problems during xp setup. sata drivers without a floppydrive?

You really need the floopy for the RAID Pre-OS driver or change the BIOS setting.   Dell should not sell these 8400 with them.   Look at this thread page 4, has a work around.   Should work.   I understand a USB floopy will work also.

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_other&message.id=200283&view=by_date_ascending&page=4

all the drivers needed to be installed on your system after the operating system are in your dell dimension resource cd. if you dont have that, you can download the drivers from support.dell.com, go to reinstall guide. you can find all the drivers there except maybe for the modem, you must have the cd for that. gooud luck!