Background: computer is a Dell XPS M1530 purchased in 2008 with Vista Home Premium on it.
I had to reformat the hard drive a couple of years ago and there was no issue with doing so.
I lost the original installation disk (long story) but purchased a new version of it (completely legit).
My son (who was given the laptop about a year ago) accidentally placed a couple of very, very strong magnets on the laptop and it pretty much "nuked" it. Now that I have the Vista Home Premium disks, I am attempting to re-install it.
The laptop boots to the installation CD and everything goes along as expected until it gets to the part where it asks where I want to install Windows. Normally (assuming I recalling this correctly) I'd see the C:\ drive listed but now I do not see it. There are no drives at all. At the bottom of the screen it says:
"No drives were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation"
After selecting Load Driver, I am prompted it insert the installation media containing the driver files. I have a CD from Dell (Drivers and Utilities - Device Drivers and Diagnostics and utilities).
I eject the Windows installation CD and put in the Dell CD with the drivers. It locates the following on the CD:
Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (D:\I386\R166200\IAAHCI.INF)
I select next and it seems like something is happening but then it simply takes me back to the screen where it asks me where I want to install Windows. The cycle starts again with me inserting the CD with the drivers...
I went to the Dell website and thought I located the right driver under BIOS but that did not work either.
I also tried taking out the CD with the drivers after it has located the file Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (D:\I386\R166200\IAAHCI.INF) but that didn't work.
A friend of mine suggested that I log into the BIOS and change the hard drive setting or mode from ACHI or SATA to IDE or EIDE. I have not tried this yet but in case that does not work, I would like to know if anyone else can tell me what I can do.
I think all I need to do is make partition (a C:\ drive) but I don't know how. The Vista installation disk that I have isn't showing an option to do a custom installation.
I would really appreciate anyone's help here.
Thank you...
I had to reformat the hard drive a couple of years ago and there was no issue with doing so.
I lost the original installation disk (long story) but purchased a new version of it (completely legit).
My son (who was given the laptop about a year ago) accidentally placed a couple of very, very strong magnets on the laptop and it pretty much "nuked" it. Now that I have the Vista Home Premium disks, I am attempting to re-install it.
The laptop boots to the installation CD and everything goes along as expected until it gets to the part where it asks where I want to install Windows. Normally (assuming I recalling this correctly) I'd see the C:\ drive listed but now I do not see it. There are no drives at all. At the bottom of the screen it says:
"No drives were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation"
After selecting Load Driver, I am prompted it insert the installation media containing the driver files. I have a CD from Dell (Drivers and Utilities - Device Drivers and Diagnostics and utilities).
I eject the Windows installation CD and put in the Dell CD with the drivers. It locates the following on the CD:
Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (D:\I386\R166200\IAAHCI.INF)
I select next and it seems like something is happening but then it simply takes me back to the screen where it asks me where I want to install Windows. The cycle starts again with me inserting the CD with the drivers...
I went to the Dell website and thought I located the right driver under BIOS but that did not work either.
I also tried taking out the CD with the drivers after it has located the file Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller (D:\I386\R166200\IAAHCI.INF) but that didn't work.
A friend of mine suggested that I log into the BIOS and change the hard drive setting or mode from ACHI or SATA to IDE or EIDE. I have not tried this yet but in case that does not work, I would like to know if anyone else can tell me what I can do.
I think all I need to do is make partition (a C:\ drive) but I don't know how. The Vista installation disk that I have isn't showing an option to do a custom installation.
I would really appreciate anyone's help here.
Thank you...
