Windows said NO HDD FOUND yet i was able to install linux

[the_punisher]

K so here is what happened, I re-partitioned my HDD using GParted, but then when i wanted to install Win XP, during setup it gave me the error that no hard disk found.

k so i tried again multiple times and got the same error.

Then just for the heck of it i inserted ubuntu live cd and started installation, even the live environment ws able to read all the partitions. and it got installed perfectly without any errors on the same HDD.

My Question : Why?


also I do need win xp so how do i fix this? i used hitachis disk checker and it told me that I have a faulty hardware.

How do i find the fault and isolate it? is there any software for that?

[Fred]

the_punisher,

It sounds as if you didn't have an NTFS partition on the disk and Windows can't see Linux partitions.

Windows wants to be on the 1st primary partition. You will have fewer problems over time if you install it there.

Set the first primary partition with Gparted to NTFS of whatever size you want your Windows to have. 15 - 25 Gig is usually ok for most users. Then your swap partition and your Linux / (root) partition. A good starting point for / is about 10 Gig. Then use extended logical partitions for /home and/or data partitions.

Install Windows first to the first primary partition. Then install Mint on your premade Linux partitions. Use manual partitioning, when you get to that point in the installer, and assign the mount points as noted above for swap, /, /home, etc. ; Depending on how many Linux partitions you chose to make.

Fred

[theidiamin]

Likeliest answer is a fault on your H/D as reported by the Hitachi disk test program.

Assuming that the drive is a Hitachi there is an option in their software to correct any faults found, if you ran the Hitachi software on a drive of other make, e.g. Seagate/Maxtor you won't be able to sort it by using the Hitachi software but the respective H/D manufacturer will have similar software available on their website.

In practice there is unlikely to be very much wrong but a few sectors have been corrupted including by the sound of things the H/D's partition table and or the MBR.

You are going to have to accept that any data on the corrupted sectors is lost even though the drive correction program as distinct from the checker may be able to repair the sector(s) what was on there is gone.

Once the drive has been checked/repaired you will have the option of freshly partioning it or of trying to restore the original partition table. The latter is a bit of a long shot but you could try Ranish Partition Manager which just might be able to restore your drive partition table to an as was state.

Google for it under "Ranish", its freeware and freely available, worth every penny and has got me out of problem situations more than once. One caveat it is very powerful and you really do need to read the manual because it is possible to screw things up quite thouroughly.

[Fred]

It is pretty much a sure thing that the partition table is/was amiss, as far as Windows is concerned anyway. But usually the Gparted live cd iso will overwrite this problem. If not you can easily zero the first part of the drive with the dd command or zero the whole drive for that matter, if you want a guaranteed virus free, virgin drive.

The Ranish Partition Manager is a Windows program. You might have to jump through a few hoops to get it to run, since you don't have a Windows install or even a Windows readable partition on the drive. Unlike the previous poster, I have about as much faith in Windows tools as I do in Windows itself. And that isn't much.

Get the latest stable version of Gparted live cd iso and burn it slow, 8X or less from:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=271779

If the solution in my first post doesn't work zero the first part of the drive by typing in a terminal:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdx or sdx count=1000

Substitute the correct drive designator in the above or below command. This will zero the first 512 Kb of the drive which will take care of the partition table, mbr, and the first partition header area. If you want to zero the entire drive it will take a while so don't panic if it seems like nothing is happening. The CLI prompt will return when the run is complete. If this is your desire use the below command.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdx or sdx

What this command does is write a zero to every memory location on the drive.

Then use the Gparted live cd to repartition as instructed in my earlier post. When Gparted asks for the structure you want in one of the first screens use the default, which should be msdos.

[the_punisher]

Thx for the detailed replies.

but i already used this command via the hitachi disc checker:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdx or sdx

what it did was right zeros on the entire disk and erase the partition table and mbr.

but when it was halfway through i get an error of

Defective device

and thats it, the only option i have after this is to quit.

but thats what im asking, if linux can run without any problems then windows should too. During the windows setup I get the error of

NO HDD FOUND

like why cant it even detect my HDD?

Ive heard that there are softwares that deal with such hard drives, they isolate the bad sectors and the rest is ready to use.


as for ranish, it is a windws program that creates a bootable floppy. Laptops dont have floppy drives anymore.

so plz help me install windows.

[Fred]

the_punisher,

All I can say is to first try what I suggested in my first post. Use the Gparted Live cd iso and try to premake an NTFS partition for Windows. I suspect if you make a reasonably sized NTFS partition that doesn't contain the sectors that seem to be a problem for Windows, you will be able to work around the problem. Having installed one or two Windows systems over the years I can tell you categorically that neither the Windows file system nor the Windows installer is particularly robust or forgiving.

Fred

[the_punisher]

k fred, I did what you said and using a gparted live cd i created an NTFS partition and gave it the boot flag but even then windows installer gave me the message

No Hard Disk Drive found

???????

[merlwiz79]

If it's a SATA hard drive maybe windows doesn't have the driver for it's SATA controller.
Then you need to put it on a floppy.

[the_punisher]

put what on floppy??


but thats what im saying, before the partitioning i was using the drive and it was working ok, even now i can use the entire drive but only under linux, whereas windows says that i dont have any HDD?

I did not make any changes to the bios so thats why there should no problem of SATA compatibility.

[msuggs]

If the XP you had before was factory installed they would have used an XP installer that had SATA support built in. There are several how-tos on the net on how to add SATA support during the install process. They should be easy to find with Google.

If you have a floppy at hand it's a fairly simple proves. You'll need to download the SATA drivers for your machine from the manufacturer of your system, put them on a floppy and then use the F6 option during install to add them. If you don't have a floppy drive then it's a bit more complicated and you'll need a program like 'nlite' to make a new XP install disc with SATA support built in.

[Fred]

the_punisher wrote:

but i already used this command via the hitachi disc checker:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdx or sdx

what it did was right zeros on the entire disk and erase the partition table and mbr.

What I am wondering at this point is how do you know what the disk check program you ran did. Is it Linux/Unix based? Did you actually type the above command in? Did it tell you what command it was going to run, or just what it intended to do?

See, the question in my mind at this point is whether this is a software/firmware problem or a hardware problem. From your results with the Gparted live cd, it appears to be a software driver problem, as merlwiz79 and omns are instructing. Your disk check program indicates a drive problem, which Gparted doesn't seem to agree with.

Unless you know for a fact that the disk check program was running the Linux/Unix dd command I gave you above, then run it, (again) in a terminal from the live Mint cd. Zero the whole drive.

If it fails you know it is a drive problem. If it succeeds then it is a Windows driver problem.

Fred

[the_punisher]

Windows xp was not pre installed. I installed it myself way back. maybe an year ago.

@Fred

I created a bootable image of the Hitachi Disk Fitness Test and booted it up.

and while running the DFT disk, i gave the command for erase disk. I was then notified that this process will write zeros on the entire disk and if i was sure i wanted to continue? When that operation reached halfway i was given the error of defective device.




Like the part that I dont get is, IF the disk is defective to such an extent that windows refuses to even detect it, then how can Linux be run from the same disk, and while using linux i can use the entire hard disk all 80 GB of it.