Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
Thus spake Stephen Boulet:
> I'm trying to install windows xp home on my first SATA drive. The
> install is failing with an error message saying that the installer
> can't create a partition due to a bad hard drive.
>
> I know that the hard drives are fine, so I think that it's a driver
> issue.
> First of all, the first partition is a primary partition, and I put an
> extended partition on partition 2. I'm still able to create a primary
> partition on partition 3. Can this be an issue, putting a primary
> partition after an extended one?
>
> I'm using SATA but no RAID. I made a driver disk from the
> "Drivers/VIARAID/DriverDisk/MakeDisk.exe" directory of the CD that
> came with the motherboard. There is no corresponding executable to
> make a driver disk for SATA without RAID. Am I using the right driver?
Stephen, more detail than perhaps you need:
It sounds like the right driver, though I recall some m/bs having two RAID
controllers, where one is SATA only/better/easier to configure than the
other. My A7N8X-E uses a single SI SATA controller. I copied the file to a
floppy then pressed the relevant function key when prompted during the
initial stage of installing XP - don't expect the floppy LED to show any
activity at this stage. A few steps further on you select the driver. The SI
SATA doesn't have to be configured as RAID & I presume other providers ones
don't either?
IIRC, Active partitions get assigned drive letters 1st, whatever discs they
maybe on, then the logical partitions get assigned to disc 0, disc 1 etc
then removable media last. Again IIRC, SATA doesn't assign discs as Primary
& secondary 'cos they have a controller chip for each device. I have two
SATA h/ds which are disc 0 & disc 1. My DVD & CDR/W are both attached to the
two PATA channels as Masters. I did have another h/d with an active
partition on the Primary PATA channel as Master at one point & XP got very
confused with drive letters but I didn't bother or need to sort this out as
I was merely copying files to SATA disc 0 then permanently removing it.
My identical SATA drives aren't configured as RAID at this point in time.
Disc 0 has one active partition as C containing XP with a further 5 logical
drives in the extended partition & drive 1 contains an extended partition
containing 6 logical drives, the 1st being dedicated to the page file. My
CD/DVD drives have drive letters starting with Z. I can add further
partitions, drives, USB mass storage devices etc without having to change
any existing drive letters in XP. All I had to do was to assign Z:\ as the
Installation path before installing anything else (using MS's free TweakUI
for XP: My Computer\Special Folders then Installation path in the drop down
list). This stage won't be necessary for most people & probably yourself.
From XP, you can /easily/ change the drive letters of both partitions &
removable media etc except for the boot drive & the partition XP is
installed to. In most cases, drive C will be both. XP can handle more than
one active partition I hear, though I have chosen to only have one as drive
C.
The other method of installing devices such as SATA without resorting to a
floppy disc is to create a custom XP installation CD with the driver on it
(often with the latest SP slip streamed onto it as well). This so-called
"unattended installation" method is used more for system admin people for
configuring identical PCs but is capable of installing all drivers,
applications, network connections, customisations, accounts, passwords etc
along with the OS. The level of user intervention during the install process
can also be customised, eg, entering the Windows key, passwords etc. I
partially used this method with SP2 slip-streamed but without the SATA
driver 'cos I have a floppy drive in my PC. If you want to experiment with
an unattended install at some stage:
http://unattended.msfn.org/
which also contains links to a forum dedicated to doing this.
If you do choose this method, write to a rewriteable disc - it's very easy
to get the syntax wrong like I did on the 1st couple of attempts. The
incentive for me going with this added level of complexity was to customise
the location of the entire Documents & Settings/Program Files folders to
other partitions - it's far more difficult to do this post install. Either
method will work with an upgrade copy of XP but will require a qualifying
previous version of Windows installation media to be read during the
installation process. Any qualifying media can itself be an upgrade version
(Win98/2000). Still awake?
--
Thank people in advance? Thanking or cursing them afterwards at least
gives some feedback!
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