No floppy drive and Win XP wants my RAID controller drivers

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
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Can I copy my XP disk to the hard drive and then add the drivers the the drivers cab file? Or is there some way to get XP to look for the drivers on a CD instead of a floppy?

T.I.A.
 

EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
2,864
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Try the search button. I have seen a couple threads pertaining to this same issue and there have been explainations on how to get around the need for floppy drives. Personally, from what I remember, it was just easier to buy, temporarily install, use, then remove the floppy.

\Dan
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
30,672
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You probably have to setup an unattended install answer file to get around the need for a floppy.
 

NogginBoink

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
5,322
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To the best of my knowledge, no. You must use a floppy.

No, wait... you could use an unattended installation probably. See the Windows XP CD, \support\tools\deploy.cab\ref.chm for details.
 

Haden

Senior member
Nov 21, 2001
578
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You should be able add drivers to the driver.cab,
I've done this for promise IDE card on Win2k, worked w/o problems.
 

EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
2,864
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Up for a answer.

Did you search for the directions I mentioned? I have seen several posts that give detailed instructions. I don't remember the titles or anything, and I'm not searching for you. The answer was in several posts, and was extreamly detailed.

\Dan
 

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
4
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Yeah I searched and didn't come up with much advice other then "buy a floppy" I have a floppy, but the rounded cable I bought for it seems no NOT work.

I guess I COULD buy another ribbon cable....:eek:
 

Confused

Elite Member
Nov 13, 2000
14,166
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Originally posted by: Brutuskend
SWEET

ThankS!

Let us know if it works for you :)

Also, i think that the copying stuff to the $OEM$/$$/DRIVERS/ folder may not be needed, but I did it anyway :)


Confused
 

Brutuskend

Lifer
Apr 2, 2001
26,558
4
0
Now this is wierd. I copied the XP files to the H/D and found the drivers cab. but when I try and paste the RAID drivers into the cab file I can't do it. (The paste option isn't showing up!)
 

Bleep

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,972
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I guess the price of being one of the elete ones with no floppy has its pitfalls.

Bleep
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
30,672
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I guess the price of being one of the elete ones with no floppy has its pitfalls.

Well it's 'elite', and really this is a bug in the Windows installer. You should be able to browse to any paths the OS can read which should include other folders in the CDROM and any drives on controllers it has built-in drivers for.
 

EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
2,864
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I guess the price of being one of the elete ones with no floppy has its pitfalls.

Well it's 'elite', and really this is a bug in the Windows installer. You should be able to browse to any paths the OS can read which should include other folders in the CDROM and any drives on controllers it has built-in drivers for.

I agree, there are pitfalls, and the "elite" have to pay the price. I am unwilling to call this a bug either. It is simply the design of the Windows installer. Just because you, or other people, say you should be able to do something, that doesn't qualify the issue as a bug. I should be able to withdraw more than $200.00 per day at my banks ATM machines (we'll assume I can cover the withdraw), but I can't. That's not a bug, it's the way things are designed. Maybe it's bad design, but that's a different issue. If I have $10,000 dollars, I should be able to withdraw it all. When Windows was designed, floppies were not such the evil people make them out to be. They were quite usefull (still are, in fact). Maybe with Longhorn you'll get your wish and be able to install RAID drivers from a CD without jumping through hoops.

\Dan
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
30,672
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I should be able to withdraw more than $200.00 per day at my banks ATM machines (we'll assume I can cover the withdraw), but I can't. That's not a bug, it's the way things are designed.

Well I can withdraw more than $200 a day, so I'd say your ATMs do have a bug =)

They were quite usefull (still are, in fact).

The floppy in my main PC was unplugged for atleast 6 months and I never noticed, I use it that infrequently. Infact the only thing I find them usefull for is updating my BIOS and that's only because x86 firmware sucks. I also have plans to see if I can get GRUB to boot a disk image like it would a Windows partition, but I havn't gotten around to it just yet.

When Windows was designed, floppies were not such the evil people make them out to be.

But it's still the same even with XP, which was designed very recently and if I'm not mistaken CDR(W)s are present in practically any machine sold after 1999. IMO nothing written within the last 3 years or so should require a floppy, I have 2 UltraSparc and 1 Alpha, all from over 5 years ago without floppies or CDROMs and I have no trouble installing Linux on them completely via the network, the way it should be.

But it's the same thing as the inability to run XP from a CD without getting the embedded version and having to pay hundreds of dollars for the IFS development kit when other kits are free from MS, it's their perogative to sell inflexible software and then repackage it and charge extra once they realize they missed something people would actually like.