I have just successfully installed Windows XP on a SATA drive and not once during the entire process was I asked for a driver. No F6 no nothing is this normal? I am using the drive as second installation and it is working fine. I have a DFI Inc Infinity 975X motherboard and an IntelR-42302e31 Phoenix AwardBIOS v6.00PG Bios. Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!

When you booted from the XP CD, you never saw a prompt that said Press F6 to install third-party SCSI or RAID drivers? ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe AMD Athlon X2 4800+ 2GB RAM, X1900GT 2x37GB WD Raptors, RAID 1 1x250GB WD Storage

If I'm reading your post right, then no, it's not unusual. If you start the install from Windows (vs. booting from install CD), then there's no need to ask you; the installer will use the same drivers as your current install. I believe there's some SATA controllers out there that run in IDE mode, and WinXPCD will see those drives as being on IDE 2 (a.k.a. the third channel), no drivers required.

Hi 3 options in the bios for sata, IDE, AHCI, RAID check your bios hdd settings ,youve probably got the sata mode = ide ,#, (if it was set as ahci then the install would have stopped needing the usual f6 floppy disk install. # maybe factory default) note: dont change the setting to ahci as the drivers require loading first. beat me with a stick if im wrong :)

Thank you for your replies... 1stepbeyond, I'll check my BIOS and come back. Razor... I installed from the CD after formatting the drive. steigrafx... your reply was my question! Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!

Ah, sleep deprivation, my old friend. Okay, now that I'm rested, I think I know what you mean. When you boot from the WinXP CD, it does not throw up a screen big display, asking for drivers. Instead, when the installer is booting up, there’ll be a line of text on the bottom status bar area telling you to press F6 if you have additional SCSI/RAID drivers. Once you press F6, it'll go through its standard driver loading, then prompt you for your driver disk.

1stepbeyond... you are quite right, my BIOS shows these settings: SATA Mode = IDE On Chip Serial ATA = Auto Sata Port Speed Setting = Disabled Pata IDE Mode = Primary SATA Port = P1,P3 is Secondary. Razor... thank you for your reply. I can assure you I kept an eagle eye on the install process looking for just such a request and it never came. It appears my BIOS is set like 1stepbeyond suggested. Thanks again and regards. Once I thought I was wrong, now I'm not so sure!