My Toshiba Laptop w/ Windows XP will not read the setup disk so I can install the drivers

So, where did you get the Windows XP drivers for the controller? Are you sure that they are XP compatible?

Is the USB floppy even being recognized and read by the setup program?

The Windows Setup program only supports a handful of USB drives for F6 driver installation method, that is explained here:

A connected USB floppy disk drive does not work when you press F6 to install mass storage drivers during the Windows XP installation process

Adding the standard Microsoft USB storage drivers to the txtsetup.oem file on the floppy diskette usually resolves this problem, see here: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/CS-026606.htm

Adding the USB floppy's vendor ID should also fix the problem, see here for an example:
http://blog.mreza.info/archive/2007/09/19/windows-f6-driver-and-usb-floppy.aspx

None of my business but why not use Windows 7 on the new laptop, instead of going through all this trouble installing an operating system that is 10 years old and that is living on borrowed time?

I have toshiba laptop satalite with 2 operation windows 2000 and HP windows running thus slowing the system down consiradably. Idealy would like to delete the windows 2000 professinal. Please help

This because you dont have AHCI drivers required for Win XP and you set in BIOS either sata controller or ide controller to an AHCI. You must set to native IDE or anything else like that.
If you wish set an AHCI driver you must press F6 during starting windows XP setup. And put the drivers (get it here) to floppy disk, it will prompted to install required drivers..
Another way to install driver without floppy disk you must inject the driver to windows XP installation CD...

P.S : you cant put the drivers onto floppy, because it wont be read by Windows XP setup..

Ensure the disk and ROM compatibility.
check the CD/DVD in other drive and vice versa (another CD/DVD in PC CD/DVD ROM.
then ensure the booting sequence in BIOS setup. if every thing is ok and fine then the problem is with your CD/DVD ROM.

vote me if found helpful.

Hi

Disassemble the laptop, follow the bellow link for details,

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Satellite-1200/take-apart-laptop-1.htm

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Tecra-A2/notebook-disassembly-guide.htm

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/Toshiba-Satellite-L355D/laptop-disassembly-1.htm

For install xp follow another link,
xp setup not detect hdd http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/21/install-xp-setup-did-not-find-any-hard-disk-drives-installed-in-your-computer/ http://www.nliteos.com/download.html http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/resolving-setup-did-not-find-any-hard-disk-drives-during-windows-xp-installation/ Hope this helps,reply me for further instruction,

Chek your CPU fans working properley and reinsert memory

Your optical drive might be dirty or bad. Try an official Dell disk to see if it will read it, especially a Dell drivers and Utilities disk. Also try a boot flash drive or boot floppy(since your system is a older) to get the system up. If your system comes up any of those ways, I would try a disk cleaner. If that doesn't help, then you probably have a bad cd drive. You could also look in bios setup to make sure the bios is showing your cd drive. It should list it there somewhere. Probably on the first page.

I assume you're saying that the pc is not booting from the DVD/CD? If that's the case, you
need to go to the BIOS setup, where you need to change the device boot order. It's now
probably set to start running from the hard drive, reason why your DVD/CD is not booting.
To go to the BIOS setup, press the F2 or delete, or whatever key the first POST messages
instruct you to use to go into SETUP mode. Different BIOS manufacturers use different
keys, so you have to be quick and interrupt the boot process using the correct key. If you
fail to determine what key it is, reboot once again, until you see/read what key does the
job.
Next, once you're into the setup screens, look for one set of options called Boot Options
or Boot Order. Read the instructions to learn what keys to use to change the values.
Ensure that the first device accessed is the CD/DVD drive, then whatever else next, etc.
Once that's done, save your settings following the prompts, load your DVD/CD and reboot
again.
That should read the disc and start the installation.
Good luck!

That happens because the BIOS uses a SATA controller that is not included in Windows XP install disk.

Usually you can solve the problem going to BIOS settings and changing SATA/RAID settings.Check your BIOS settings, and disable SATA RAID mode.This is done in different ways depending on the BIOS.

On HP/Compaq computers for example you press F2 on startup to enter BIOS, then disable SATA mode on bios settings.
On other makes the procedure can be slightly different.

Another way to fix the problem, is by creating your own XP setup disk with SATA drivers included, see: Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows .

The problem is the driver for the sata hard drive. You would need to get that from the dell site and put it on a floppy disk, then at the start of the windows install select to install that driver. I ended up just installing the rc version of windows 7 and it worked out fine.