problem putting xp on XPS m1530, help please!

ok heres whats happening. i had my m1530 with vista. i decided to put XP pro on it.

the first time around, i changed AHCI to ATA in the bios, and turned off the flash cache in the bios as well.

i installed xp pro, no problem.

well i forgot to install the chipset driver first, so i got everything working, except the USB ports...so i decided to reformat again, only this time i followed Udi's write up ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=254815) EXACTLY. i put the drivers on a floppy, boot from xp cd, press f6 to load the drivers off the floppy, then choose 82801HEM/HBM (Mobile), as stated in the read me document.

it then continues the XP installation, does its thing, and then comes up and says "please load disk with drivers for Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager into Drive A (or something to that nature)

F3 to quit, or Enter to continue. i hit enter a million times, and it wouldnt continue!! the floppy drive was still connected at this point since the beginning of the install, so i dont know whats wrong. i had to hit f3 to quit, as it was my only option. i tried again, same thing.

anyone know whats going on here? Udi doesnt know, i already asked him, he said it sounds like im doing everything correctly, but i dont know why its asking me a second time to insert the driver disk...

any help is greatly appreciated!

ps- what are the con's if i just reformat, with the AHCI and flash cache disabled, then once windows starts up, ill install the chipset driver?

 

You can install with ATA after installation you can update to AHCI drivers.

Or you can slipstream the drivers in a CD.

 

are there cons of installing with ATA and then later, upgrading to AHCI drivers? Udi's write up said something about its OK to do it that way, but you'll lose some of AHCI functionality. im not sure what that means.

to be honest im out of blank cd's, so i dont feel like buying any right now just to slipstream them in lol.

 

Just slipstream the CD, there is another guide on here that goes into detail about it.

 

i slipstreamed the driver into my XP disc, and it worked... some reason it will not work with the floppy method..

who knows, but its almost finished installing now!

 

I don't think there will be any lost functionality, you can confirm it from Matrix Storage Manager.

If you want to slipstream, which is recommended, but don't have a blank CD, you can install it from a USB drive, no need to burn it to a CD. There are plenty of guides out there.

 

I'm lost a little bit about the way you install your XP with the F3 thing and stuff. but if you are reformatting your entire hard drive use a disk wiping program like killdisk to completely wipeout your drive. I know some may say that it is not necessary to do this but i do it when installing a new OS install (not unless your drive is brand new) just to make sure bit and pieces of file or driver remnants are completely deleted from the drive. There are cases that even though you think it is deleted it is really not so chances are, though small, it may be picked up by the newly installed OS and might create a driver conflict.

 

i slip streamed the AHCI drivers into my XP disc, and insatlled it that way. all is working now, except for the audio drivers for some reason....its starting to make me mad LOL