Slipstreaming Help Needed

[jjsbasmt]

Mods: Please move if in wrong forum. For the first time, I need to slipstream Promise SATA drivers for an Alienware D9T into a Win XP install disc. I plan to use nLite for the project. I guess my question is this: Where on the install disc do I put the drivers, so that I don't have to go out and buy a USB Floppy Disc Drive and go thru the F6 thing when trying to load Win XP. Those not familar with the D9T, It came standard with a RAID configuration. One of the Hds is bad and the other is just fine. I have turned RAID off in the BIOS. Will use just one HD. The person that gave me this to work on has no software of any kind for the unit. Any help would be greatly appreciated. FYI this system is a monster laptop, P4 3.6 GHz, 3 GB RAM and 17 inch screen, weighs a ton.

 

[Dahak]

Quick and dirty instructions.

1) download latest promise f6 drivers for xp
2) copy xp cd to hard drive
3) start nlite
4) specify xp cd location that you copied to hard drive
5) on task selection screen select drivers and bootable cd, and intergrate service pack if you want to put sp3 in at the same time, which I would.
6) on the next screen click insert and specify the folder where the f6 drivers for the promise card is located
7) burn cd
8) start install on laptop and enjoy

this will integrate / slipstream the sata drivers into the install disk thus you dont have to go out and by a usb floppy

 

[jjsbasmt]

Dahak, thanks for the speedy reply. Gonna try in a few mins. Let you know later on my results.

 

[jjsbasmt]

After 3 burns of the slipstreamed disc, the laptop refuses to find the SATA HD. I even tried another known good HD with no success. Guess I'll have to try the USB Floppy routine and see what happens. I have tried the drive on each of the 2 SATA cables and made sure they were tightly seated. A question however, shouldn't the BIOS see the HD even before the OS loads? It's not evident in the BIOS, the only thing seen is the internal
DVD Burner and any attached USB storage mediums.

 

[Dahak]

Generally if the hard drives are connected to a 3rd party controller in this case possibly the promise controller, no they would not necessarily show up in the bios. Generally there should be another screen just before it tried to boot that would show the hard drive on the raid controller bios.

One thing that could be happening as well is that the hard drives are connected to the raid controller of the chipset, which you would need to add those to the cd as well.

I cant seem to fine the exact specs for that machine but I think it would be one of the intel mobile chipsets. You can download Intel F6 Drivers and add them.

Also not sure if the promise has separate drivers if the controller is set to sata or raid, may want to check that too, cause it is set into raid and you only slipped the sata that would cause it not to show up

If you dont want to waste another cd, I would double check the bios and see if there is 2 raid controller options and put it into IDE and see if the drive shows up.

 

[jjsbasmt]

Dahak, good points you mentioned. I have obtained what are supposedly the Promise Non-Raid drivers and have previously changed the BIOS to IDE mode with no favorable results. I can't check that two headed proprietary SATA cable that comes from the motherboard so I'm perplexed what to do next. Over the weekend I'll try the Intel drivers, but since the DVD burner and other plugged in USB devices are recongnized, I'm thinking it wouldn't be the Intel Chipset, but who knows. I have downloaded the Intel drivers you pointed to. Thanks.........more to follow.

 

[jjsbasmt]

FWIW the external floppy drive did not solve the issue. Now I gotta look at possibly the SATA cable being defective. I guess the only way to check that would be to order a new one. I found one on line for $55 so that is my next move.

 

[amddude]

FWIW the external floppy drive did not solve the issue. Now I gotta look at possibly the SATA cable being defective. I guess the only way to check that would be to order a new one. I found one on line for $55 so that is my next move.

Might be smart to set the sata mode to IDE instead of ACHI.

 

[jjsbasmt]

I agree, amddude, the two choices in the BIOS are "Raid" and "IDE" and I have had it on "IDE" all along since as I mentioned one of the HDs is bad and I have removed it from the system.

 

[SimMike2]

When I slipstreamed the latest SATA drivers from my Intel Z68 chipset to Windows XP, which also had at minimum SP2 slipstreamed also, I had to pick a specific driver to install. Since I already had Windows 7 installed on this same machine, I was able to get the correct name of the driver and pick this when I slipstreamed the drivers onto the disk. At least with the drivers I was installing off the directory on my Gigabyte motherboard CD, there was actually about seven different drivers in this directory. If you pick the wrong one, it won't work. And, yes, I was taking the drivers right out of the CD directory the manual told me for Windows XP SATA drivers. And don't assume a USB floppy disk will work. I have heard that while initially the floppy disk might work during XP setup, at some point it might "lose" the floppy drive until the install gets further along.