Thread: Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows XP Installation

Installing Windows XP on your new Windows Vista computer is a well-known topic on net. Sometimes for compatibility reasons, but because many users don’t like Vista too much.

Most users face this problem when XP starts to install and the error message saying “Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer” appears. This error occurred due to computer has a storage controller that doesn’t supports XP, generally an SATA controller.



If there’s no floppy drive in the system, then you are required to use a process named slip-streaming to mix the storage drivers into your XP installation CD.
As it’s an advanced topic be careful.

Creating a Custom XP Install:

In this example software named nLite is used to make a new XP install cd, so first you are required to download and install it in the system. As soon as it begins, you’ll be asked for Windows installation, so click on Browse option.



You’ll be asked for “Windows installation” first up, which actually means XP install CD. Go to it and choose the path of the installation, and click on OK option to go next dialog box.



Next you’ll be asked where to store the temporary files used during the slip-streaming process. Here in this example a new directory is made and named it XPISO, one can keep it wherever he wants to save it. Here a new directory is used.