Can't install SP2 XP onto SATA drive. No Floppy Drive!

S

SmartTart

New Member
Hey there gang,
I have a bit of a problem here. I just bought a new computer which came with Vista. It's a very visually appealing OS, but does not run smoothly with some of my favorite (older) games. I recently bought a new WD 750 Gb SATA drive and after formatting, etc through Vista, am trying to install a clean version of XP on it. However, the new PC I bought did not come with a floppy drive (I don't have a USB version) and the drive itself did not come with drivers. Not a big problem since I got them off the West. Digital site, but the problem is getting the drivers to the XP installation stage without a floppy. It would seem ridiculous that a fairly common situation such as mine is only solved by VERY outdated technology, but I don't see a clear path across. Is there some way I can "trick" the computer into thinking a USB drive (with he drivers on it, of course) is actually the SATA boot floppy? Or better yet, since it's not my primary hard drive (I have Vista on the main one, remember), can I run the XP installation and just search the "C:" for the SATA drivers? Any help would be much appreciated, this has been driving me crazy.

Thanks!
SmartTart
 
I saw the other thread where simply installing XP onto a second primary won't see that as an entry in Vista boot screen as an option. Once XP is on you then have to reinstall Vista to have the new version detect the old. It works that way regardless of what dual boot configuration you set up. XP will add 98SE into it's boot.ini file and show up at startup.

With a second optical drive you could possibly see the XP installer copy and load the necessary drivers from a cd-r rather then a floppy. Most newer boards are easier now where no driver disk is needed like seen on AMD 939, Intel P4 models, and older boards in general. Boards seeing only one ide channel are sata geared and anticipate the XP installer needing to detection any drives installed. Vista on the other hand has it's own generic drivers and detects sata drives on many older boards.
 
SmartTart said:
Hey there gang,
I have a bit of a problem here. I just bought a new computer which came with Vista. It's a very visually appealing OS, but does not run smoothly with some of my favorite (older) games. I recently bought a new WD 750 Gb SATA drive and after formatting, etc through Vista, am trying to install a clean version of XP on it. However, the new PC I bought did not come with a floppy drive (I don't have a USB version) and the drive itself did not come with drivers. Not a big problem since I got them off the West. Digital site, but the problem is getting the drivers to the XP installation stage without a floppy. It would seem ridiculous that a fairly common situation such as mine is only solved by VERY outdated technology, but I don't see a clear path across. Is there some way I can "trick" the computer into thinking a USB drive (with he drivers on it, of course) is actually the SATA boot floppy? Or better yet, since it's not my primary hard drive (I have Vista on the main one, remember), can I run the XP installation and just search the "C:" for the SATA drivers? Any help would be much appreciated, this has been driving me crazy.

Thanks!
SmartTart
Click to expand...

One way would be to burn a copy of your XP cd by Slipstreaming the Sata Drivers onto your XP cd, then you would have a backup with the Sata drivers already on the disk.
 
StrangleHold said:
One way would be to burn a copy of your XP cd by Slipstreaming the Sata Drivers onto your XP cd, then you would have a backup with the Sata drivers already on the disk.
Click to expand...

I was thinking of going that route but unsure as to how to do it. Where would I need to put the SATA drivers on the CD so they auto-recognize?
 
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