How to install WinXP on SATA drive system with no floppy

[AluminumStudios]

This has been bugging me for a while.

How do you load Windows XP onto a PC with a single SATA drive that it boots off of? If you boot from the Windows XP CD (my CD is SP1) it says "no drives detected." If I hit F6 to load third party drivers it needs a floppy drive.

Is there a way to load Windows XP onto a SATA system without a floppy? In cases I've enocuntered so far I installed a floppy temporarily but it was a pain. I want to do it without.

 

[GregMal]

Couldn't you do it if your system had 2 optical drives?
Boot XP with one drive and have the drivers on the 2nd drive?

 

[jackschmittusa]

There are numerous how-to articles on the web about how to slipstream the driver in the Windows cd.

No Greg, 2 optical drives won't work.

 

[cpush]

anyway to do it with a usb thumbdrive?

 

[tomt4535]

A Floppy Disk is the only method to get windows setup to load the drivers when you hit F6. its a PITA, but thats all we have to work with. there are many places to find out how to create your own disk with the drivers in it already.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Modern nforce chipsets don't need drivers for SATA

 

[FreakyGuy]

http://www.maximumpc.com/how_to/reprint_2005-01-05.html

Maybe this will help.

 

[pelikan]

Nlite makes it very easy to integrate the SATA drivers to XP.

 

[NightCrawler]

Originally posted by: pelikan
Nlite makes it very easy to integrate the SATA drivers to XP.

:thumbsup:

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
Modern nforce chipsets don't need drivers for SATA

 

[Phoenix86]

USB floppy drives are a great thing, FDDs are not quite dead. Why re-invent the wheel?

 

[Bozo]

Some BIOS let you assign the floppy drive letter to a different device. That might work


Bozo

 

[Smilin]

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/docu.../XP/all/reskit/en-us/prbc_cai_qcxl.asp

I didn't checkout the previously mentioned link. Chances are it might be easier

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
USB floppy drives are a great thing, FDDs are not quite dead. Why re-invent the wheel?

Because the old wheel was square. USB drives are the way to go.