Vista laptop with same drive cannot install XP

[abrand88]

Since my Acer 5315 has Vista on it, I decided to buy the same hard drive in the Acer laptop.

Bios sees the Hitachi drive with exact model number but XP doesn't even recognize that there is

a hard drive. I tried using Booting Cd and I was able to format and delete the Linux distro that

I put on this drive earlier because since XP didn't work I figured maybe XP would find the Linux

operating system. I was wrong. I then went thru using Windows 98 fdisk,format and then it

formatted the entire drive and is insrtalling Windows 98 on this drive. Will XP see the Windows 98 installation or will I be back to square one ?

Ideally the best way to install XP is for XP to see the drive but it doesn't Might someone have any ideas how to get XP to see the Hitachi drive so I can installSince my Acer 5315 has Vista on it, I decided to buy the same hard drive in the Acer laptop. Bios sees the Hitachi drive with exact model number but XP doesn't even recognize that there is a hard drive. I tried using Booting Cd and I was able to format and delete the Linux distro that I put on this drive earlier because since XP didn't work I figured maybe XP would find the Linux operating system. I was wrong. I then went thru using Windows 98 fdisk,format and then it formatted the entire drive and is insrtalling Windows 98 on this drive. Will XP see the Windows 98 installation or will I be back to square one ?

Ideally the best way to install XP is for XP to see the drive but it doesn't Might someone have any ideas how to get XP to see the Hitachi drive so I can install XP ?

Thanks

 

[ibmtech65]

Could be a driver issue. You might want to find what type of Eide controller it is attached to and see if there is a driver for it.

If you can install Win98 I would imagine that XP should see it and tell you there is all ready an OS installed.

 

[abrand88]

ibmtech65,

I solved my problem. Evidently Intel wrote a new driver for Vista operating system called AHCI. When I accessed this entry in Bios, I saw the another entry called IDE. I selected this enry and XP immediately saw the drive and I was able to install XP on the drive. I hope this might help some others. I was sneaky and bought the exact drive in my Acer so everything is the same and I saved the Vista drive in case of a emergency . I now have to look for the drivers to get it working but it boots up right into XP without hitches so far.

Thanks