I purchased a new SATA Raptor HDD to use as my boot drive (nice drive by the way). My Mobo is an ASUS A7N8-X. The SATA controler is a Raid controller although I am not using Raid.
When I went to install WinXP from CD you have to press F6 for the SATA Drivers, right. Well it will only install the drivers from a floppy. Not a USB thumbdrive, not a CD, but ONLY a Floppy. As FP might recall from two previous posts in the past I do not have a floppy in my house.
What to do? I spent some time frustrated because I could not use my ned HDD (bout 30 min). I called a friend who has a USB Floppy hoping it would work. However before he got over to my house I had another idea. I created the windows CD to include SP2, DX9c, and other tweaks and window drivers.
Why not the SATA drivers. I did some searching on how to add my specific Si3112 drivers to the boot disc so I would not have to press F6. Guess what? I got it working. It boots from CD to WinXP setup with the SATA drivers showing the HDD for format and install.
Once again Death to the FLOPPY DRIVE.
Although I spent 1 hour working it out, it was worth it not to have to rely on a FLOPPY drive. I made it my personal goal to accomplish the install without a floppy so I would not have to have FlyingPenguin tell me I should have a spare Floppy just in case.
I learned something. Thank you FlyingPenguin.
