Hi, Im here once again bit ive nearly finished setting up my new computer. My problem now is that the HDD wont install XP. I think this is due to not having set up the drivers for the SATA HDD.
The instuctions in the manual are:

If you want to install Windows 2000 or Windows XP on your system while you only have SATA HDDs on your system, you will need to make an SATA driver diskette before you start the OS installation.

STEP 1: Insert the ASRock Support CD into your optical drive to boot your system. (Do NOT insert any floppy diskette into the floppy drive at this moment!)

STEP 2: During POST at the beginning of system boot-up, press <F11> key, and then a window for boot devices selection appears. Please select CD-ROM as the boot device.

STEP 3: When you see the message on the screen, “Do you want to generate Serial ATA driver diskette [YN]?”, press <Y>.

STEP 4: Then you will see these messages,
Please insert a diskette into the floppy drive.

WARNING! Formatting the floppy diskette will
lose ALL data in it!
Start to format and copy files [YN]?
Please insert a floppy diskette into the floppy drive, and press <Y>.

STEP 5: The system will start to format the floppy diskette and copy SATA drivers into the floppy diskette.

Once you have the SATA driver diskette ready, you may start to install Windows 2000 / Windows XP on your system directly without setting the RAID configuration on your system, or you may start to use “ALi RAID BIOS Setup Utility” to set RAID 0 / RAID 1 / JBOD configuration before you install the OS.

But i dont have a floppy disk drive never do I ever want to see one again either.

I have tried copying these files to a CDRW and booting from CD but no joy.

Can anyone suggest how i get the SATA drives installed.

Many Thanks
Jason

Hi
i had exactly the same issue a few months ago , asrock sata drivers a bane to install with no floppy disk , so i integrated the driver pack from bashrats site,its a bit of a learning curve so if your in a hurry go out and buy/borrow a floppy drive its quicker. However persivere and you end up with a xp cd with your sata driver built in. see links, While your at it may as well slipstream sp2 if needed (easy) and burn a bootable cd; note you need still your legal key to install.
small amount of reading needed..

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/view/web/36/

http://www.driverpacks.net/

slipstream sp2:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

regards

Putting a diskette drive in a computer sure does save a lot of monkey work!

I wonder if the XP install program will recognize a USB floppy drive.

You can't add a standard floppy drive to a system that doesn't have a floppy controller on the motherboard.

Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!

Good point ham30.

Are MOBOs without floppy controllers very common?

Good point ham03, tho all asrock mobo's ive seen come with FD's connectors, ive seen some recent Dells desktops that dont come supplied with FD's @ £23! an expensive optional extra considering they are normally a fiver.

Hi

If your Dell is new enough you can use a USB floppy disk drive. Or just use a standard floppy but don't connect it permanently, unless you need to.

I wasn't prepared to pay twice what I paid for a USB floppy for a factory fitted Dell OEM floppy drive that gave no advantages over the USB one I have.

Check the BIOS

I've booted to a WIN 98SE bootable floppy disk from mine.

You may also find that the SATA drives are not enabled by default in BIOS. If not enabled in BIOS simply enable SATA n BIOS

You may not need SATA drivers to be installed to run them.

My Dell P4 2.8 recognises SATA drives without needing drivers. Or it did when I recently installed two new hard drives.

hth

Ceri

You can only use certain USB floppies that are supported by XP. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916196/en-us for details.