Strange Fuji-Siemens laptop problem

[park_bench]

Hello all,

I would very much appreciate any ideas on a strange laptop problem I have.

The laptop is a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V2040. The Windows XP install became corrupt and a re-install was deemed necessary.

The problem is that the Windows will not recognise that there is a harddrive present in the machine. It does have a 60Gb SATA hdd. I have tried replacing the HDD with a brand new 60Gb SATA hdd - but no joy.

BIOS recognises that their is a HDD present. The Windows CD boots and the install files are loaded, but when it comes to installing Windows I get the "no hard drive present" message.

I can even boot into the corrupt Windows version fine (before it blue screens) so the HDD is obviously functional in the laptop.

Does anybody have any ideas please?

Thank you,

Ben

[Iain]

It'll probably be the windows installer CD not having the drivers necessary to access SATA drives. You'll need to download the necessary driver from the manufacturer's website. Take a look at this site. It has some useful info.

Iain.

[greenfieldsupport]

Agree with iain but if not its because your allocation tables a screwed, prollys whats causing the blue screen to begin with.

I get the same problem when trying to install XP on a machine that has had linux on it.

windows carnt read the file system, so instead of doing what it should do and wipe the lot or ask you. it falls over.

Use an old windows ME bootdisk and use FDISK to delete the partition.

or use a boot cd such as knopix and use Q-Parted.

just delete all file systems off the disk, and either leave it empty to format it as fat32 then at least xp could recognise it.

[Chris_Jones]

We had the same Issue with a fujitsu laptop, the easiest solution is to use the windows install disks that came with it - these should have the drivers built in.

[park_bench]

Thanks guys.

I'm pretty sure it is a lack of SATA driver. The problem being that I have lost the Fuji Restore CD and I can't find any SATA driver for the HDD (Fujitsu MHW2060BH).

Is there a generic SATA driver that I can use with this FUJI hard drive?

Thanks again for the assisstance.

Ben

[PeterW]

Check in the bios for options like SATA/HDD Mode if you have anything that gives you the choice of enhanced or compatible set to compatible also if there is an option to set to IDE or AHCI set to IDE.

[Nij.UK]

I had this at my previous job and i tried to get the drivers from fuji-s web site.

Im not 100% of all the details as it has been a while and i have moved jobs aswell. In the bios there is some intel related option that you can disable and this allowed XP to see the HDD.

Sorry i cant be of any more use.

N

[FN-GM]

Check in the bios for options like SATA/HDD Mode if you have anything that gives you the choice of enhanced or compatible set to compatible also if there is an option to set to IDE or AHCI set to IDE.

I had a similar issue with someone’s laptop and stored it that way.

[plexer]

It's not a driver for the hard drive you need but for the sata controller on the laptops motherboard.

That needs to be selected using the f6 to install 3rd party drivers during windows setup.

Ben

[park_bench]

Thank you all for your input. The fix for this was indeed a load of messing about in the BIOS:

***THE SOLUTION***

A combination of ensuring that 'Enhanced AHCI' was set to 'Disabled'.

Setting the hard disk drive type to 'IDE Removable' whilst the Windows setup files were copied.

Then setting the hard disk drive type to 'Auto' before the Windows install began from HDD (leaving it set on IDE removable caused an error'.

**************************

[sjain]

It worked perfectly and gave me peace after a run around of 7days...I Thank you from the bottom of my heart....God Bless!!

Thank you all for your input. The fix for this was indeed a load of messing about in the BIOS:

***THE SOLUTION***

A combination of ensuring that 'Enhanced AHCI' was set to 'Disabled'.

Setting the hard disk drive type to 'IDE Removable' whilst the Windows setup files were copied.

Then setting the hard disk drive type to 'Auto' before the Windows install began from HDD (leaving it set on IDE removable caused an error'.

**************************