Installing Windows XP onto SATA drive with no Floppy

coreno · #1 09-22-2004, 08:27 PM

I'm trying to install Windows XP onto my brandy new WD Raptor SATA 10000 Hard Drive, but my one and only floppy is no more (or my floppy drive is bad). Either way, I can't format or read from the floppy.

I already have a Hard Drive with Windows and everything on it, I just want Windows and my programs on the new drive. I wanted a fresh installation with all the updates so I was going to install onto the new drive instead of mirroring my old one.

Can I install Windows onto the SATA drive from windows or is there some way to fake it into looking for the drivers on a CD or network?

siuhrebel · #2 09-23-2004, 08:57 AM

as far as I know you have to set the bios to make it boot from the cd rom. insert your windows xp cd rom disk and start your computer. it will take you right into set up. you will then be able to do a fresh install.

hope this helps

neil121183 · #3 09-23-2004, 10:02 AM

Can't you change the path to where you want to install windows, through your existing windows setup.
Instead of C:\windows change it to - d:\windows or whatever drive letter your raptor is.

You already know how to boot from and install XP cleanly don't you? Your just having trouble getting the sata drivers off the disk?

Failing the 'in xp' installation I would buy a new floppy drive and install it cleanly.

Otherwise youl have XP on a different drive other than C, and If that was me I wouldn't like it.

patrickjb · #4 09-23-2004, 02:11 PM

If you want the Raptor drive to be your primary hard drive; take out your old drive, make your New Raptor drive your "Master" (change the jumpers on the Raptor Hard Drive). When your computer is booting go into your "BIOS", change the startup order so that your CD ROM is first. When Windows Boots from your Windows XP cd you will be able to format and partition the Raptor hard drive. If you change your old hard drives "Jumper settings" to "Slave", you will be able to access the data on your old hard drive.

Note: On your IDE cable, the Raptor will use the connector at the end of the cable and your old drive would use the connector that’s in a few inches, closer to the middle of the cable depending on how long your IDE cable is.

If you need help with any of these steps, let us know.

neil121183 · #5 09-24-2004, 04:05 AM

The Raptor is a SATA drive not an IDE.

Isn't coreno's problem getting the sata drivers off the disk so that windows can detect it?

Coreno, are you going to reply?

patrickjb · #6 09-28-2004, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by neil121183
The Raptor is a SATA drive not an IDE.

Isn't coreno's problem getting the sata drivers off the disk so that windows can detect it?

Coreno, are you going to reply?

I'm not too familiar with the new SATA, but they are the drives of the future. SATA stands for Serial ATA. I've been doing a lot of reading on SATA drives, they look pretty interesting.

But getting back to coreno question. Why not download new drivers from WD web site and copy them to another floppy? If the floppy is bad, I would follow neil121183's suggestion, and buy another floppy drive. They are pretty cheap.

Sorry about the confusion.

neil121183 · #7 09-29-2004, 03:58 AM

To be honest I was a bit confused with coreno's question in the first place, I had to read it about 10 times.

patrickjb · #8 09-30-2004, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by neil121183
To be honest I was a bit confused with coreno's question in the first place, I had to read it about 10 times.

That's a very nice system you have there Neil.

Sorry about that, I was monetarily distracted by Neil's nice computer setup.

FiFi · #9 10-17-2004, 06:05 AM

hi

you probably have a nforce based motherboard or something like that
on some mother board with promise sata controller you can install windows xp without patching, but it seems it doesn't work on yours

to solve the issue, simply add sp1 (and drivers if really needed) to a self made windows xp cd
here's a link explaining the trick http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp1_cd.htm

don't forget to put your sata drive after your cdrom and before your ide drive in the boot chain
maybe you'll have to select sata controler as the main one two
those options can be found in the bios, simply make as you think and everything will be ok

ice320 · #10 10-04-2007, 11:46 AM

ok any persons mentioning jumpers when this person clearly stating he is dealing with a SATA drive where there is no master and slave so there are not any jumpers. mate i dont know how to install xp without a floppy, but ive been brain storming nd i thought perhaps adding the raid drivers (from your motherboard cd or their website) to the windows disc then perhaps it might slipstream the floppy process. but ill try and let u know

Marmaduke · #11 10-04-2007, 01:14 PM

If I could offer my 2 cents. If I read your post right, you already have a hard drive with Windows installed on it. Plug the SATA drive into the motherboard and turn on SATA in the bios. When you boot into Windows, use W.D. format utility to format the hard drive. ( Yes, Windows should detect it ) There are no SATA drivers. You might be thinking RAID drivers that use a floppy.
Also, when/if your SATA drive is up and running, use Acronis TrueImage to transfer the old hard drive data to the new one. If you don't want to mirror, once the SATA drive is up and running, remove the PATA drive, go into the bios to change boot order to cd-rom drive, and boot from your XP disk and install Windows.

I did this on my sons computer. I added a 500Gig SATA drive to his 300Gig PATA. All I had to do was turn on SATA controllers in the bios and format the drive. Windows detected it, no problem.