a7n8x installing xp on sata drive

[Deepmist]

So bought a raptor to replace a burnt out drive. The problem is that the mobo detects the drive but when I go to install xp it says there is no hd. So I think I need to install an updated bios. I've never done anything like that before and it is really difficult just to figure out how to do it.

First, which one of these do I use?
http://www.asus.com/support/do...Deluxe&Type=Latest

From what I can tell the current version is in this line at startup:
"ASUS A7N8X2.0 Deluxe ACPI BIOS Rev 1005"

Second, I have no floppy drive... can I burn the stuff on a cd and use that?

Third, I tried holding alt-f2 at startup to get to the flash utility but it gives me:
"Can not find any FDD, ESC to continue POST"

So can I use a cd to get my sata working? If I can what do I put on it?
If I use floppy wht do I put on it? Do I need more than 1?

It's been almost 2 weeks since my computer died and I think i'm goin to go nuts, pls help!

 

[mechBgon]

Start by looking at your A7N8X Deluxe to confirm which printed-circuit board revision it's got. On the board, it says "ASUS A7N8X" in white letters, and in very small letters after it, it'll say REV. ___. Asus has different BIOSes depending on which PCB your board has.

It's a good idea to update the BIOS in this case, I remember some of Asus's FAQs remarking about the data-corruption problem with older BIOSes and 8MB-cache SATA drives. But it's not the reason that WinXP Setup is not finding your drive.

Do you have a working computer that has either Roxio EZ CD Creator or full-version Nero installed? Because if you do, and are determined enough, you can follow a procedure similar to the one referenced here (they use an Abit NF7-S as their guinea pig there). You can slipstream Service Pack 2 while you're at it.

Otherwise, scrounge a floppy drive to use for WinXP Setup purposes. Get the Silicon Image driver-diskette download. Extract the contents of the Zip file and put them on diskette (if there's not enough space, exclude the directories for other versions of Windows such as 98 and 2000). Press the F6 key when prompted by the first screen of WinXP Setup.

I suggest that you also have a security gameplan. A raw WinXP install is a sitting duck for direct worm/hack attacks through your modem and can be taken down in a matter of minutes if you don't have firewall protection. Suggested countermeasures for a fresh build .