Windows Server 2003 won't detect my hard drive

dabve3

Hi this is my first post, I am having a problem installing Windows Server 2003 on my computer. It is an evaluation version I got with my MSPress book. I already have Windows XP home edition on the hard drive and I left 10GB of space for 2003. Whenever I boot up with the cd it will load all the files fine but when it gets to the part about picking a place to install it says that Windows can't find any hard drives.

The funny thing is I have a USB drive and when I leave it on it will detect it. My internal hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA with a 160GB of storage. My computer is a Dell XPS Gen 4.

I hope somebody can help me thanks

sprkymrk

It's probably because it doesn't recognize the SATA controller. Do you have the drivers that came with the controller or motherboard (if it's an onboard controller)? You need to copy them to a floppy and when the W2K3 installation begins, look for a message at the bottom of the screen that says "For third party controllers/drivers, press the F6 key" or something to that effect. It will then prompt you a few minutes later for the floppy.

dabve3

You were right, I went to Dell's website and got the SATA driver and put it on disk worked first try. Thanks again for the help!!!

sprkymrk

Your welcome.
Thanks for updating us on the problem and welcome to the forums!