Set up could not detect hard disk drive

Have you ever encountered installing or Downgrading to a Fresh Windows Xp to your Laptop Hard Drive but it always turns to a Blue Screen of Death after booting up to you Xp installer.

Today a costumer came to our shop and with his Extensa 4230 and the problem is he always ends to a "Blue Screen of Death" or "set up could not detect hard disk drive".

This steps will gonna make it easier to understand.

Before Starting again to boot from your Xp installer,

Step 1: Enter the BIOS Setup

Step: Locate the Sata Mode.

Step 3: from SATA or AHCI Mode Change it to IDE Mode

Step 4: Save and Exit.

ANY Windows setup that you do where you want to install Windows to ANY mass storage controller that is not legacy IDE-compatible will require the F6 procedure and a manufacturer-specific driver. This includes AHCI, RAID, SCSI, Fibre Channel, some SATA, and most proprietary controllers. 

Common problems switching to AHCI under Windows

* Enabling AHCI in a system BIOS will cause a 0x7B Blue Screen of Death STOP error on installations of Windows XP where AHCI/RAID drivers for that system's chipset are not installed. Switching to AHCI mode requires installing new drivers before changing the BIOS settings.

* 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...". This problem can only be corrected by using a floppy disk with the appropriate drivers or by slipstreaming 

* Enabling AHCI in a system BIOS on installations of Windows XP or Windows Vista, will cause SATA Optical drives to disappear. A Hotfix for Windows Vista is available. SATA optical drives are not available after you start a Windows Vista-based computer.

Vista fixes this by natively supporting AHCI. In other words you can smoothly install a Vista on the Hard drive without worrying anything.

Have Fun on installing Xp!!