Bring me up to date: Are floppies still needed for HD SATA install XP?

[EricVPI]

I'm planning on building a new computer and I do NOT want to get a floppy drive. I am planning on getting a P35 gigabyte mobo and the XP CD I will be using is SP2.

Should I count on XP install not detecting my HD during installation?

 

[BrutalDawg1]

you could just install it under IDE emulation and just skip the whole AHCI w/ NCQ stuff. But if you want maximum performance with big file transfering then you can either do the whole F6 Install w/ floppy or you can slipstream the SATA drivers into your XP CD.

Have fun =/

 

[EricVPI]

Ugh, almost makes me want to get VISTA.


The SATA drivers are for the mobo, not the HD itself, right? What if my DVD drive is also sata?

 

[EricVPI]

Actually I just read it more depends on the motherboard's BIOS support for SATA. So if your mobo is ok then installing xp should be okay without a flopping or slipstreaming.

Can anyone confirm this?

 

[chookman]

Yes as BrutalDawg1 stated you can use these in "IDE mode" which basically makes windows think they are running on an IDE channel which we all know will be detected no issues.

When i need to use a floppy drive i just plug one in for the duration of use then unplug again, ive got like 6 machines with a 1 floppy drive that is communal that works

 

[rockchalk]

Of course, you can always go with the IDE/ Compatibility mode, but as others suggested, you don't get full performance. BrutalDawg1 was correct-- your only options are a floppy (USB floppy drives do work, although sometimes take a little tweaking) or to slipstream. There's nothing the BIOS can do (other than put you in IDE/ compatibility mode).

 

[EricVPI]

I read in another TH thread that XP install CD with SP2 and a recent mobo I should have no problems...huh..

 

[rwpritchett]

There are ways to switch to AHCI mode after WinXP is installed. No, you can't just switch it over in BIOS or you'll blue screen, but there are tricks to get it to work. Install using IDE/compatibility mode and when you have the OS up and running make the switch to AHCI using one of the tricks. I've done it before back when I was still running XP.

 

[rwpritchett]

Running Vista now. RAID and AHCI will run on Vista drivers during install. At least they did for me on ICH8R chipset.

 

[sgtwally]

just get a fresh unmoddified xp pro cd. use nlite to slipstream the sata drivers into the xp disc.

 

[BrutalDawg1]

yah just slipstream your correct SATA drivers with nlite and be done with floppies forever!!

 

[SiriusStarr]

Okay, I'm about to do a SATA install of XP SP2. Will someone very clearly tell me what I need to do to install?

 

[sgtwally]

go here,

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/

make your own xp cd with the sata drivers and whatever else u want in it. including even all your device drivers.

 

[SiriusStarr]

Great, thanks! I assume the SATA drivers are just available online from microsoft?

 

[rwpritchett]

Unfortunately, Intel packs "F6" controller drivers into an executable that makes the floppy disk. At least that's the way it is for my P965 board. I'm sure there's a way to run a command line script to extract the .exe file to divulge the .inf driver files you need. They seem to really want people to have floppy drives for this, huh?

 

[EricVPI]

The guys at the mobo section tend to completely disagree, most of them saying they've never needed to F6 floppies for SATA drives. You all might be running old mobos, perhaps?

 

[jmpnjimbob]

I believe that it depends on your motherboard. I recently (within 2 weeks) built a new system using a Gigabyte motherboard that uses the Intel P35 chipset and a SATA hard drive as the main OS drive. Windows XP with Sp2 (I have slipstreamed Sp2 to my original XP Sp1 disk) installed easily. in the past I too have had to do the floppy drive shuffle to have a drive installed in a system to load the SATA drivers during the Windows XP installation. But these were older Intel and AMD motherboards.

I have built a few systems (again both Intel and AMD based) over the last year to year and a half and it seems that the boards that support both processors have gotten better in how they handle SATA drives with XP. I do not know for certain but since the system that you are building uses a the relatively recent Intel P35 chipset that it too will go smoothly.

 

[SiriusStarr]

"Unfortunately, Intel packs "F6" controller drivers into an executable that makes the floppy disk. At least that's the way it is for my P965 board. I'm sure there's a way to run a command line script to extract the .exe file to divulge the .inf driver files you need. They seem to really want people to have floppy drives for this, huh?"

The easiest way to pull a driver out of an EXE is just to use linux. You can just open it with archive manager.

 

[-999-]

"Unfortunately, Intel packs "F6" controller drivers into an executable that makes the floppy disk. At least that's the way it is for my P965 board. I'm sure there's a way to run a command line script to extract the .exe file to divulge the .inf driver files you need. They seem to really want people to have floppy drives for this, huh?"

The easiest way to pull a driver out of an EXE is just to use linux. You can just open it with archive manager.

You can also use 7zip/winrar or -a to unpack it.