Computer Help Needed
 

I'm trying to reformat my desktop PC. I have a Windows XP disc with Service Pack 1a, which won't let me reinstall Windows since I have Service Pack 2 installed.

If I try to uninstall Service Pack 2 it goes most of the way through the uninstall, then comes up with an error that a file is missing and that the uninstall will not continue.

If I shut down and try to boot from the windows CD or to do a repair of the installation I get a message that no hard drives are detected for some reason, even though I have no problems with my hard drive being detected if I'm not trying to do this.

Any suggestions?

Do you have a serial ata hard drive? When I built my machine, I was getting the no hard drive detected error. I needed to download drivers for serial ata and load them while the xp cd was doing the install. This was 2 years ago so I don't remember what the files were.

Yeah, my hard drive is SATA.

Are you talking about flashing the bios with an update? If the motherboard is old, that may be the issue.

I believe there is a window that pops up before you even get to the installation window asking you if you'd like to install any additional drivers..at that point, you need to install your SATA drivers.

No it wasnt the bios. I built my machine less than 2 years ago. I have an asus motherboard. Forget which model. I remember having this exact problem and the solution was to load the drivers for the sata hard drive during the xp installation.

I found the floppy I had the SATA drivers on and it's in the process of a fresh install as we speak. Thanks guys.