# Getting a Device Installer Error: Sata/IDE ["cannot load installer for hdc SATA"]



## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

In WindowsXP Home everytime I plug in a USB device, I get the error dialog that says, "Windows can not load the installer for volume". I click ok and it goes away. The USB device works fine. I also get this same problem when using my SATA harddrives, but the drives work fine. Can someone tell me what the problem is here and how to fix it? Thanks.

Dan


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Is that the full message?

Run *eventvwr.msc* and look under the System and Applications logs for an associated error.

Double click to view the description and use the litttle double-paper "copy" icon to copy the description to the clipboard for pasting.


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

Event Type:	Error
Event Source:	Service Control Manager
Event Category:	None
Event ID:	7023
Date: 1/11/2006
Time: 7:18:41 AM
User: N/A
Computer:	DAN
Description:
The HID Input Service service terminated with the following error: 
The system cannot find the file specified.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I'm not sure what the HID service is or if it's related to this problem. However, I do get this error event message everytime I reboot, which is also when the error dialog pops up. This is the only event error message I get at boot time. Everything else is just information events in both system and application, and none of them appear to be related. Also, I do not get this event message whenever I plug a USB device in even though I get the "Windows can not load installer for volume", and with SATA devices I get the volume message as well as "Windows can not load installer for hdc" dialog. I do know it has something to do with my IDE devices because I always get the hoover tip popup in the system tray for my SATA devices when I plug them in saying, "Found new IDE volume", or "Found new IDE channel". However, I don't think the USB device mentions IDE. After I click on the device error dialog, the hoover tip changes to "Device installed and ready for use". Hope this helps. Thanks.

Dan


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

The "HID" error is Human Interface Device and has to do with mice, keyboards and such. It may be a USB HID device.

But the message as you have copied it does not list the file not found. If you didn't use the "copy" icon you may not have seen it in the description window.

>> However I think this is a different issue than the ""Windows can not load installer" problem -- which sounds like it is related to your drive installation.

Not being a hardware person or system builder particularly, I'm going to move this thread to the Hardware forum and modify the title.

Perhaps we can get more input there.


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

I did use the icon to copy the text. It never listed the file unfortunately. However, I thinik you are right, this has nothing to do with the problem. At this point, I'm clueless.
I did build this PC a couple of years ago. It's got an ABIT IC7 motherboard in it.

Thanks,
Dan


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## GripS (Apr 30, 2005)

Is this problem recent or has this been occurring for some time now? 

It appears that your windows installer is somehow corrupted. Have you tried(if you have it turned on) to do a system restore to the point before this happened?


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

I'm fairly certain system restore is not going to fix this, but I could be wrong. This just started happening last week when I installed the new SATA drive. However, at the same time I did start using a new USB 2.0 mass storage Compact Flash card reader; which gets the problem as well. As a test, I disabled the SATA device to see if the USB problem would go away, but it didn't, so I don't know if this problem can be completely attributed to the new SATA installation or not.

I don't use system restore because I back up my O/S incrementally on a nightly basis. I could restore back up to two weeks if I wanted to, but I'm certain that's not going to fix it and don't won't to have to do that if it isn't absolutely necessary.

Therefore, here is what I plan to do. I'm going to install a fresh copy of WindowsXP to an alternate location on my primary IDE harddrive and boot to it and test to see if the problem still exists. If it goes away, then I think it's safe to assume it's a WindowsXP problem with my primary installation; otherwise, it's a motherboard problem. I will try to get this test done this weekend. Thanks so much for your help.

Dan


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## GripS (Apr 30, 2005)

Well i think your on the right track trying a clean install. I recommended system restore as an alternative in case you have information on the drive you can't afford to lose as well as if it did not work you can always undo the restore. Good luck and report back on how it goes so that others with similair situations have a possible solution.


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

Ok. I did the clean install to an alternate location and booted to it. Everything works fine. The SATA drive and the USB device both work great with no error dialogs. Therefore, we know it's a Windows problem now. The hardware is configured right in the BIOS and power is fine. What next....any suggestions....besides re-installing the O/S which would be very costly for me and set me back at least a week or more. Thanks.

Dan


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

You still have System Restore as an option.

You are not getting any other "installer" errors and nothing more in the event logs?

If you look at the task manager process list, is msiexec.exe in there by any chance?

It doesn't sound like this error, but you never know ...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315353&Product=winxp

If it's a "windows installer" issue, you might be able to repair it via an upgrade:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803/


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

I don't believe System Restore is an option. My guess is this problem has been around for some time; who knows how long. It's just gone undetected until I installed a new SATA device and tried to use a mass storage USB device. I actually have a few other USB devices that don't cause this problem (i.e. web camera, USB mouse, USB printer).

msiexec.exe does not exist in the process task list.

I did this http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp and it did not help.

I did this too http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893803/. When I attempt the re-install/upgrade, those dialog errors start to pop up again. I also get them for the USB mouse and SCSIAdapter even though I don't have any SCSI devices. I only get these when attempt to do this upgrade. It tells me that the upgrade completed successfully, but I don't think it really does the upgrade because it finishes real quick without the progress bar going all the way across. When I reboot I still have the problem. This does make me think there is a problem with the Windows Installer, but I don't know how to uninstall it to re-install it. This upgrade doesn't seem to do the trick. Thanks.

Dan


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

System Restore will correct most problems that are not hardware related.

The only catch is that you have to have a restore date prior to the problem. It's easy enough to test -- if it doesn't work, just open the System Restore dialog again and you have the option to "undo" the restore.

You stated " This just started happening last week when I installed the new SATA drive." -- well you should have a prior date. The drive installation shouldn't be affected.


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

Well, as I stated earlier, I have System Restore disabled because I do my own backups. However, I just checked my backups. I can go back to January 2. I will take it back to the 2nd tomorrow and let you know what I find. I will boot to the alternate O/S and recover the primary back to the 2nd. That's how I do it...it's fullproof. The problem is this surfaced on or around the 8th when I did the install, so we really have less than a week.

I'm not holding my breath on this, because like I said earlier, I really think this has been a problem for a long time and was uncovered by installing this new SATA drive. But I have been known to be wrong, so we'll call it a sanity check . At this point it's just not looking too good.

Dan


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## danaltick (Apr 15, 2004)

I took it back to January 2nd and as I suspected, it did not fix the problem. Unless you have any other ideas, a re-install of the O/S appears to be my only option.

One other interesting thing I've noticed: In the device manager under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" are listed the following devices:

IDE channel
IDE channel
IDE controller
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra Storage Controllers
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel

If I double click on any of these I get the "Windows could not load installer for hdc." dialog. When I click "ok" on the dialog it goes away and the properties dialog comes up. It says the device is working properly in every case. However, it will not let me update the driver or roll the driver back. I just keep getting the hdc dialog.

Dan


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Have you tried reinstalling the Intel Chipset?

I think this is it, but I'm not sure:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-009237.htm


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## cyberbob2 (Jan 18, 2007)

G'day,

I had the very same problem, and what happened on my system was that the syssetup.dll fiile was missing from the system32 folder. I searched my hard drive and found a copy of the files in a service pack directory, copied this to c:\windows\system32 and the problem went away. 
If you already have this file in your system32 directory, download filemon from microsoft, run it, and trigger the error. then scroll through the records and find an error that says file not found. You will need to find and restore the missing file.


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