Techy Q

On a poota sales website, I just noticed this.............
'Please note : If specifying a SATA HDD, a floppy disk drive is required
during installation of the operating system'
Anyone know why? :)

pmj...

That's cos many SATA (Serial ATA) Hard Disks (or SATA
Motherboards) need Drivers loaded before they will work properly...
& the WinXP Installation needs to have the SATA Drivers loaded,
to be able to Write to the Hard Disk

WinXP has *some* SATA Drivers in it (at least in SP1 & SP2),
but not for all Motherboards, so it offers a chance during the
first stages of the Install Routine, to load the Drivers - that's
the "Press F6 to Load RAID Drivers" Prompt that you get during the
bit when the WinXP Install Routine first Boots Up

If you do "Press f6" at that point, it then (later) Opens up
a "Browse" Dialog Box, which lets you specify the Drivers -
but (at that point) it can only Load them from a Floppy!!!
It doesn't allow the Drivers to be Loaded from CD or USB memory thingy!
:-(

JoeH...

I've been reading a few threads that suggest that you can slipstream
the drivers onto an XP installation CD.

pmj...

Yep - I found when I got this fancy Flash New Medion PC (with all
the bits & pieces on it) that my real, genuine Proper, Legit
original, non-SP1 or 2) WinXP Pro that I *bought* wouldn't Install
on it!!!
:-(

It just came up with a BSoD, part way through the very first part
of the Installation.

That turned out to be cos the original Version of WinXP didn't
have the right Motherboard/SATA Drivers with it.

But I Slipstreamed SP2 into it & made a new Install CD & it all worked
fine.
:-)

I haven't tried it though and it's not much use if your only PC is
awaiting it's new OS. :-)

pmj...

Well, I assume that most people who are buying (or making) a new
PC will already have (or at least have access to) some other PC?

So they can Burn an Install CD (with the right Drivers on it)
using that, surely?

JoeH...

You don't (always)
Have a read through this thread Pete. (there are loads of other
examples of this type of thread too)

BoyPete...

Thanks Joe. :)

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/431395.html

JoeH...

There is (or rather was) a reason which I'm not sure of (not much help
that is it?) However, the last PC I built for a mate has a SATA drive
and no floppy drive and I had no problems. I think it depends on
whether or not the BIOS can handle the drives by default.

Off for a google.