Installing WinXP on a SATA hard disk

[Bill Ridgeway]

On trying to install Windows XP doesn't detect the SATA hard disk drive.
(CMOS doesn't detect it either).

I know the hard disk is working -or at least it is partially booting which
is why I want re-install Windows XP. How do you persuade it that a hard
disk drive is installed please?

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway

 

[Guest]

You have to change the boot order in the bios to boot to the sata drives
first, that is what i had to do for the sata system i built about a year ago.

 

[Jim]

You usually have to hit F6 when prompted for mass storage devices on XP
installation if you want XP to recognize the SATA drive. You'll then be
prompted to provide the drivers on a floppy.

Jim

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Jim,

Thanks. The user turned the power off whilst the computer was closing down
so I presume that it was working OK but Windows has been corrupted. I've
only just come across SATA drives and have done a bit or reading up. I've
seen references to the need to have a floppy drive. However, this computer
doesn't have a floppy drive or a connector for one on the motherboard so,
for the moment, I'm stumped.

I've tried f6 on booting up to the recovery CD but that doesn't work either.
Now I'm really stumped.

Any ideas please? (Other than replace the hard disk drive).

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
Computer Solutions

 

[Jim]

Unfortunately, Windows STILL, after all this time, insists on using a floppy
to install mass storage device drivers (like your SATA drive) during
installation. I suspect the next version of Windows will finally put an end
to this, allowing the use of CD, USB pen drives, etc., as well. Until then,
the ONLY thing I've seen work is to "slipstream" the drivers into the XP CD.
If you don't know what slipstreaming is, you can easily Google it and find
many resources explaining the process. It's just a means of dumping the
installation CD to your HD, adding the SATA drivers, then taking the
modified contents and building a new CD. Now you boot the new CD. Since
the SATA drivers are now located on the CD, there's no need to add mass
storage drivers during installation.

Here's a good example: http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html

The only other option is to install XP on an IDE drive, install the SATA
drivers, copy the XP partition to the SATA drive, then make the SATA drive
bootable.

Jim

 

[billh]

I may not be recalling correctly but when I installed a SATA drive on my
Asus P4P800 board I think I would have loaded the SATA driver from my
motherboard driver CD.
Billh

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bill.

How is your SATA drive interfaced to the motherboard? I don't think you've
mentioned either the make and model of your mobo or of your SATA
HD/controller.

Some mobos (like my EPoX 8KDA3+) have built-in SATA, supported by the mobo
chipset (NVIDIA nForce3 for mine). Others don't and the user must add a
SATA controller card to support the HD. (Many SATA HDs come with such a PCI
card.) It sounds like your mobo does not have built-in support since your
SATA HD is not detected by the BIOS. Do you see a "banner" from the BIOS on
the SATA card soon after POST and before Windows starts loading? If your
computer can't even see the SATA drive, you're not going to be able to
install WinXP on it. If SATA is built-in, the drivers should be on the CD
that came with the mobo. If you are using an add-in card, you'll need to
get the drivers from the card maker.

Figure out the hardware first, then install WinXP.

Once the SATA HD is detected by the BIOS, you may have a new set of problems
if you also have one or more IDE HDs connected. Most BIOSes insist on
seeing the IDE HDs first, even if the CMOS is set to boot from SATA. You
may need to remove or disable any IDE drives before booting from the WinXP
CD-ROM to run Setup.

RC