I have tried to do a new install of WIN XP on a laptop and silly me chose the upgrade option instead..... so it did most of that then started rebooting all the time... so then (in my wisdom) i tried a new installation - during the setup when it asks you what partitition to install on this laptop says UNKNOWN DRIVE - there is no disk in this drive. it repeats 4 times.

Can anyone please please please help me.

I also tried the ASR option and on c: chkdsk - it comes up with - The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.

This laptop is only 4 months old.

hope this helps

Partition with Window XP Setup program

cheers

edit:
I assumed your partitions are corrupt. data will be wiped out. i am NOT responsible for it.

another point:
IF you setup using the bootable win xp cd, it will restart your com after it is done with the blue setup screen.
When the com is restarting, do NOT boot from the CD any more else it will result in the endless loop (of setting up in the blue screen).

You can remove the CD when the com is restarting and replace when you see the Windows XP logo with the animated 'progress bar' (a.k.a. bootscreen).

[proyb2]

for one most important advice...

Do not create 2 partitions without a gap...would be best to leave at least 1MB free space


http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz/recover_mbr.html

*Disclamer loh*