replacing the mobo

Zatharus

VIP Member
No, you can boot the machine and enter the boot menu to select your CD drive to boot from. Then put the OS setup disk in the drive and hit enter.

What OS are you intending to install? Vista or XP? If it is Vista or XP SP2 or later, you shouldn't need a driver disk on hand if you are installing to a SATA drive. If you only have an XP SP1 or earlier install disk, you will need to have a floppy drive and floppy with the SATA driver on hand. If you are installing to an IDE drive in any case, you will be fine.
 

rockhead

New Member
it is sp1 but i dont have a floppy drive, is this that big of a problem? and how do i tell if it is sata or ide?
 

Zatharus

VIP Member
Is the connector on your drive a 40pin, wide connector? If so, it is an IDE drive an you are fine. If not, and the connector is a very small connector with no pins (they are flat contacts), it is a SATA drive and you will need to purchase or borrow a USB floppy drive to load the driver. Or, you can just slipstream the SP3 update into your original insallation disk and burn a new copy. This is the cheapest route.
 

Zatharus

VIP Member
would a flash drive work the same? i have a 1gb flash drive so would that work?

I think a USB stick would only work if it was formatted as a Floppy.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml


No and no. XP insists on an actual floppy drive. In some cases it will not even behave with a USB floppy drive.

As for the actual chipset driver rockhead, you will want the "Chipset/Lan/SATA Raid" driver pack from the link you posted. You can extract that EXE into a directory and then load it onto a floppy.

Or - If you are up to a small bit of elbow grease and the idea of purchasing/installing a floppy drive is unappealing (I don't blame you if it is), I would recommend slipstreaming Service Pack 3 into your current install disc and re-burning it to a CD. This way, you will not have to worry about the SATA driver at installation, and you won't have to go through the very long web-update process to get SP3 on your computer.


Edit: The nLite process you linked to will also work, but I would still start with the a slipstream-updated image/directory. Then install the nVidia driver as outlined on that page and re-burn your install disk. Granted, the nLite method is a little redundant to slipstreaming, but you will begin with the actually nVidia driver instead of a generic Microsoft one. So, in that sense, it isn't a bad idea.
 
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rockhead

New Member
i would love to just re burn the disk but i bought a new copy of vista and how do i slipstream service pack 3 into my install disk?
 
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Bob692006

New Member
There is no SP3 for Vista and you won't need a floppy drive since your installing Vista, your SATA drive will work fine.
 

Zatharus

VIP Member
i would love to just re burn the disk but i bought a new copy of vista and how do i slipstream service pack 3 into my install disk?

Right-o mate! Forgot that you were going to purchase Vista. :eek:

Bob is right. Vista will work just fine with your SATA drive. Please disregard the posts about slipstreaming. You won't need to do anything to your new Vista disk. Did you end up getting the 64bit version?
 

rockhead

New Member
yes i got the 64 bit thanks to you guys. my parts came in today so i will put everything in this weakend. ok just so i know i have this stright when i replace everything i just boot up the pc insert the windows disk and reformat my hdd and install the os and thats it?
 

mep916

Administrator
Staff member
My bad. I didn't read the whole thread. Like said, you shouldn't have any issues with SATA drives and Vista. Best of luck.
 

Bob692006

New Member
yes i got the 64 bit thanks to you guys. my parts came in today so i will put everything in this weakend. ok just so i know i have this stright when i replace everything i just boot up the pc insert the windows disk and reformat my hdd and install the os and thats it?


Yes, as long as your BIOS is set to boot from your CD-ROM first and not your HDD. If it's not you can use this http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom as a general guide to help you figure it out. If you need any help putting everything together, here's two guides to help you along:

http://www.computerforum.com/145207-building-pc-tutorial-video.html

-or-

http://www.computerforum.com/104641-how-build-computer-step-step-photos.html
 

rockhead

New Member
i have one of thoes card readers like for a camera and it uses a connector i dont know what its called but on my new motherbord its called f panel. its got two rows of pins one row has 4 pins on row has 5 pins. and i have 2 usb ports that use the same type of connector is their a conversion conector for these to usb or how do i hook them up to my new mobo?
 

rockhead

New Member
ok i took another look at them and i think their a usb conector for the motherboard i just want to make sure this is right?
 

Zatharus

VIP Member
i have one of thoes card readers like for a camera and it uses a connector i dont know what its called but on my new motherbord its called f panel. its got two rows of pins one row has 4 pins on row has 5 pins. and i have 2 usb ports that use the same type of connector is their a conversion conector for these to usb or how do i hook them up to my new mobo?

ok i took another look at them and i think their a usb conector for the motherboard i just want to make sure this is right?


Yes, that is correct. That connector is to be plugged directly into one of your motherboard's USB headers.

How is the rest of the build coming?
 

rockhead

New Member
well i put everything in about 10 minuets ago and it started right up. installing windows right now and it is taking for ever to do anything right now so i hope that changes and its just because its putting in a os. it did not give me a option to format my hdd. does it just do it autmacitly?
 
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