displayed. I scrolled down but there were no more, and when I hit the up key i get a blue screen of death (with no error, message only "stop 000x00 or whatever.) Everything runs fine, I just want to reinstall it. So I just did the update windows feature and fixed it, no problem, but I still cannot format the hard drive. I ran scandisk, no errors were reported. I tried fdisk and even tried installing windows into my external hard drive to boot from there and attempt to format my internal, but booting from an external is not possible with windows. I have exhausted every option and I would just like to get this stupid thing formatted! thanks.

 

[nexolus]

I also tried to run dos and format C and it wouldn't format because it's a "network drive." I'm not sure if it was formatting the correct disk or not but whatever. And I tried to reinstall the master boot record, but when it displays the list of hard drives available it also was not displayed. i installed the new firmware update for my hard drive but still no luck.

 

[nexolus]

bump

 

[Old Rich]

Disconnect all external peripherals ( especially the external hard drive ) except the monitor, keyboard and mouse, and be sure those are not USB, or wireless. Any internal USB card should also be removed.

There is an additional step when installing on a SATA drive: . . you must have the SATA drives on a floppy drive and Press F6 at the prompt . . just after accepting the EULA.

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm

 

[nexolus]

I don't have a floppy drive...

 

[Old Rich]

Ignore this . . I missed that you have a laptop . . .

 

[Old Rich]

I missed that it is a laptop . . take a look in BIOS and set the SATA cpontroller the ACHI mode . . this should allow the drive to be seen in BIOS and XP Setup. The manufacturer should have instructions on their website

 

[nexolus]

I checked the website and their option is the floppy drive as well, which I cannot do. I tried to change to AHCI but all there is is RAID and ATA. I tried the RAID and disabled as well, but both were a no-go.

 

[Old Rich]

Some newer notebooks will recognize a usb floppy drive . . you could try that, but they are more expensive than internal ones

 

[nexolus]

yep I went and bought a floppy drive and installed everything. thanks for the help. now i'm going to return the floppy drive and get my 50 bucks back

 

[Old Rich]

. . . Well done . .