@Jojo, here is some info on sata drives:
If your system has SATA drives (Courtesy of Jose Ibarra)
If your system of unspecified make and model has SATA drives, the Recovery Console CD (or even genuine bootable XP media) will not be able to "see" the HDD unless you first get into your system BIOS by pressing whatever key you need to press to do so, and temporarily change the HDD interface mode to something the XP startup process does recognize.
Then you do what you need to do (run chkdsk /r), then change the BIOS back to the original settings when you are done.
Here are some general purpose instructions that should get you going:
If you are seeing a message(s) like this:
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is
correct. This many involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.
Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3.
When you see a message like this, obviously XP Setup is starting to load, but then when Setup needs to go out and find your hard disk it is not finding the hard disk. It doesn't necessarily mean your hard disk is defective and if it was working before, it is most likely still plugged in. It just means the XP Setup is not able to find it.
It sounds like you need to enter the BIOS on your system by pressing the "Del", F2, F10 or F12 key (whatever key is right for your system), locate the section where the hard disks types and hard disk interfaces are configured and temporarily change the setting so the XP Setup is able to find the hard disk.
Where to find the adjustment and how to change it depends on your system manufacturer and BIOS version so you may end up having to just look around for it. If you know your system make and model, we can probably help you find a manual.
You need to locate and change the interface mode for your primary hard disk in the BIOS so that when the XP Setup loads, it will be able to locate the hard disk.
Before making any adjustments, you should make a note of what the current BIOS settings are so you can change them back when you are finished.
The adjustment varies so here are some examples I have accumulated:
The adjustment is made in the BIOS and could be under Integrated Peripherals, SATA Device Configuration, SATA Mode.
Make a note of what the current settings are before making any changes so you can change them back if things get worse.
After you make the changes, save them and see how things look now.
If you find the mode is set to RAID/SATA mode, change the mode to IDE.
If you find the mode is set to SATA, change the mode to IDE.
If you find the mode is set to SATA, disable SATA mode.
If you find the mode is set to AHCI, change the mode to ATA.
If you find the mode is set to AHCI Emulation Mode, change the mode to IDE Emulation.
If you find the mode is set to SATA, disable SATA mode and/or change the mode to ATA.
If you find the mode is set to SATA Native Mode, disable SATA Native Mode.
If you find the mode is set to RAID/Autodetect AHCI, change the mode to Combination.
If you find the mode is set to RAID Auto/AHCI, change it to RAID Auto/ATA
The WWW says this works on some Dells: "I had to set my SATA Operation to ATA instead of AHCI"
After making the adjustments, ACCEPT and SAVE the changes, and restart the system and see if it will now boot on the Recovery Console CD.
Here are some additional ideas about changing the BIOS to recognize the SATA drive to boot from CD:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/commo...install-unable-to-detect-sata-harddisk-drive/