There is no harddrives when i try to format my laptop...

i cant format my laptop because the laptop doesnt see the harddisk. i even tried to change ACHI from ATA but nothing happened. laptop is new so i dont thing the problem is about the harddrive

Tags: windows, software, hardware, data center

hakanonay

4th Feb 2011

Clarifications

How are you doing this, and where is the drive not recognized? The drive must be recognized or the OS would not boot. Are you booting from a CD? If so, what CD?

seanferd 4th Feb 2011

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Here it depends on how you are attempting to format the drive

Or probably more correctly with what you are trying to format the drive.

There are lots of reasons why a HDD will not be seen but the most common one involves XP or older M$ Products which doesn't have SATA Drivers Natively. You need to add them during the install process before you reach the Format Option. Also XP and older M$ products can not format a drive that was formatted with 7 they use a different Security Protocol.

Also if the unit came preinstalled with Windows 7 you have to first wipe the drive with either Boot & Nuke

http://www.dban.org/download

or Kill Disc

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

Both are free to download and use but you need to understand that they wipe the entire HDD not just a Partition so if you use them the Recovery Partition that has Windows 7 Installer on it will be destroyed as well as the C Drive.

When you ask questions like this because of the numerous possibilities it's always a good idea to tell us what you are attempting to use to achieve your ends. So the actual NB Make & Model as well as the installed OS and what you are using are Absolutely Necessary.

Also if you are attempting to install XP onto a system made for 7 it may not have XP Drivers for all of the hardware. This is fairly common these days and limits what you can use to run XP.

Col

OH Smeg

4th Feb 2011