Dumb question - SATA and re-install XP

[elsiegee40]

It's Friday afternoon, it's been a long week and I'm struggling.

I have a Compaq SR1369UK which has 2xSATA drives in it.

I have an XP Pro Install disk and the product key (tick)

I've located the Driver Downloads (tick)

What I want to do is reformat and re-install XP-Pro

Before I muck this up completely, in the back of my mind is the nagging doubt that I have to do something to sort out drivers for SATA somewhere between reformatting the drives and installing XP.

Help please... idiot's guide appreciated. Needless to say, this machine is needed back in service for Monday and I'd rather not spend all weekend on it if I can! Thanks for your help wise ones.

[jsnetman]

Sometimes you have to press f6 when windows setup is starting and load the sata drives from floppy or if your lucky USB memory.

[elsiegee40]

Sometimes you have to press f6 when windows setup is starting and load the sata drives from floppy or if your lucky USB memory.

No floppy on this PC - it would have to be USB or CD

[penfold]

Sometimes the drive doesn't show - Check on the bios to change the HDD to native mode? Or something like that - long day too

[cookie_monster]

Thsi can be a pain I had a similar issue with some netbooks recently. Two options spring to mind 1. USB floppy drive (i've used this before) 2. Nlite nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation

[Michael]

I agree as above use nLite to slipstream SATA drivers. Definitely the most reliable way without having to worry about booting off a floppy.

[elsiegee40]

I think I need to go a step back here... am I wrong to assume I've got some sort of RAID here?

How can I tell?

I haven't actually tried installing anything yet, so I assume that shoving in the CD for Xp Pro would start the process, but wouldn't get very far?

feeling very out of my depth all of a sudden

[Michael]

Best thing would be to try booting off the XP CD and wait for it to load. If it can't find a hard drive you'll receive an error. I'd then proceed to create a slipstream CD. If it can see the hard drive, just continue to format and install as normal

[cookie_monster]

I think I need to go a step back here... am I wrong to assume I've got some sort of RAID here?

How can I tell?

I haven't actually tried installing anything yet, so I assume that shoving in the CD for Xp Pro would start the process, but wouldn't get very far?

You could just try installing it will fail telling you that it can't find the HD if there's a problem.

[elsiegee40]

OK I'll go for attempting to install - I shall be back if I need to know what you mean by slipstream..

I'm so flipping tired

[srochford]

Is it currently working at all? If so, go into computer management and look at the disc setup - that will tell you if it's a RAID array.

You can make the slipstreamed install but it takes time; if you just want to get the machine installed quickly then go into the BIOS and find the SATA settings - you want to make sure it doesn't say AHCI; the option is probably something like "standard"

If you can set it like that, then you won't need any drivers. It will be fractionally slower but it's unlikely it will affect most users.

[elsiegee40]

It was working in Safe Mode... have done as suggested and it has seen both drives. I'm just re-formatting and installing now. I don't care whether or not I have RAID at the end of this, it doesn't (I hope) need it. It's a boring client PC sat on the HT's desk normally.

[elsiegee40]

7pm XP pro installed (tick)

Ethernet Controller has big yellow question mark next to it and I can't find the driver.

Have contacted HP support... any ideas?

[Michael]

What model is the machine? HP actually have a pretty good driver database. Occasionally the same models can have slightly varying hardware such as networking, but usually one or two drivers at most.

[laserblazer]

Is the LAN working? I've just done a similar exercise with an old Viglen Dossier NS+ . I can't find the Viglen LAN driver but it works fine with the XP Universal one.