Larry,
Try installing the hard drive in your external enclosure. Then hook it up
to the lappy and boot up your XP CD see if it sees the hard drive.
If it does then do the install. External drive enclosures have their own
SATA
controller. If you are LUCKY and this works then reinstall the hard
drive into
lappy.
Now your second round of head bashing will come.
Did Toshiba write XP drivers for that system? If not you are going to
have a lot
more FUN. Vista Drivers WILL NOT work on XP.
BTW there are USB Floppy Drives out there. The last one I bought was 30
bucks.
I used the above method on a Gateway lappy that had the same problem you
have
been running into. The Gateway did have the XP drivers so it was fairly easy
after the OS was installed.
Good Luck
Russ W. (I HATE VISTA too)
LarryT wrote:
OK, here's what happened -
I have tried everything. Formated a new HD (after trying the old HD),
but Win did not recognize *either* drive present. I used the both
drives in an ext enclosure without problem. Did a full format and
tried again - same problem. checked the BIOS instructions and there
is *no* switch for OS - no mention of anything OS related. I did a
LOT of research while looking...hoping it would be that easy.
Toshiba is no help at all. I went to Intel to find the proper HD
Driver and then used nLite to integrate the driver into my XP install
discs. Still did not recognize the HD - same problem, no change..
Maybe Intel gave me the wrong driver? Anything is possible.
I am slowly getting used to using Vista - it is slow and cumbersome -
"used to" is not the same as "liking it".
I'm beginning to think I have what Dave Walton referred to <<
non-standard drive controller, you are screwed
until they come out with drivers for XP.>> Why would they develop
drivers for XP? MS doesn't even support it anymore.
It's a Toshiba Qosmio F45 Laptop. It's not a bad machine - 500GB HD
and 2 GB RAM but Vista is like an anchor around its neck.
Part of the problem is MS wrote the backdate to XP specifically hard
to do. When drivers are needed you must press F6 (no problem so far)
but then you must install the HD Drivers from a *floppy* drive. How
many people have floppy drives? A USB will not work nor will a CD.
Only a floppy.
Tell me MS didn't do that on purpose? They are so friggin arragant
that they decide what OS I must use - no matter what I want. Then
they put roadblocks up to prevent using what I'm happy with, and
educated on.
Just found out yesterday Vista Ultimate is not compatible with my
full versions of Roxio or Nero! 2 more programs (that were not cheap)
I would have to buy *new* versions of if I wanted to be where I was
before buying this POS.
As I work to get my Acer (with XP) back up to speed after being
repaired, I plan to save all of my stuff, wipe the disc and install
Vista to it's "out of box" state - then sell it on eBay. Maybe this
won't be a total loss. Luckily I can use my SATA ext. enclosure to
cut/copy/paste anything needed to my Acer. The biggest problem is the
SATA 50GB HD will not fit in my Acer - it has ATA conns. I can use it
as an ext storage device but that's it for now.
Next time I need a laptop I will look at Macs as suggested - as long
as they run Win PC software or have an equivilent. I refuse to buy
new SW just because a sw designer adds some bells and whisltles.
Especially after spending hours reading a manual that looks like a
dictionary. Don't need to go thru that pain again.
Not even going to consider Win7 next year - too irritated with the way
I was treated - no matter how good it is supposed to be.
Thx for letting me vent .....
LarryT
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