I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled Windows Xp on my Sony N-TXN15p laptop. Now my CD/DVD drive isn't being recognized. What can I do?

Hi there,

A clean installation consists of removing all data from your hard disk by repartitioning and reformatting your hard disk and reinstalling the operating system and programs to an empty (clean) hard disk. For more information about important things to consider before you partition and format you hard disk and how to partition and format your hard disk by using the Windows XP Setup program, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
313348 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/ ) How to partition and format a hard disk by using Windows XP Setup program To perform a clean installation of Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Back up all important information before you perform a clean installation of Windows XP. Save the backup to an external location, such as a CD or external hard disk.
2. Start your computer from the Windows XP CD. To do this, insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
   
   Note To boot from your Windows XP CD, the BIOS settings on your computer must be configured to do this.
3. When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD.
4. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.
5. Read the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then press F8.
6. Follow the instructions on the screen to select and format a partition where you want to install Windows XP.
7. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the Windows XP Setup.
   

Post back if it is not working we will be happy to help you.
Thank you.
Cheers!!!

there are two ways to do it. the easy way and the hard way:

• easy way is longer, you simply back-up your files, then reformat your PC and reinstall XP
• the hard way is more technical, but does not require reformatting. please see link below for the set-by-step guide

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-downgrade-from-windows-7-to-xp-step-by-step/

Well, first of all XP is not the latest supported operating system from Microsoft.

That being said, I have not had a garbled screen followed by an error message 'setup didn't find any hard disk drive installed' on a laptop, in my limited experience with laptops (i.e. Acer One, Acer Aspire, Sony Vaio, etc.)

If you have an unexpected garbled screen it points to the pc board or mother board or the video card, but more likely the motherboard.

And, if you couple this with the hard disk drive not being detected, it reminds me of a situation where I had a no hard disk drive detected on a SCSI drive connected to my Windows 95 computer in the 1990s when I had heat related issues with the circuitry on the hard drive getting burnt out capacitors.

If the drive is not recognized, it might mean the boot sector is wiped, and essentially it needs to be reformatted and the operating system needs to be reinstalled (which you evidently tried to do).

To my memory, I never had this problem on Windows XP with a laptop, so I am thinking it's not Windows that is at fault, but the physical hardware is giving you problems.

If you boot from the CD for Windows XP and it doesn't find the drive, it's a big problem for this laptop.

I wish you luck in finding an answer to that one, seeing that it's out of warranty and XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.com.

Hi yes try this, if no joy come back to me.
Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} To install new version of XP. Insert XP CD into drive, reboot pc pressing ESC button, or delete in some machines. This takes you into BIOS, change your primary boot device to CDrom, save changes and reboot. Select boot from CD once this appears and wait for files to be installed. Select the part of the hard drive you wish to use for your operating system (usually the largest) and select partition this drive. Delete any previous os, and reformat hard drive. (Be aware this removes everything saved on your hard drive, so always back up first) Re boot afterwards and reinstall operating system.

hi

thank you for using Fixya

to formate C drive and re install windows XP

1 put widows XP CD in to your CD drive
2 restart your PC
3 it will boot your CD just put Enter
4 if not then selact boot option by presing F12 0r F2
5 it will start reding your CD

then just folow the instruction

it will ask you foue setps

Sure, calm down. You need to get a bootable cd like UBCD. This cd not only boots, but installs a cd driver, allowing full access of CD Drive in a DOS Environment. Check out the UBCD website, download it, and turn the computer on, with the cd in the drive, your computer will boot, so boot the cd, when the options load, hit the key "r", and windows will repair.
Good Luck

If the backup and recovery disk are for that model of computer , just remove VISTA or Reformat the hard driver using software outside of Window, then reinstall all the Xp stuff, just as if you had a new hard drive. Save all personal files first, of course.. 

 You can do a full reformat right from the windows xp install disk.  Put the xp disk in the cdrom drive and restart the computer.  Upon restarting a message will come up ( Hit any key to boot from CD )  Hit any key,  the files will load then you will be able to format the hard drive and also load windows XP.
    If for some reason your system doesnt boot from the cd, you might have to go into the Bios and change the boot order from the hard drive or the floppy to the cd so the computer will boot from the CD first. Hope this helps...                                                           Joe > Data Miner <

You should provide either CD/DVD rom to boot your sytem in bootable disc.
And you should provide windows XP/2000 bootable disk.

You will need:

CD/DVd Rom
Bootable windowsxp/2000 to reinstall your system.

Note; reformatting or reinstalling your system all files will be remove. you should back up important files before doing.

plain reinstallation of windows won't solve the problem, either you edit your registry to clean it up of all the nero entries or to install windows in clean mode, I mean, you need to reformat or remove windows completely first fron your system.