sata HDD installation

Can any1 tell me the best way to set up a new sata hdd using the single red cable rather than an ata cable standard blue, grey black cable, when my pc boots upI can see the hdd there and I can use the floppy utility disc that I downloaded to format the drive but when I try to install the os windows says theres no hd to install to :helpsmili I've had to put my old hd back in for now to try and get some answers but it should really be in the pc I've just sold :blushing: I've never came across this cable before and all refs to it on the site don't show this cable set up :( basically im trying to install a sata hdd as my boot drive any help?

Windows can't "see" the SATA drive because it has no drivers for SATA.
You must spoonfeed these drivers to XP yourself.
At the very beginning of the XP install process, at the bottom of the screen you will see the message " press F6 now if you want to use SCSI or third party disk drivers..." ( or something to that effect).

A bit later the install will stop and ask for a floppy containing the SATA drivers.
Windows will ONLY accept these drivers from your A: drive...you must have a floppy reader and disk available to proceed.
After it reads the driver from the diskette it will then bitch that the drivers are not digitally signed and ask if you really want to run them.
Say yes.
It will then bitch again...say yes again.
Finally your SATA drive will appear and you can continue as you normally would.

This dependence on the obsolete A drive will supposedly disappear with the next MS OS, but I wouldn't count on it.

Cheers m8 sorry for not answering sooner but I managed to find out exactly what you've just said the hard way by trila and error Thats why I've been away so long reinstalling everything :D I like it though keeps everyhting neat and tidy in my case :cool:

f6: load 3rd party and raid drivers at the beginning. You should have the floppy that came with the HDD. That is the only thing I had to do on mine.

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Originally Posted by clocker

Windows will ONLY accept these drivers from your A: drive...you must have a floppy reader and disk available to proceed.

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! you gotta be kiddin me!!! i bet thats the only thing nowadays you need a floppy drive for

is there anyway to spoof windows into thinking your DVD burner is a floppy drive?

cause the only way i can add extra capacity to my comp is with SATA drives, and i want those (preferably as my primary disk)

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Originally Posted by clocker

Windows can't "see" the SATA ......... count on it.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigDaddy555

f6: load 3rd party and raid drivers at the beginning. You should have the floppy that came with the HDD. That is the only thing I had to do on mine.

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?

There is an alternative, if you have a spare Parallel (P)ATA drive.

Install XP onto a PATA drive as normal. Then install the SATA drivers. Finally use Ghost to copy the PATA drive to the SATA drive. You should now be able to remove the PATA drive and boot from the SATA drive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigDaddy555

You should have the floppy that came with the HDD.

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Typically, the necessary driver disk will come from the motherboard NOT the HDD itself.
To add to the irritation, some board makers ( like Chaintech) include the SATA drivers on the chipset CD...a location that Windows will refuse to look at when demanding the SATA drivers.

Apparently it is possible to create a custom, slipstreamed XP install disk with the SATA drivers included, but I've never tried it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by clocker

Typically, the necessary driver disk will come from the motherboard NOT the HDD itself.
To add to the irritation, some board makers ( like Chaintech) include the SATA drivers on the chipset CD...a location that Windows will refuse to look at when demanding the SATA drivers.

Apparently it is possible to create a custom, slipstreamed XP install disk with the SATA drivers included, but I've never tried it.

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I think your right there....I bought my mobo and HDD at the same time. I didnt notice which the disk came with.

@keyser_soze: I can zip the disk to you if you still need it....

@BigDaddy555 ty but its sorted now, the hd just came in a plastice antimag bag with no instructions or discs, the maker of the hd did have a program to create a boot floppy and a bootable cdrom, the moral of this story is make sure you have all the stuff dloaded and working on disc before u change it, another tip is when you press f4 to enter the setup it does'nt actually go into it until a bit later on so press f4 and read the bios stuff until it asks for the disc and don't do as I did and every time it went past the "press f4" part I restarted the pc thinking it was'nt working :blushing: :no: