Installing Windows XP in a SATA drive

Question

I have a PC with no floppy drive and a 80Gb Hitachi SATA main (only) hard drive. I want to install Windows XP (fresh install). Does SP2 support SATA drives? If not, how can I install the SATA drivers if I have no floppy drive? Thanks.

Denny Denham · Answer

alegator, XP SP2 doesn't yet support SATA drives. You may be able to do the installation using some of the procedures here.

alegator · Answer

Thanks Denny, I'll try slipstreaming the drivers into XP.

alegator · Answer

Denny, I found this utility which enables an automated slipstream of patches, drivers, service packs, etc into an original Windows XP installation CD. I already succesfully completed the procedure by slipstreaming the SATA drivers for my MOBO (I haven't burned the ISO yet and hence haven't tested the installation). Now, this is the question: The SATA floppy drive that came withmy MOBO comes with two directories named 'RAID' and 'PIDE', each of them containing xp drivers (cat, inf and sys files). Which of the two should I slipstream? My guess is the 'RAID' one, but I'm unsure. The procedure is described here: http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=284&p=1

Windows General

Installing Windows XP in a SATA drive

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