SATA Hard Drives are a headache

[micolithe]

So I just got XP, and I'm trying to install it, but there's a problem. It can't detect my SATA hard drive, and I can't find the disk that came with my motherboard. And I can't find the drivers anywhere.

The strange part is, 98 detected the drive with no problem, which is strange since SATA didn't exist when 98 came out.

[S!X]

Hmm, check the manufacturer's websites for drivers?

[micolithe]

I tried that. The drivers they have are 6 megs, way over the amount you can fit onto a floppy. And XP's setup won't take input from any other drive.

[Samurai]

download it, and burn to cd

set xp to load from cd in bios

bob's your uncle

[Darth Sushi]

During the beginning of the install process, you need to hit F2 (I think) to load the SATA drivers. Note: you must load the drivers from a floppy! Damn microsoft.

[lynx]

I think you will find that the drivers will easily fit onto a floppy.

What you've downloaded from the manufacturer's site is either the wrong package or it also contains other stuff such as the raid diagnostics.

But unless you tell us which model it is we can't tell you where to look.

[clocker]

During the beginning of the install process, you need to hit F2 (I think) to load the SATA drivers. Note: you must load the drivers from a floppy! Damn microsoft.

It's F6, actually.
Which motherboard?

It's prolly the SI3112 or 3114 controller...betcha.

[micolithe]

It's an AOpen AK86-N or AK86-L. The geniuses at AOpen decided to write both model numbers in big letters on the box instead of specifying.

But anyway it works now, there was a folder called DriverDisk in the zip I downloaded before.

[Virtualbody1234]

It's an AOpen AK86-N or AK86-L. The geniuses at AOpen decided to write both model numbers in big letters on the box instead of specifying.

Look on the board itself.

[lynx]

VIA SATA Driver R1.00d
Same for both boards.

VIA SATA Raid Driver R4.30c
Same for both boards, but only needed if you enable raid.

In any case, all that's needed for installation is
VIA VT8237 Serial ATA Driver Diskette

Why did 98 work? Because 98 will let the bios handle the interface if it can't find a driver for it. NT based systems NEVER let the bios handle anything except possibly in safe mode.