Installing XP on SATA without floppy?

[Gary R.]

I have a new notebook that came with Vista, and have entertained the idea of
backing up the complete system, formatting, and then installing XP, with the
thought that I'll probably get a considerable performance boost, not to
mention losing the small irritations and nags that are constant with Vista.
(I'm not a Vista hater, just don't really need the glitz or the "do you
really want to..." screens, besides the occasional software that doesn't
work with it). Plus, I think a 2 GB machine with this processor should fly
with XP, and it's only so-so with Vista. If I change my mind, I'll have the
disk imaged so I can go back to Vista.

But the hard drive is SATA, and there is no floppy drive. As far as I
remember, the floppy is the only possibility for adding the SATA drivers
during XP setup, and I'm not even sure if it would recognize a USB floppy if
I were to buy one specifically for that purpose. Any suggestions,
workarounds, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have a new notebook that came with Vista, and have entertained
the idea of backing up the complete system, formatting, and then
installing XP, with the thought that I'll probably get a
considerable performance boost, not to mention losing the small
irritations and nags that are constant with Vista. (I'm not a Vista
hater, just don't really need the glitz or the "do you really want
to..." screens, besides the occasional software that doesn't work
with it). Plus, I think a 2 GB machine with this processor should
fly with XP, and it's only so-so with Vista. If I change my mind,
I'll have the disk imaged so I can go back to Vista.
But the hard drive is SATA, and there is no floppy drive. As far
as I remember, the floppy is the only possibility for adding the
SATA drivers during XP setup, and I'm not even sure if it would
recognize a USB floppy if I were to buy one specifically for that
purpose. Any suggestions, workarounds, etc. would be appreciated.

It would likely recognize a USB floppy drive, however it is not the only
way. You can also integrate/slipstream the driver for the controller into
the installation media just like you can SP2 and most Post-SP2 security
patches...

(Google.)

Make sure - first - that this new notebook has drivers for (is supported
with) Windows XP.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

SATA drivers are probably supported in firmware on your machine but check
with the manufacturer. Most of the new machines for the past couple of
years have that support and do not require using F6 to provide drivers.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Issues you will experience if you downgrade from Vista to XP:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...s&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3439686&dlc=en&lang=en

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

I have a new notebook that came with Vista, and have entertained the idea of
backing up the complete system, formatting, and then installing XP, with the
thought that I'll probably get a considerable performance boost, not to
mention losing the small irritations and nags that are constant with Vista.
(I'm not a Vista hater, just don't really need the glitz or the "do you
really want to..." screens, besides the occasional software that doesn't
work with it). Plus, I think a 2 GB machine with this processor should fly
with XP, and it's only so-so with Vista. If I change my mind, I'll have the
disk imaged so I can go back to Vista.

But the hard drive is SATA, and there is no floppy drive. As far as I
remember, the floppy is the only possibility for adding the SATA drivers
during XP setup, and I'm not even sure if it would recognize a USB floppy if
I were to buy one specifically for that purpose. Any suggestions,
workarounds, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

 

[Jasper]

I have a new notebook that came with Vista, and have entertained the idea
of backing up the complete system, formatting, and then installing XP, with
the thought that I'll probably get a considerable performance boost, not to
mention losing the small irritations and nags that are constant with Vista.
(I'm not a Vista hater, just don't really need the glitz or the "do you
really want to..." screens, besides the occasional software that doesn't
work with it). Plus, I think a 2 GB machine with this processor should fly
with XP, and it's only so-so with Vista. If I change my mind, I'll have
the disk imaged so I can go back to Vista.

But the hard drive is SATA, and there is no floppy drive. As far as I
remember, the floppy is the only possibility for adding the SATA drivers
during XP setup, and I'm not even sure if it would recognize a USB floppy
if I were to buy one specifically for that purpose. Any suggestions,
workarounds, etc. would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

Install XP normally.
XP should find the drive without the need for a driver off of a floppy. You
only need that for SCSI or RAID drives.

 

[R. McCarty]

Use a program called nLite to embed the SATA drivers into your
XP installation media. I've had to do this several times for new
systems where the customer wanted XP instead of Vista. First be
sure that all your peripherals are supported with XP Drivers. There
are some classes of drivers such as HD (High Definition) audio that
will not work with XP unless patches for Microsoft AUU driver
and Hotfix are applied. Also be aware of potential driver issues for
some Broadcom/Atheros Wireless chipset based networking.

Best to check the Vendor's website/forums for any information on a
OS downgrade and whether someone has successfully installed XP
on your particular model.

 

[Gary R.]

Thanks for all the excellent and quick responses!

This gives me something to work with...if all goes well I can try the
install and see if the drive is recognized without additional drivers, or
can do the slipstream or external floppy if needed. I have a retail copy of
XP from a dead machine (with SP2 already slipstreamed), so cost isn't an
issue, should it not work out.

Re the cautions: I know there's a possibility of things not working due to
drivers (this is a Gateway, and I haven't found ALL the xp drivers yet, but
am still looking for older machines with that same hardware and XP drivers).
This is why I want to be sure to have a good disk image made just before I
format. If I don't find the drivers, or it has too many issues, I can live
with Vista, though I may wear out my finger from clicking "yes, I really do
want to move that shortcut into that folder" or "yes, I really do want to
run that program" so many times 8^).

Performance-wise, it seems like this machine "feels" about the same as my
older 2003-model Gateway laptop with 1 GB and XP, and a Celeron, where this
one has a dual core Intel and 2 GB, so the extra power is just probably
running stuff I don't need, instead of giving me nice zippy performance.

Gary

 

[R. McCarty]

New Vista machines will appear to be sluggish at first. This is due to
the intensive Indexing that goes on. Until the Index is fully built Vista
will run slower and use around 200+ Megabytes of RAM that won't
be utilized after Indexing completes. Also it takes a few days of use
for the machine to fully utilize Superfetch.

 

[Xandros]

XP CD with SP2 integrated should install to the SATA normally without the
need to add the drivers first.

 

[Telstar]

IMO the FIRST thing that should be completely disabled is indexing. In is
inefficiently and horribly implemented.

 

[Andy]

Go into bios setup, and change the mode of the SATA interface from
AHCI to IDE.

 

[Cocco Bill]

you don't need any drivers for SATA disk if installing XP.just setup XP like
you do with IDE drive.

 

[R. McCarty]

That's dependant on which operating mode the SATA controller is set to.
Vista natively supports AHCI
http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm
XP does not natively support ACHI and to install XP on a system with it
( ACHI ) you have to change the operating mode of the SATA controller
to "Legacy" mode in BIOS setup. This is a common issue for users who
buy a new PC with Vista and wipe the drive and attempt to install XP.

 

[Frank Pajerski]

If you do feel the need for a USB FDD at WinXP F6 install time, only some
models are supported .... see KB916196.

I bought a supported IBM (TEAC) USB FDD cheaply and quickly via eBay. This
device worked fine at F6 time when installing WinXP onto a SATA drive (with
AHCI specified), but a BSOD a few minutes later in the "WinXP Setup" process
stopped me. The BSOD was resolved by then using a customized WinXP install
CD with SP2 slipstreamed in. "nLite" http://www.nliteos.com/index.html
easily and correctly produced this CD for an inexperienced me.

--- Frank