SATA HDD trouble

[VRXJudge]

Trying to install XP Home. SATA HDD somehow recognized by the BIOS, but not by XP. I've got some (updated?) Promise SATA drivers, but I don't know just how to go about making the boot disk. Help?

 

[DaveVandorAmon]

Windows will (i.e. should) ask you to press F6 to install any additional SCSI controller drivers before it begins to copy the files it needs to execute the setup. One then inserts the diskette containing the textmode driver for your SATA controller. If you do not have a floppy drive, you could always rent a USB floppy or if you have another PC you can use for an hour or so, you can try using NLite and making a custom installer CD and integrating the SATA controller drivers as well as any additional drivers you will need to finalize your hardware once XP boots into the GUI.

Hope I am interpreting your issue correctly being you are trying to install XP home onto a SATA drive connected to a Promise PCI SATA controller and not the native SATA ports on the motherboard.

 

[VRXJudge]

Yes.

I found an included Promise driver diskette, loaded the drivers, and WINDOWS STILL DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THE DRIVE. Any other suggestions?

edit: There was some error with the SATA drivers included; how can I make my own boot disk?

 

[DaveVandorAmon]

you don't need a "boot" disk. If you're booting off the XP CD, go to Promise's site, download the latest compatible driverset for your card, copy them to a known good diskette (try to format it first and make sure it's readable after the format) and then hit F6 when prompted and insert the disk with the downloaded drivers on it. Or like I suggested, you could give NLite a whirl and make a totally customized XP install CD.