Any need for Floppy Drive with Nforce 4?

[gate1975mlm]

I am about to put my system together. Do I still need to use a Floppy Drive? I will be using a Nforce4 EPoX EP-9NPA Ultra! And will be using 2 SATA hard drives. I will not be using Raid.

 

[stoutpuppy1]

Well on my ASUS A8N-SLI DX, I did infact need a floppy, but I was using the Silicon image chip, not the nVidia chip. If you use the nVidia chip, you may not, but don't take my word for it, I'm only guessing.

 

[rise]

if youre not using raid forget about it. i got one later for $11 that matched my case but you don't need it, it can be easier is all for flashing.

 

[stoutpuppy1]

yea, it's always handy to have one around (God damn microsoft, can't you support CD/DVD-Roms, various removable drives, various flash memories or something??)

personally i like using ASUS in-windows flashing utility, tho sometimes when u installed a bad bios, you better have that damn floppy enless u like a frozen computer.

 

[gate1975mlm]

So when I go to install Windows XP on my Nforce 4 board I will not need to push F6?

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: gate1975mlm
So when I go to install Windows XP on my Nforce 4 board I will not need to push F6?

No, not unless you intend on using a RAID array. The SATA controller in single drive mode emulates a standard IDE controller by default on the nForce4 chipset.

The floppy drive is only useful for two things--loading RAID controller drivers during a OS install, or flashing the BIOS. However, with Windows-based flash utilities, or bootable USB thumb-drives that you can use just like a floppy for flashing, the whole flash thing becomes moot. So, unless you need to load drivers for a RAID array, then you do not need a floppy drive. You can also build a RAID array after you already have the system up, you just will not be able to boot from the RAID array (ie, you will have a bootable harddisk, and then a secondary set of drives apart from the OS in a RAID array--which might be even more desirable for gaming or A/V editing since the Windows swap file will be on the harddisk containing the OS, not the array).

 

[stoutpuppy1]

or you can use your ipod, or SD/CF + card reader

 

[ClockerXP]

Here's some good info on booting from a CD so you can flash your BIOS:

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8658

CxP

 

[Novaoblivion]

I dont have a nForce 4 board yet but I did this to my flash drive so I can use it for bios flashing: http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

 

[imported_Kensai]

You don't need a floppy to install on an SATA drives as long as it's on the nForce controller.