Windows XP is SATA blind.

[axiomflash]

I recently upgraded my computer to 2 SATA drives. I am positive that these are setup correctly and formatted correctly, yet I can not install XP on them in any way. I havve spent the last 2 weeks trying everything I can imagine to get the XP startup disks to recognize these SATA drives, but they refuse.

I had Vista RC1 on these SATA drives for the past month and it worked fine. Install recognized the drives, and they work perfectly. I tried to install XP through Vista, but that doesn't work, nothing happens when I run the startup disk. Then I tried reformating the computer and using the XP startup disk again, doesn't work. I have tried numerous types of startup disks and driver disks, from the CD driver that comes with the HD's, to making a floppy with drivers from that CD, to XP reocgnizing 3rd party raid. Nothing works!!!

When I turn on my computer DOS says the drives are there and they seem fine.
When I startup with Partition Magic, it says the dirves are there and formatted correctly.
When i startup with the HD's software CD, it says the same thing. I've run every option any of these tools give me.
The Sata drives are simply set up on SATA1 and SATA2 of my Abit KV8 motherboard.

The XP startup disk will flat out refuse to view the harddrives. It doesn't show them as drives without the correct drivers. They don't show up period.

I am at a total loss. Please can anyone help!?!?!??!

 

[Osiris]

Thats because XP needs the drivers for it

 

[axiomflash]

i suppose yes, but my point is i have no way to give the drivers to XP.

you can hit F6 when windows install starts to install RAID or EIDI drivers, but these SATA drives aren't either of those. it never gives an option to install my SATA drivers.

So, I have been trying to install the SATA drivers using F6, but XP demands a floppy disk with a very specific name. It won't take my driver CD, or the driver floppy disk I made with my HD software.

 

[Ste]

You could also use Nlite to intergrate the Drivers into XP.
I have done this with RAID Drivers before.

 

[welsh]

what sata drives are they? and i had the same problem only i figured it out in a day. i had a seagate sata drive that wouldnt take and i use the disk wizard from them (http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html) and then it worked fine, made my hd 30 gigs smaller but i got it back with partition magic after i installed.

 

[axiomflash]

It is two western digital caviar drives. 160gb and 260gb.

ive been using their software CD and it even has an option to setup the drives before an xp install but that failed to work.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

You can't load the drivers off the CD unless you slip stream them..you have to pull them off the mobo CD and load them onto floppies..but I would choose the slipstreaming route since you can load a shitload of drivers to ensure you have the right one on there.

 

[axiomflash]

that sounds good. would you mind explaining what slipstreaming is to me? ive never heard of it before

 

[FlashDude]

Slipstreaming is very easy I use nLite . Slipstreaming is a fancy word that just means making a new XP cd and adding all the drivers and updates and service packs to it.

But for now You could try to do it the other way. You don't get the sata drivers from the maker of the hdd you get them from your MOBO maker. They are on your mobo cd and there should be an option to make sata driver disk or go to their site and download that sata drivers there and copy them to a floppy disk. and then You select f6 on setup.

 

[EricB]

you can hit F6 when windows install starts to install RAID or EIDI drivers, but these SATA drives aren't either of those. it never gives an option to install my SATA drivers.

yes it is. this is the only way to install sata drive on xp without slipstreaming them to your xp cd

your mobo should have had a floppy disk or the is a file on your mobo cd to make a floppy disk. the hard drive isn't what need the drivers, it's the sata controllers