SATA install without floppy drive

Lars Hoffmann · Nov 13, 2005

Hi

I need to install windows 2000 on my HTPC, but I have no floppy
connected to the machine, so I cannot load the SATA driver from the
floppy during install. The machine has a 120 GB SATA drive as only HDD
so I need to install the OS on that.

What alternatives do I have to opening up the machine and temporarily
mounting a floppy unit just for the install?

Best regards
Lars Hoffmann

Dave Patrick · Nov 13, 2005

This article may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q288344

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hi
|
| I need to install windows 2000 on my HTPC, but I have no floppy
| connected to the machine, so I cannot load the SATA driver from the
| floppy during install. The machine has a 120 GB SATA drive as only HDD
| so I need to install the OS on that.
|
| What alternatives do I have to opening up the machine and temporarily
| mounting a floppy unit just for the install?
|
| Best regards
| Lars Hoffmann
|

Lars Hoffmann · Nov 13, 2005

Dave said:
This article may help.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q288344

Thanks, however, I got to point 7 where it started to talk about making
an unattended installation. However, if I skip all this about making an
unatended installation, will I be able to select the driver to use or
do I have to make a complete unatended installation?

Best regards
Lars Hoffmann

Dave Patrick · Nov 13, 2005

Afraid the latter; or temp connect the floppy drive.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thanks, however, I got to point 7 where it started to talk about making
| an unattended installation. However, if I skip all this about making an
| unatended installation, will I be able to select the driver to use or
| do I have to make a complete unatended installation?
|
| Best regards
| Lars Hoffmann
|

Lars Hoffmann · Nov 13, 2005

Dave said:
Afraid the latter; or temp connect the floppy drive.

Ok, I finally opened the machine connected a floppy and ran the regular
install. Its a pain, but reading up on how to make an unatended install
and actually doing it would definately have taken more time.

Hope Microsoft comes up with an easier way to install additional
harddrives for machines with no floppy in the future.

Cheers
Lars

Sid Knee · Nov 13, 2005

Lars said:
Hi

I need to install windows 2000 on my HTPC, but I have no floppy
connected to the machine, so I cannot load the SATA driver from the
floppy during install. The machine has a 120 GB SATA drive as only HDD
so I need to install the OS on that.

What alternatives do I have to opening up the machine and temporarily
mounting a floppy unit just for the install?

Do you have, or can you make a bootable CD (bootdisk.com has bootable cd
images I believe) and also put the SATA drivers on the same or another CD?

Then you could create the partition on the HD (using the win2k install
disk or other means). Stop the install at that point. Boot from CD and
copy the drivers (from CD) to the HD. Then do the regular install and
pick up the drivers from the HD.

This may mean formatting the partition initially as FAT32 and converting
it later (if you want) to NTFS ... unless you can get a boot CD that
will work in NTFS>

Dave Patrick · Nov 13, 2005

Yes I believe this changes with Windows Vista.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Ok, I finally opened the machine connected a floppy and ran the regular
| install. Its a pain, but reading up on how to make an unatended install
| and actually doing it would definately have taken more time.
|
| Hope Microsoft comes up with an easier way to install additional
| harddrives for machines with no floppy in the future.
|
| Cheers
| Lars
|

Lars Hoffmann · Nov 13, 2005

Sid said:
Then you could create the partition on the HD (using the win2k install
disk or other means). Stop the install at that point. Boot from CD and
copy the drivers (from CD) to the HD. Then do the regular install and
pick up the drivers from the HD.

Can't do that, the win2k install (and XP and 2003) only allows
additional drivers from floppy disk A during.

If not I could have simple burned the drivers to another CD and picked
themup from there.

Best regards
Lars Hoffmann

TheDragon · Nov 13, 2005

Dave Patrick said:
Yes I believe this changes with Windows Vista.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Ok, I finally opened the machine connected a floppy and ran the regular
| install. Its a pain, but reading up on how to make an unatended install
| and actually doing it would definately have taken more time.
|
| Hope Microsoft comes up with an easier way to install additional
| harddrives for machines with no floppy in the future.
|
| Cheers
| Lars
|

why not use a USB stick? Most have a floppy boot mode

Dave Patrick · Nov 13, 2005

A 3.5" floppy drive is required. Bootable or not bootable isn't the issue.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| why not use a USB stick? Most have a floppy boot mode
| >
|
|

Lars Hoffmann · Nov 13, 2005

TheDragon said:
why not use a USB stick? Most have a floppy boot mode

Because windows will /only/ accept additional drivers from floppy.

Regards
Lars

Sid Knee · Nov 13, 2005

Lars said:
Sid Knee wrote:

Can't do that, the win2k install (and XP and 2003) only allows
additional drivers from floppy disk A during.

Sorry Lars, I did not realise that.

MrC. · Nov 13, 2005

Why not make a custom disk with the drivers included on the Win2k disk?
You can use nlite and include the drivers then you don't have to use the
floppy disk.
http://www.nliteos.com/index.html

HTH
MrC.

Sid Knee · Nov 16, 2005

MrC. said:
Why not make a custom disk with the drivers included on the Win2k disk?
You can use nlite and include the drivers then you don't have to use the
floppy disk.
http://www.nliteos.com/index.html

This looks like an interesting tool which says it can slipstream
(amongst other things) hotfixes.

But what is a "type 1 hotfix" and are the Win2K hotfixes of this type
(or just the WinXP HF's)? If the Win2K HF's are "type 1" where could I
download them as standalones?

Having had to frequently re-install lately on an experimental/test
machine from an install cd slipstreamed to SP4 (but not beyond) I can
testify it's a painful business. Just the updating takes several times
longer than the original install (... have the MS programmers never
conceived of the idea of letting you agree to the reboot *before* the
hotfix is downloaded and applied, so that at least you could wander off
and find the machine ready for the next fix when you get back instead of
having to wait for the reboot at that point?)

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SATA install without floppy drive

Lars Hoffmann

Dave Patrick

Lars Hoffmann

Dave Patrick

Lars Hoffmann

Sid Knee

Dave Patrick

Lars Hoffmann

TheDragon

Dave Patrick

Lars Hoffmann

Sid Knee

MrC.

Sid Knee

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