Today I ran across a Dimension 8400 that would not recognizes the SATA hard drive for a reformat. I did some digging and came up with two different problems.
1. If you don’t have your resource CD then you will need to first download the drivers for the SATA raid controller. Click here!
You will need to get a blank floppy and run the .exe program you downloaded from Dell. Run that and it will create a floppy disk with the drivers for you.
2. Go into your bios and change the mode of your SATA controller to a mode called “combination”.
3. Reboot and boot from your windows CD.
4. Press the {F6} key to install the SCSI drivers.
5. Press the {S} key for specific drivers.
6. Insert the diskette pick the first driver by hitting enter and finish the installation
7. The rest of the install of windows is normal.
Key Notes: You must change the sata controller in bios to “combination” or you install will never see the drive.
I accept all agreement.
this is not working for me. I have been working on a machine for two days…
the drivers from dell are still not being seen by xp.
I also get a stop error “registry _ error” when i change it to “combination”.
I just cant reformat, I do not have a back up of my data…
How to Install XP on DeLL Dimensions 8400 with a SATA Drive
I found this posted at DeLL & it worked for me.
The Key is to Set Step 3
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Posted by Shadowrunner
on 3 Feb 2005 11:01 PM
o rated by 0 users
o Re: Install XP on SATA system with no floppy
o
To install windows xp sp1 on the dimension 8400 without using a floppy drive, try doing the following steps:
1. Go into the BIOS by pressing F2 on the Dell Logo
2. Go to Drives, then select SATA Operation.
3. Change RAID Auto/AHCI to RAID Auto/ATA
4. Press ESC and save the changes to setup
5. Boot to the windows XP disk, no need to press F6 but just continue the installation process.
The reason for this is windows xp sp1 does not have the native drivers for sata hard drives, changing this setting will allow you to use ATA mode which basically is the technology used by IDE hard drive, if you dont change this setting the system will say something like no hard drive found, by changing the setting the computer should be able to detect the hard drive and continue the installation. Windows XP SP2 cds however should continue the installation without having to change this setting as they contain drivers necessary for SATA hard drive.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-...
The situation I ran into was that I was trying to reformat and do a clean install. If you are not trying to reformat and reinstall windows, what actually happened?
Jacob
is this tru,what dell 8400 dimension accepts to 400 gb?Couse i bought 500 gb and my system cannot find it.
it should take a 500gb drive. I will do some research and find out.
I don’t see why not. Make sure you use the steps to put the bios into combination mode, and load the SATA drivers.
Thank you very much for sharing this pearl of wisdom. I was struggling for a few hours trying to get XP to see my new drive, the step I was missing was the combination setting, I had already downloaded the driver from Dell and that alone wasn’t doing it.
Bravo dude…well done.
Dell Demension 8400 new sata drive installI have 4 settings in the bios
raid autodetect/ahci
raid autodetect/ata
raid on
all these get the same result after I do the f6 and install floppy with raid driver i get a message saying (no harddrive you may need to check your disk related hardware configuration this may involve running a manufacturers supplied diagnostic or setup program setup cannot continue)
if I use the other setting in the bios is combination I get either a stop error with blue screen or the the install gets to past the drivers .cab files then start showing up as not able to install till it finally says setup failed
this is a brand new drive,I used the dell operating disk supplied,also 2 other xp pro disks and even a 2000 system disk they all do the same I am sure not all these disks are errored or corrupted I found out that you have to use a partitioning software called media direct I used this and still have the same problem of the setup disk when it is copying the files gets to the drivers.cab file then after that drops files saying they were not copied or error and windowsa may not work properly untill after about 5 of these the system just stops and tells me to reinstall windows as it did not complete properly
Have you tried turning raid off completely?
thanx but solved problem I ran qt pro and found one of the sticks of ram has a problem so removed it and system took xp no problem after that thanx all for the help
[...] Burchwords » Dell Dimension 8400 Harddrive: SATA Drivers Driver and instructions. [...]
[...] Burchwords » Dell Dimension 8400 Harddrive: SATA Drivers Driver Disk and instructions. [...]
So pleased that I stumbled upon this. It saved me a whole afternoon of grief. Many thanks!
what if I don’t have a floppy drive? Can I use a USB drive or a CD-R?
no, not that I know of…but you can slip stream the drivers into a custom windows cd using nlite.
So I too had this issue, Dell 8400 and no floppy drive. read the coments here and tried and tried again over and over. finally I tought about the idea of the usb drive so I tried it, and it didnt fix the issue as to say. but then my dell found my usb drive (not the files but the drive) and all of a sudden it found the sata drive.
Ashadon,
What do you mean, you used the the USB drive. Please walk me through that, because I have the same problem that you have, no floopy drive.
