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28 Posts
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13320
July 23rd, 2004 04:00
Install SATA controller driver without floppy drive???
Is there any way to do it?
I don't know what is the point if Dell provides just the floppy version of this driver while offering "No floppy disk" option at the same time. It's no different than forcing customers to get a floppy drive.
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NLRobbie
3 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2004 07:00
You're completely right.
I tried several things, which didn't work out. I found the drivers, but they needed to be installed on a floppy drive.
Though it is possible to boot-up from a USB adapter, but then the next problem comes up. WinXP does need the SATA drivers to be installed from a floppy drive and you cannot change the driveletter.
I think Dell should recommend people to take a floppydrive when installing other or new OS. Bootable CD's are perfect, untill you need external drivers to be installed.
So, up to the shop an buy me a floppydrive.....................................
NLRobbie
3 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2004 10:00
Have a look at this discussion:
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&message.id=118561
It appears you have to switch in your Bios SATA RAID option to OFF. Then XP recognises the controller as ATA and will continue the installation procedure.
After installation, you have to switch this back and install the appropriate drivers for the INTEL 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller in XP.
Good luck.
huyrich
28 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2004 14:00
TomXPS
1.3K Posts
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July 23rd, 2004 17:00
Yes that will work but you never be able to setup RAID, assuming it work like it does on my XPS Gen 2. From my experence the only time you could install the RAID Pre-OS driver was at boot up from the CD. After that you could not enable the SATA RAID to on, because it will not boot. So basically you have to re-load from scratch if you decide you want to migrate to RAID. The Intel Application Accelerator worked great I was able to migrate the existing system to RAID 1 without having to re-load the system.
NLRobbie
3 Posts
0
July 25th, 2004 11:00
In the Bios I switched the SATA settings to Combined SATA/PATA and everything seems to work fine. XP enters setup and now you can define on which partition you want to install.
Because I wanted to have a clean install, I choose to delete the current partition and let XP create a new one. So guess what. XP cannot allocate the complete amount of diskspace and I loose 24Gb!!!
So I picked an other computer, ripped the floppy drive and build it in my Dimension 8400. Now I switched the Bios setting back to Raid AHCI and started the XP setup.
Be sure to press F6 during setup, because you need to load the AHCI controller drivers (can be found on the Dell resource CD).
XP asks to load drivers from floppy A: And voila now the setup will continue. Formatting/Partitioning gives you the full amount of diskspace.