It turns out that the almost emotional attachment showed by current computer manufacturers to the epic fail called Windows Vista is causing some inherent hardware problems when average users try to make the best of their own piece of hardware by downgrading to the one operating system from Microsoft that actually works: Windows XP. I did this before on the Sony Vaio VGN-NR110E and then the Compaq C700(though that’s a series, they’re all pretty much the same and this operation is performed the same way). Now the first issue that you will face here will be the fact that the mainboards that are manufactured in Windows Vista times will fail to acknowledge the existence of your hard drive, as soon as you pop your Windows XP install disc into your disc unit.

Overcoming the infamous “there is no hard drive detected on this machine “ problem

There are a few methods here, but I do prefer suggesting a rather clean and stable resolve. Besides the “F6 method”, there is such thing called a Windows custom install disc, which can not only overcome this particular issue without the need of attending to drivers installation in the pre-boot process, but it is also a very useful addition to your stash of backups and tools. Since this tutorial is not addressing the power users, I will make it simple and visual and if you follow these exact steps you will for sure be ready to use your machine the way it was meant to be used. So, right now you are at the point when after being told by the customer care specialists that they do not support this evil downgrade, you are stuck with the blue screen stating: “there is no hard drive detected on this machine”.

Step 1: download nLite

Don’t be scared of the word download. nLite is very powerful and useful tool and it comes as a free downloadthat is completely harmless to your machine once installed. On a side note, do not trust all the junk software out there that promises to do the same job and asks for a deposit on your credit card. nLite is a free software and I can not stress how enough how good of a job the author did with it. (check out their about nLite page) if you are still reluctant. Now download the installer from here (please use this recommended version, as I find it to be most stable and also try and stick with the automatic installer rather than with the .zip version, it’s usually less time-consuming).

Step 2: run nLite

Now after you have downloaded your nLite installer, run it and go ahead and install this software on your machine. (I must add that I do hope you are still running the unwanted operating system, be it Windows Vista or a crappy Windows XP install that you just wanna get rid of and just encountered the “there is no hard drive detected on this machine” problem). So after you have installed it, run it for the first time and you should encounter a screen that looks much like this:



click the picture for large size

Now, make sure you have your original Windows XP install disc handy and click next. This should take you to a screen that asks you to “locate your Windows installation”. Pop the aforementioned disc into your disc drive and wait until the system gives you the blue Windows install options screen (if you don’t have autorun disabled that is). After you click on exit on that Windows screen, you’re ready to proceed with nLite. So when you are prompted with the “locate your Windows installation”, click browse. Now you should be viewing somethings very similar to this:



click the picture for large size

Go on “My computer” and then on to your disc drive that should now be labeled something like “WinXP” or something indicating that there is Windows install disc in your disc drive. After you locate your installation click “next”.
If all went well, by now nLite detected a correct Windows install discon your location and it should ask you where to “Save the CD installation files for modification”. Click “ok”, then pick the path to a folder of your choice where you want the new installation files to be stored. My recommendation is to create a new folder on the desktop labeled something like “WININSTALL” so you are viewing it at all times. Once you have picked that, you are ready to go ahead and click “next”. Right now, you should hear your disc drive spinning and nLite should show you something like this: (When this task is done, please minimize the nLite window and let it be for a little while)



click the picture for large size

Step 3: find the SATA drivers for your mainboardThis may indeed prove to be a somewhat difficult mission, but after losing countless hours fighting with Sony representatives for the Sony Vaio VGN-NR110E and about the same with the HP guys for the Compaq C700, sure enough I was adviced to forget about downgrading and pretty much told go to hell and stop asking for dumb things like proper support for a piece of hardware that I did pay money for and I do own. Anyways, enough ranting. On with the task of finding the SATA drivers. Luckily enough, most mainstream notebooks sold in stores that come bundled with Windows Vista nowadays, sport a pretty standard Intel chipset (despite the fact that the Sony representative assured me that the Sony Vaio VGN-NR110E has a whole different Intel chipset, rendering it impossible to configure in current standards for SATA drivers). So, by clicking here you will be taken to the Intel Matrix Storage Manager download page. Select your operating system properly here and click “go”. You will be taken to a page that may look somewhat confusing. What you need to do here is simply download the RAID/AHCI Software - Intel Matrix Storage Manager by clicking on it. You will be taken to a page that looks similar to this:



click the picture for large size

Scrolling down from here, you should see as a first downloadoption the file named “English: iata82_enu.exe” (number may vary by version). Click download and go on to the next screen where you confirm that you want to download RAID/AHCI Software - Intel Matrix Storage Manager. Once that task is completed, you need to extract the needed files, following the instructions on this page. Then, save those little .inf files somewhere on your desktop, preferably in a folder called “SATA”. This may prove to be a little tricky, but once you pull it off you should have a folder named “Drivers” on your chosen path.

Step 4: creating a custom Windows XP install disc

Now after you have your files, go back and pick nLite up from where you left it. Click “next” and you should be presented with an option panel called “Task selection”. In there, tick “drivers” and “bootable ISO”. Then click “next”. You will be prompted for drivers. Click “insert” and pick “multiple driver folder”. For selection, navigate to the folder you picked as a path in the previous step (recommended: “SATA”) and pick the folder named “Drivers32″ (pick “Drivers64″ if you’re the 64b version). Though they say it’s not recommended to add drivers you might not need, I simply added all the contents of this folder. Now click “next to start the process. When that is completed, the default selected option in the next window under “General>Mode” is “Create image”, but I do recommend that you pick “direct burn”. Insert a blank recordable CD into your unit, click “next” again and you are done.

This is the most basic method, but the capabilities of nLite are powerful and easy to use. For anyone that had trouble extracting the driver files from the intel page, please drop me off a comment and I will email you my own versions. In the next tutorial, I will cover all the things that nLite is capable of.