Windows-setup doesn´t detect SATA-HDD and is asking for drivers

Most of the drivers in the Serial ATA section are firmware updates for specific hard drives and will work only if you have that particular model hard drive installed.  You need to prepare the Intel pre-install driver as it is a self-extracting zip file which Windows setup will not touch.

Copy the Intel file to a folder on a working computer.  Double click the file and you should get a box asking you if you want to run the file.  Click whatever button means "yes".  The next box should tell you that the files are about to be extracted and will list a path in the lower of two text boxes.  To the right of the lower box you will see a small button with two periods in it (..).  Click that box and browse to the folder you are already using for the zipped file and select that folder.  The contents will be extracted to the folder.

Once you have the contents of the zipped file, copy them to a folder on a USB memory stick.  Use the "F6" prompt to tell Windows setup that you need to install a SCSI driver and direct it to the folder on the memory stick that contains the contents you extracted earlier.  Windows setup should present you with a selection of controller chips; select ICH9R.  Setup should continue.

With regard to the empty setup window;  did you select a custom install and go to the option that allows you to create and delete partitions?  You need to manually create a partition and format it in order to see something in the setup window.

Hello,

thank you for your answer.

The error is, when setup is asking: "Where do you want to install windows?" The window is empty, no drive to choose. Just the option "load drivers". (BTW: I am german and just translated what I see there.)

I tried every single SATA-driver Dell offers in the link you told above. Nothing works for me.  :-(

Exactly what error to you get when you run Windows setup?  Windows Vista and Windows 7 both have difficulty detecting a drive if there is more than one drive present in the system.  One way to get around that is to use the custom install option and manually partition and format the desired hard drive before you select the option to install.  You should also remember to disable or unplug any USB devices (other than keyboard and mouse) while attempting to install Windows.  This is especially true for any card reader devices you may have.

EDIT:  By the way, you can find the drivers for your system here:  XPS 420 Drivers.  Use the link at the top of the page to choose Vista 32 bit.  These drivers should work for Windows 7 32 bit as the two operating systems share the same kernel.  If the advice above didn't help, you can try the Serial ATA Intel Pre-Install driver.  I believe it is the last file in the Serial ATA list under Windows Vista 32 bit.  Be careful while you download.  The page tends to flip back to the BIOS default after downloading a file and using the "back" arrow on the browser to go back to the driver files list.

What does your hardware setup tell you?  The hard drive should be plugged into SATA 0.  That port should be turned On or set to Auto, whichever is available.  The SATA controller operation should be set to RAID On.  If your SATA controller is already set to RAID On, and things are still not working, you might try changing the setting to RAID Autodetect/ATA.  That setting uses the older drivers for IDE/ATA drives and sometimes gives less trouble.

The driver on the USB stick may indeed not have a choice for your system because you are attempting to install Windows 7 using a Vista driver.  I believe the choice stating that it is for an ICH9R hub would be the correct one.

I extracted all the drivers before and tried to use them with an usb-stick. There is a checkbox in windows-setup which hides drivers which are not for my system. I have to uncheck this first then the Intel-drivers are shown (so it seems they aren´t for my system).

Pressing F6 I get just one selection (installing windows).  

The HDD is formatted in one partition. There is no custom install while setup. I guess I will get that possibility after I choosed a drive (but that´s the problerm: no drive available).

This is the list of Intel-drivers I get after unchecking this box I told about:

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/8505/20120916010436.jpg

They all don´t work. :-(

Thank you so much for your effort. The HDD is at SATA 0 and that is on. I tried the same with Win Vista and Win 7 setup.

I made two screens of my BIOS-settings (SATA 0 with correct recognized HDD, SATA Settings with Auto/ATA) :

http://imageshack.us/a/img255/5144/20120916021016.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img96/13/20120916021040.jpg

... and the HDD worked fine before I erased it.

I tried it, but unfortunately no changes. Or maybe a little bit: Now it showed me an Intel-driver (without unchecking these box), but after installing that driver, there is no drive available like before ...

The screen I see for your SATA operation lists RAID Autodetect/ATA as the present setting.  Have you tried setting the controller to RAID On?

What did you use to erase the drive?  Some of the programs that completely wipe the drive leave information in the beginning sectors that keep Windows setup from recognizing the drive as being unformatted.  It is my understanding that this is a safety measure to help owners avoid erasing data that they want to keep.  I have no direct experience, but I've been told that a linux live bootable CD that has FDISK on it can be used to reset the sectors that contain the Master Boot Record.  Once the MBR has been set to a neutral state, Windows setup recognizes the disk again.

On the SATA setting, what you have seen makes sense because the ICH9R driver is for the disk controller on the main board, not for the hard drive itself.  So we now know that your drivers file works correctly, and since that did not help find the disk, the problem must be something to do with the hard drive itself.  Just to be sure that the hard drive is still working properly, you should run the diagnostics to be sure that the hard drive has not coincidentally failed.

Yes, I used a program that wiped the drive completely. There was a hidden OEM-partition before, it is away now, too.

But I connected the drive with a SATA-USB-adapter with another PC and everything works fine. I formatted it, gave it a drive letter and wrote on it.

Now it works!!!

The hint was deleting the partitions and using the drive unformatted. Ok,  I have no explanation for that, but now Setup recognized the drive without any problems.

Thank you for your very useful support!

Excellent!  I'm happy to learn things are going better, and hope you have things up and running soon.  I was happy to be of help.

Best of luck to you!