SATA (disk) drivers with USB during install?

[zrush]

Okay, so I'm building a PC. I didn't order a floppy drive. I figure I wouldn't need it since I can just update the BIOS by USB. So I'm browsing around the M$ site today stumble upon their XP64 area. I'm going to be using XP64 for the first time on this new PC. It says that you need to provide the 64-bit SATA drives from your motherboard manufacturer when Windows installation gives you that lovely promp I've always happily ignored. Well, you might not have to, but the only way you'll find out is if after installation your O/S just doesn't work. Both my DVD drive and hard drive are SATA.

Installing Windows twice consecutively is not my idea of a good time. What I am wondering is if during installation I could supply a thumb drive with the SATA drivers on it instead of a floppy. And if so, how do I go about doing this?

Of course, I could just order a floppy drive and wait for it to ship, but since this is the only thing I'll be using it for, I'd like to try different options.

The XP64 CD I have is the Service Pack 2 version.
My motherboard is an ASUS P5Q LGA775 (northbridge Intel P45)

 

[KSoD]

You could just create a slipstreamed version of the XP X64 Disc with your SATA Drivers. Use nlite and the correct SATA drivers. Problem solved without having to use a USB Thumb Drive.

 

[EricB]

yeah. you can't use anything but the disc and floppy with xp

 

[zrush]

You could just create a slipstreamed version of the XP X64 Disc with your SATA Drivers. Use nlite and the correct SATA drivers. Problem solved without having to use a USB Thumb Drive.

Never heard of nlite. Just looked it up. Does it really work? It seems too good to be true.

 

[KSoD]

Yeah it works. I have at least 5 different discs around of XP that have various things from SATA Driver to updates slipstreamed into the install. It works great.