SATA driver floppy not always needed... why not?

[Hackworth]

This is probably a stupid question, but why is it that a SATA driver floppy
is not always required when installting Windows XP?

I've recently assembled two systems, one based on an ECS RS-480-M
motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135191)
and another based on the Chaintech VNF4
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813152053). Then, I
assembled one using an Asus A8V Deluxe
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131510R), and this
time I needed to make a pre-OS-installation SATA floppy and press F6 at the
beginning of the Win XP installation. (BTW, in all cases, I'm installing Win
XP SP2, either Home or Pro edition.) Those are just the most recent
examples, but I've had similar experiences with three or four other
motherboards since I started using SATA drives in my builds.

Why do some mobos require the floppy and some don't? Is it a function of the
motherboard chipset that allows XP to see the SATA drive without having to
install the SATA driver manually?

 

[Conor]

This is probably a stupid question, but why is it that a SATA driver floppy
is not always required when installting Windows XP?

Some systems emulate SCSI/IDE when running the SATA channel in non
RAID.

 

[Gringo]

Some systems emulate SCSI/IDE when running the SATA channel in non
RAID.

Yea, my Asrock 939Dual has the option via the bios to run SATA in IDE
mode. No drivers needed.

 

[Jan Alter]

I've discovered the same thing. SP2 has a built in native SATA driver. Try
the installation with XP or XP-SP1 and you'll be hitting the F6 key to use
the floppy.

 

[Conor]

Yea, my Asrock 939Dual has the option via the bios to run SATA in IDE
mode. No drivers needed.

Is that the Ali chipset board with both an 8x AGP and a 16x PCI-e slot?
How are you finding it? Is it worth buying?

Only ask because I'm thinking of moving up to socket 939 but I have an
AGP 6800GT.

 

[Gringo]

Is that the Ali chipset board with both an 8x AGP and a 16x PCI-e slot?
How are you finding it? Is it worth buying?

Yes, that's the one. It's been rock solid so far and it seems to be
selling fairly well so it's quite a popular board. One negative is
that I don't like where they put the floppy and IDE connectors and
there is not much choice in voltage selection for overclockers but
quite a few are overclocking their cpu's with it. You can get hacked
bios files that will give you better overclocking options. I'm not
using them though as I am not overclocking. There is little to be
gained in overclocking today's fast cpu's unless you can accomplish a
huge overclock. I've always preferred the Award bios but this one uses
AMI, that's no big deal though. One thing I do like is that it uses
passive heatsinks and no noisy grinding fan like my Abit IC7 had.
Considering it's low price and decent quality it is well worth buying
if you want to use AGP for now and upgrade to PCI-E later. I use an
X800XL AGP card in it.

 

[Frank]

I've once read somewhere a while back that it also had to do with the
chipset. VIA chipset for example had the native sata integrated thus winxp
would see your drives. But nforce2 for example does not. However, the board
might also have bios options to help winxp discover the sata drives as well.
All I can say is if you want to completely get rid of floppy F6 thing during
install, all you have to do is slipstream sata drivers to your winxp install
cd. To do so, see here......and if it's an original or pre SP1 cd, take the
opportunity to add SP2 as well.
http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html

 

[Sam]

I've discovered the same thing. SP2 has a built in native SATA driver. Try
the installation with XP or XP-SP1 and you'll be hitting the F6 key to use
the floppy.

XP-sp2 does not have SATA drivers built in. I've loaded that version
of the OS on a couple of older motherboards with SATA drives and I
definitely needed to do the F6/Floppy routine. I think those drivers
are built in to many newer motherboards and possibly sp2 just helps
utilize them better.

Sam

 

[Conor]

Yes, that's the one. It's been rock solid so far and it seems to be
selling fairly well so it's quite a popular board.

<snip>

Thanks for that. I think I'll look into getting one. Been looking on a
couple of websites and it benchmarks very close to the AN8 which was my
choice if I was going fully PCIe. No bad comments about quality either.

Many thanks.