actually, best thing is to first ver that you're XP install disk is a newer one that comes with SP1, if using XP. XP will NOT recognize a SATA drive correctly unless it has SP1. You could always slipstream, but an easier way is to just go into bios, find a place in there (you'll have to do some detective work) for the SATA settings and set the HD to IDE compatable mode. Then finish the installation (I would disable the bios virus protection, too as a precaution). Once this is done and XP is finished (assuming it IS XP) then download SP1. After that go back into BIOS and reenable SATA support and virus boot prot.