Installing XPHome alongside Vista

[pod]

I have the Dell XPS420 with Vista Home Prem pre-installed.

I have installed another SATA HDD (from previous dead PC) into my machine
(SATA2). On this HDD I want to install XP Home.

Below is the configuration:
SATA0 = VISTA
SATA1 = CD/DVD
SATA2 = XPHOME

I get the PC to boot from the CD/DVD and setup begins ok. Just before the
welcome screen appears, the PC generates a STOP message:

0x7B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x0, 0x0)

Any ideas/suggestions?
regards
pod

 

[John John (MVP)]

You will have to press F6 at the beginning of the installation routine
and supply the controller drivers on a floppy diskette. Or you might be
able to go in the BIOS and set the SATA controller to IDE mode, this
should allow you to install without needing to supply additional drivers.

John

 

[pod]

Thanks for your reply John,

Sadly, I think the XPS420 does not support IDE but can do Floppy. In any
case, I do not have a floppy drive.

Any other ideas please let me know - I shall play around with F6 and see
what I can do.

Cheers
pod

 

[John John (MVP)]

If you use the F6 method you *must* supply the drivers on a floppy
diskette, the Windows XP setup program will not accept the drivers from
any other media source. You can use a USB floppy drive but not all of
them are compatible with the setup program:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196 The only other alternative to
the F6 method would be to incorporate (slipstream) the drivers into the
installation cd.

John

 

[pod]

Cheers John,

I do not have a USB floppy drive - nor really do I want to purchase one just
for this problem.

How could I slipstream the necessary drivers onto the windows cd?

I guess I make a clone cd of my legal copy of windows xp home installation
cd and copy the necessary drivers to the cd.

two questions;

#1 But how would I get windows installation to know about the drivers i have
put on the cd?
#2 And more importantly, what drivers do I put on the cd? dumb question, but
i take it that windows does not know about the chipset and the controllers?

Thanks for your help,
m

 

[John John (MVP)]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--Slipstream-your-XP-installation

The Mass Storage (SATA) drivers would usually be supplied with your
motherboard drivers.

A clone wouldn't work unless the drivers are preinstalled. When the
drivers are installed the proper registry information is entered in the
System Control Set, these controller drivers are needed at the very
beginning of the boot process and during the boot process ntldr will not
find or load the drivers if they aren't installed, the boot process will
fail with an 0x7b error.

The simplest easiest way around this problem would be to temporarily fit
a floppy drive to the computer, scrounge one off another computer or for
about $10 you can buy a new one and permanently fit it to the computer
and be done with this.

John