XP Installation- Hard Drive Not Recognized

[Jeff9]

I recently got an 80GB Intel SSD. When I went to install XP on it through a bootable CD, the hard drive was not recognized. Eventually I just installed Vista. Now I actually need XP over Vista so I was wondering what the deal was. Any ideas?

Jeff

[fmyhr]

Hi Jeff9,

Generic (non-Lenovo) Windows XP install CD's don't know about AHCI and don't see SATA drives. Here is an article I just Googled that explains it pretty well. Probably the best option is to get the XP installation CDs from Lenovo. If you ask nicely and you're still under warranty and especially if you purchased your ThinkPad with a version of Vista that included "downgrade" rights, you might be able to get the CDs free.

Another option if you're a Windows wizard would be to create a "slipstreamed" XP installation CD yourself that includes the AHCI driver. I can't help with this, but you can probably find the info you need on the web.

A third somewhat crude option is to press "F1" at the boot screen to get to BIOS Setup and set your SATA controller mode to "compatible" instead of AHCI.

There are more tricks to setting up an SSD to perform optimally under XP. I've read that partition "alignment" is important. The OCZ SSD Forum has lots of info. Do note that the OCZ SSDs do not support AHCI, but your very nice Intel SSD does.

Message Edited by JaneL on 06-02-2009 10:34 PM

[leeinalex]

great info!  are there xp pro recovery disks available for the Y series ideapads?