Hello Nairalanders. Please i bought a hp pavillion dv9930ef(dv 9700 series) notebook from somebody. It has windows vista ultimate OS. i've tried downgrading to windows XP but i couldn't.
The bootable cd won't locate my harddisk.
I couldn't locate the SATA in the bios.
Please i sincerely need help urgently from you guyz.
Merci

@colonel seems you know what you"re doing. well, turn off your laptop

Back on again dont wait for anything and keep pressing f10

You should get blue screen bios setup utility

look at the top you should have main, system configuration, boot, diagnostics and exit

Go down to diagnostics look for hard disk self test press enter follow screen instruction

That would check if the hard drive is intact

If the hard disk test pass which am hoping so then we need to check the boot priority. the laptop may not be set to boot off the disk

if the hard disk test fail then you need to take to a technician to get it replace

use the arrow once again go to boot and make sure hard drive or sata drive is at top sometime it may say USB Hdd
whatever the name just make sure you got hard drive at the top . hope this help, Dejisunday

@colonel in the boot section make you have 1st cd. 2ndhard disk doing this would enable the disk to copy to the hard drive, because we have bootbale cd at top. just a bit of curiosity why are you installing xp on top of vista, Deji sunday

@deji.thx i'll try n do jst dat. I'll get back to you.

@deji.Actually xp is more preferable to vista cuy of security n software compatibility. And xp can b tweaked to surpass vista fancy nature. If am wrong pls correct me.

@colonel you"re right xp is widely accepted because of it's simplicity and software capabilities. vista is much faster and more secure. anyway you try that and we see what happen, Deji sunday

I succesfully booted thru d cd-rom drive, it loaded the installation files but could not locate the hard disk.

I still can't see any options for enabling or disabling of SATA hard disk.

@colonel 20 am not asking you to disable anything. i will post the instruction again


@colonel seems you know what you"re doing. well, turn off your laptop

Back on again dont wait for anything and keep pressing f10

You should get blue screen bios setup utility

look at the top you should have main, system configuration, boot, diagnostics and exit

Go down to diagnostics look for hard disk self test press enter follow screen instruction

That would check if the hard drive is intact

If the hard disk test pass which am hoping so then we need to check the boot priority. the laptop may not be set to boot off the disk

if the hard disk test fail then you need to take to a technician to get it replace

use the arrow once again go to boot and make sure hard drive or sata drive is at top sometime it may say USB Hdd
whatever the name just make sure you got hard drive at the top . hope this help, Dejisunday

Deji

@ the topmost i hav PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility.

Under that, i hav -Main, Security, Diagnostics, System Configuration, Exit.

I went to Diagnostics and under that i had primary hard disk self test and memory test.
I went under primary, And performed d test which was succesful.

I left the diagnostics section for system configuration.
Under that i found- language(english), button sound(enabled), processor c4 state(enabled) and boot options.
I went 4 boot options and thr i found- f10 and f12 delay, cd-rom boot(enabled), floppy boot(enabled), internal network adapter boot(enabled), boot order
i went for boot order

under this i can see
ATAPI CD/DVD ROM DRIVE
NOTEBOOK HARD DRIVE
USB HARD DRIVE
USB FLOPPY
USB DISKETTE ON KEY
NETWORK ADAPTER

i've tried position all the hard drives at the top in combination with d cd rom but
d installation loads the files and report no hard disk found if i make d rom come first

if i make the hard drives come first it loads vista and reports
Don chochy- password(datz me).

Notin bout sata,

Wot do u know bout 'rate driver'. Hapi sunday

@colonel20 nice on so hard drive test pass but still not detecting the hdd when installing the xp. ok have been doing some

research for you and hope this help. and tecs in the house hope am on the right track. ok, colonel20

@colonel20 nice on so hard drive test pass but still not detecting the hdd when installing the xp. ok have been doing some

research for you and hope this help. and tecs in the house hope am on the right track. ok, colonel20


After entering BIOS, select SYSTEM CONFIGURATION; then DEVICE CONFIGURATION; then changed SATA NATIVE MODE from

Enable to DISABLE. place your XP CD in the drive, rebooted the laptop, pressed any key to boot from the CD. give it a try am not sure if

would work but worth trying though

sorry about that my keyboard just playing up

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i find this interesting,

are u sure u could downgrade to XP, and y is ur xp bootable disc not seeing ur HARD drive? thats sumtin i dont understand,

check ur bios configure, sumtin is wrong, my be ur HDD is boot locked,

VBR

but i advice, stick to the manufactures OS, just update or basically upgrade, u will find out that vista is not that bad at all,

@deji. Thr is nothing like Device Configuration in thr.
@bone. I can't find the config to the sata drive

@colonel20 should look like this

I have Hp 530 bios screem and should be the same as yours but am not sure. am in front of my vista laptop now

ok scrool to system configuration in there you should have boot option, device configuration, built-in device options port options go for device configuration and disable sata native mode so and continue with your installation. if you cant find device configuration then I really dont know.sorry

Thx deji 4 ur efforts n help. My lappy is hp dv9930ef. The BIOS Setup aint the same.those things in urz aint there.
My filez are still out waiting 4 d lappy to be healed. Tkcr

offtopic - downgrading from legit vista ultimate to pirated xp - urgh!

@colonel20 in that case you wont be able to downgrade to xp then, sorry.

@ Post Your laptop can only be downgraded to Win XP by using WinXP sata (original OEM) powered by FLICK Technologies, Ogbomoso.
Call this number 08038038934 or send a mail to onilanre@yahoo.com for more information. Drivers are readily available

I use an HP Pavilion dv5 and presently the system just keeps loading the windows endlessly.
I tried running a primary hard disk self tes but it stopped at 54%.

any ideas as to what this means?