recommend a good boot disk for WinXP install to FAT32

[tbob]

Can anyone recommend a good boot disk to download? I need to install WinXP on a FAT32 SATA drive.

I know there were issues with installing WinXP on a SATA drive a while ago (press F6 to load drivers or something?). I have a WinXP Pro SP2 CD that I can use, do I still need to have those SATA drivers on a floppy?

Also, I understand I'll need fdisk to make a Fat32 disk bigger than 32GB (It's a 250GB drive), and then I can install WinXP on it without re-formatting.

Can someone confirm that I'm doing the right thing here? Is there a better way to do this?

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I think you are confusing RAID with SATA. You don't need special drivers to install on SATA. The best way to format the hard drive to FAT32 is probably downloading the utilities from the drive manufacturer and using those on a boot disk. Fdisk on a drive that big is going to take a while.

 

[Fardringle]

If XP doesn't have the SATA controller drivers built in (very likely that it doesn't) then you either need to use the option in the motherboard BIOS (if the motherboard supports it) to emulate ATA for SATA drives, or slipstream the SATA drivers into your XP install CD, or put the drivers on a floppy disk so that you can access them during the "press F6" step of the installation process.

As far as the disk itself, why do you want to install XP on FAT32? NTFS is a much better option for large drives.

 

[Blazer]

xpsp1&2 has sata drivers already on the disk, the UBCD is a great boot cd and should have format tools for fat32, but i think your bios will have to support 'LBA' hard drives for over 132gb, also xpsp1a doesnt support LBA drives over 132gb.

 

[0roo0roo]

yup u need slipstreamed xp or newer install disk to do sata drives.

 

[armstrda]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yup u need slipstreamed xp or newer install disk to do sata drives.

Not necessarily. If the SATA controller is in AHCI or RAID, then yes this is most likely the case. If the SATA controller is in Legacy or Enhanced mode (ATA compatibility) then XP will just see it as a standard ATA controller.

 

[Nothinman]

If the SATA controller is in Legacy or Enhanced mode (ATA compatibility) then XP will just see it as a standard ATA controller.

For which you still might need a driver, there's nothing magical about ATA and if XP doesn't support the chipset out of the box it won't matter what mode the controller is in.

 

[armstrda]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

If the SATA controller is in Legacy or Enhanced mode (ATA compatibility) then XP will just see it as a standard ATA controller.

For which you still might need a driver, there's nothing magical about ATA and if XP doesn't support the chipset out of the box it won't matter what mode the controller is in.

Seriously? When a SATA controller is in normal IDE mode, the controller appears as a standard IDE controller to the OS. I've never seen a SATA controller on a baseboard in normal IDE mode that XP didn't support without a driver disk.

 

[Nothinman]

When a SATA controller is in normal IDE mode, the controller appears as a standard IDE controller to the OS.

There's no such thing as a standard PATA controller, they're all different chipsets. It's possible to use BIOS calls to access the devices so I guess that could work but it's slow as hell. SATA has a potential standard with AHCI but there was never such a thing for PATA.

I've never seen a SATA controller on a baseboard in normal IDE mode that XP didn't support without a driver disk.

Were they all one brand like Intel? It's possible that the emulation uses a controller that XP does support for that very reason.

 

[heymrdj]

You need to get a disc from microsoft or just download it since you have a license, one with SP2 already built into the disc, or even SP3 if you can get it (i imagine those are shipping to OEM by now). Shouldn't have to worry after that.

Of course with raid controllers you'll need to use F6. We just had to do this for a system at work that was RAID 1 on two 500GB SATA drives. Went easy. Load XP disc, hit F6, insert floppy with divers, continues without hitch.