Question about installing Windows XP Home on a SATA drive

[Nomad84]

My parts will be in Friday and I plan to start building my computer this weekend. I've been doing some reading about the process of assembling the componenets and installing the software. I just came across this quote at Radified.com (http://windows.radified.com/windows_xp_install.htm):

[ QUOTE ]
If you have a RAID, SCSI, or SATA controller that is not natively supported by the operating system, you will need to download the appropriate drivers from the manufacturer and create a floppy containing them, or add them to the CD (or both). You might already have a CD that contains these drivers. But check for updated versions anyway.

SATA is not supported by anything prior to WXP SP1. Alternately, you can ask Windows to look for updates during the install, which requires an Internet connection. But this takes quite a bit of time.


[/ QUOTE ]

Can someone dissect what that is saying? As long as I have a way to get the SATA drivers onto a floppy or CD, will I be fine? I ask because I'll be using an old Windows CD that does not include SP1 or 2. I will have another CD with SP2 on it, which I'll download from MS. Is this going to cause me headaches or should it go relatively smoothly? I won't want to put the computer online until I've installed a few things, including antivirus, antispyware, SP2, etc.

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
If you are using a RAID, SCSI or SATA controller that is NOT natively supported by Windows, have your floppy ready that contains the appropriate drivers and press F6 when prompted to load the appropriate drivers. The manufacturer of your particular controller will know if your controller has native WinXP support.

If you don't load the appropriate drivers, you won't be able to see/use/access drives connected to those controllers. Pop in the floppy that contains the appropriate drivers. You only have a few seconds, so pay attention with your finger hovering over the F6 key.


[/ QUOTE ]


Based on this, it looks like all I need to do is make sure I have the correct drivers ready to go on a floppy, then boot to the Windows CD like normal. I then load the SATA drivers when Windows setup asks for them. After this, I should have no trouble, in theory. Is this correct?

[fluxrad]

This is correct. Did your hard drive come with an install CD? That's all you need. But I'd be willing to bet that you won't need a driver disk anyway. It's usually just a precautionary measure.

[Nomad84]

Thanks. My parts aren't here yet, so I'm not sure what all I'll get with my hard drive. I'm expecting everything to arrive Friday. I'm just trying to make sure I'm prepared when I start putting it together. The only thing that worried me was this line: "SATA is not supported by anything prior to WXP SP1." I'll be installing a pre-SP1 copy of Windows. As long as it's a simple matter of making a floppy with drivers and inserting it at the right time, I'm not concerned.

[Meech]

You might not even need the drivers. I recently built a new box with SATA (integrated on MB) and didn't need to install any drivers whatsoever.

When you initially boot your windows cd, if you pay attention you will see a message at the bottom saying "Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party driver" or something like that. If you boot the windows CD and the setup sees your HD -- you are golden. If not, you will have to press F6 and supply a driver disk.

I'd lay better than even odds that you will be ok without it.

[AEKDBet]

[ QUOTE ]
You might not even need the drivers. I recently built a new box with SATA (integrated on MB) and didn't need to install any drivers whatsoever.

When you initially boot your windows cd, if you pay attention you will see a message at the bottom saying "Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party driver" or something like that. If you boot the windows CD and the setup sees your HD -- you are golden. If not, you will have to press F6 and supply a driver disk.

I'd lay better than even odds that you will be ok without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

THIS IS CORRECT. If you are going to boot from this SATA drive you will HAVE to press F6 and HAVE to use a floppy disk.

If you have a USB floppy drive that won't work either, it has to be old school. Go to the website of your motherboard and download the latest drivers - usually they will have a makeadisk.exe application to make things easier.

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You might not even need the drivers. I recently built a new box with SATA (integrated on MB) and didn't need to install any drivers whatsoever.

When you initially boot your windows cd, if you pay attention you will see a message at the bottom saying "Press F6 if you need to install a 3rd party driver" or something like that. If you boot the windows CD and the setup sees your HD -- you are golden. If not, you will have to press F6 and supply a driver disk.

I'd lay better than even odds that you will be ok without it.

[/ QUOTE ]

THIS IS CORRECT. If you are going to boot from this SATA drive you will HAVE to press F6 and HAVE to use a floppy disk.

If you have a USB floppy drive that won't work either, it has to be old school. Go to the website of your motherboard and download the latest drivers - usually they will have a makeadisk.exe application to make things easier.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you both. I don't expect to have any trouble out of this, since I know what I've got to do now. I'm just trying to read up on everything that I need to prepare for to try top limit the number of surprises I get tomorrow. I am just now beginning to suspect that this may be the reason Newegg gave me a free floppy drive for ordering a SATA hard drive.