I can’t get past the POST screen. The Dell logo flashes briefly and then a blinking underscore appears in the upper left corner and it just hangs. If I disconnect the SATA drive, it will complete the POST and boot off of a CD or floppy. I’ve noticed that changing the SATA settings in the BIOS to combination has the effect of disabling the SATA 1 and SATA 3 ports. If I plug the SATA drive into one of these disabled ports, it will POST and boot, but Windows does not see the drive even if the SATA drivers are loaded from floppy. This doesn’t surprise me because I wouldn’t expect a disabled SATA port to work. What I don’t understand is how others got this to work. I’ve flashed the BIOS from A05 to A08 and that didn’t make any difference. I’m trying to install a 160GB Seagatte SATA2 3 Gbit/s drive and I’ve tried placing the jumper on it to limit it to SATA1 speed of 1.5 Gbit/s, but that didn’t help. This Dell 8400 simply won’t boot past the post screen when the SATA drive is connected. Maybe I need to try a different brand hard drive. Or, maybe I need to get a Sata1 hard drive? Any help would be appreciated.
I just tried changing the SATA settings in the BIOS to “RAID ON” that allowed the computer to post. I then followed the instructions for loading the drivers and Windows is installing as I type this. I don’t know why the “RAID ON” setting worked. I tried all of the other SATA settings and none of the others worked. So, if you can’t get the Dell 8400 to POST after connecting a SATA drive, try the “RAID ON” setting in BIOS. BTW- I am using the A08 BIOS. I wonder if A09 would have made any difference?
Hey these posts were super helpful. I borrowed a floopy drive from another computer, flashed the BIOS to A09, and the install ran flawlessly on my new Western Digital (green) 500GB drive. (i didn't have to press F6 to load sata drivers) You saved me hours!
Thank you!
I found that if in bios you config for NONE RAID in sata config it all starts to work
my dell is amazing it works fine 8400 with nvidia 7600 gt graphics card and wirless lan PCI card and got it going through my 32" sony and my surround sound looks and sounds great and its guiet thanks to artic cooling
Yahoo!!!!! THANKS to instructions at the top of this screen, I was able to get my 5 year old Dimension 8400 to finally pick up my new WD 640G……only took 3 days of studying, finding an old floppy drive…(between all your friends, surley one of them has an old hulk lying about!)….Its all there too 610xxxMB!!! COOL
Thank you very much…you solved my problem…
could not find a floppy disk (have not used them in years). I did finally find one but the only 3 floppy drives I had at my disposal got disposed of (none of them worked).
I finally just changed to combination and moved the hard drive up to right below the cd. It worked like a charm. I am formatting now and will install windows afterwards.
I thank you for all the suggestions. I just used multiple comments and went from there.
thanks again
This question goes in another direction. I am reformating the 8400 with an XP upgrade. The recovery CD and XP upgrade CD will not load all the dll files. Constantly has trouble finding more than 50 + dll files and even sys files. The list got too long. I have started over more than 10 times trying something different each time. Nothing is working.
I really need some help here.
From just looking at your comment, it looks like the CD rom isn't reading the disk correctly. I would try another CD-rom or try trying another ide port on which it resides.
I have put a new HD in my 8400 and the monitor will not turn on. Did this happen for anyone else? Would you say this is a motherboard issue?
no, that did not happen to any of us.
Thanks a lot for this thread, it really helped me. I had a similar issue with Dell Dimension 8400 and the XP installation would not detect it and I changed the BIOS settings for the SATA operation to “Combination” and it worked fine after that. Hope it helps
Much thanks to you for sharing your fixes. I’ve been trying to figure this out for hours. Changed sata config to combination and it worked. You helped save what little hair I have left.
After 2 weeks of fiddling around with no end in sight to my quest, I stumbled to this site. Trying to re-surrect my old hand me down 8400 just gave me head and heart aches. What I was missing was posted at the very top, set BIOS HD to “combination”.
VOILA!!! that did the trick, I am updating XP Pro GREAT SITE !!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to all who contributed to this, Will post all mi rig’s info and specs. Thanks again.
(btw, now I have 2 identical OS running in the same HD, I guess thats the least of my problems lol)
I do not have a floppy. Can someone please tell me how to download drivers to a CD ?
basically, you will need to use something like nlite to slip stream the drivers into a windows xp cd. It’s really slick.
Download:
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
Here is a guide to get you started:
http://www.nliteos.com/guides.html
What in the hell is a 'floppy drive'??!
Thank you Jacob!
I was able to reformat and install XP. However on boot up it gets to splash screen and then to blue screen of death. Issue with hard drive being condigured
do a chkdsk
I can’t get to dos prompt. Stop:0x0000007b (0xf7c7563c, 0xc0000034, 0×00000000, 0×00000000)
I reformatted again and it works. Thank you
Step #2 did the trick for me. Thanks!
I replaced the Hard drive in my dim 8400 , accidently left the printer and my router plugged in when I installed Windows XP now I have no internet connection and no sound. I was able to get the printer working ok. Any suggestions?
You need to download your ethernet drivers and sound drivers from Dell.
Hey thanks for the link… amazingly it does not come up when you enter the service tag and sends you on a while goose chase. I am an IT professional and you just saved me hours of hunting. Appreciate it bro!
no prob, bob
Wow! I have been working on a computer for a week with no sucess. I found this site, and boom…done! Thank you for sharing the knowledge!
I followed all the the steps to have arrived this blue screen:
Top: Windows XP Home Edition Setup
Middle: Blank
Bottom: Examning 76294 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 bus 0 on atapi…
Stalled there!
Can anyone tell me what to do?
Thaks.
YSW
if you cannot get passed the \”examining\” screen, you might have a bad hard drive. Do a check disk on it from the recovery console.