Sata & Xp & Hp

Frustrated with Vista's slow boot-up and shut-down, I down-graded to XP Pro with a fresh install. With SATA disabled in the bios I was able to install XP. Now the problem is I can't enable it. XP won't start with SATA enabled in the bios. I have learned that the only way to install the SATA driver is by using a floppy drive. Even if I were to slipstream using nLite I must extract the files to a floppy disk first. I don't have a floppy drive. Other than buying an external floppy, is there a way to install the SATA driver on my laptop? I appreciate any help. Thank you.

 

Did you check if a USB key is visible during the XP install process? Not sure but as the bios mounts a USB key for booting, it might be a valid source drive for the XP installer..

 

Hi booyoo,

I think I saw something USB during install. The problem is the SATA Driver must be extracted to a floppy disk first. The irony here is floppy drives and disks have practically disappeared over the years. Now Intel decided to use this medium for file transfer.

 

Yeah i know its quite stupid really. Maybe the driver files are in the SWSetup folder, provided you have this. Im sure there is a way to use a virtual floppy drive to trick the installer.

try this http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html#download

 

davidt1, PM me with a valid email address and I'll send you the driver. Its zipped at 198k and I can only upload 97.8k here. otherwise, if you want, you can extract it yourself from the softpaq using 'winimage' as that is the software used to create the original image.
cheers

 

Thank you, SideSwipe and booyoo. Booyoo, I sent you a PM for the driver, but if you read this first, don't send because I extracted the files with winimage.

Now How do I install it? There are two INF files: iaahci.inf and iastor.inf. Do I use both. But first, how do I get started? Thank you again for your help.

Do I put both files Mobile ICH6M and Mobile ICH7M on the installation disk? Even though I am doing the slipstream thing, I hoping I don't to have to reinstall from scratch.

 

So you tried the " have disk" method throuh device manager and it did not work? you had to have done something wrong.

 

if you only have one drive in your laptop (which is the case for the dv6000 series but optional on the dv9000) then it won't make a difference for XP as it will talk to the hardware directly bypassing the BIOS anyways. Upgrading the driver after installation, from within windows will work as well. Otherwise, if you want to slipstream I believe you will have to install from scratch but I don't see any reason to bother doing that except the actual knowledge that your pc is initially booting in a generic SATA mode until the intel enhanced mode driver kicks in...

In any case, the softpaq installation instructions tells you which one to choose from the list - Intel 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (Mobile ICH7M)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...s&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3224058&dlc=en&lang=en

 

booyoo,

The instructions you are referring to is for cd installation, not from within windows.

Aphexacid,

After extracting the files (this important part is missing from many of the XP install threads here. You need to extract the SATA drivers first), I was able to do the "have disk" method. At this points you have to choose between iaahci.inf and iastor.inf. Which one should I choose? Does it matter?

 

The ICH7M driver is configured using the iaahci.inf file. The installation cd is using exactly the same method to recognize the correct file ie. based on the hardware device ID. If you choose the 'wrong' file it will prompt you that there is no matching driver for the hardware, exactly like it would do in the device manager if you choose to update the driver and select the 'have disk' option..

 

Thank you so much. It's working. Laptop is SATA enabled now. If I slipstream the install cd, iaahci.inf is only file I need, right? Thank you everyone for the help.

 

no no, you need some of them, the INF file is only the script for installation 'linking' between the hardware and the required driver fileS. You need:
iaahci.inf - the driver setup file
iaahci.cat - the inclusions to current windows driver catalog (WHQL)
iastor.sys - the driver itself

 

no, you CAN easily add SATA driver in nlite. works perfectly, and then you can turn SATA on in the bios and install XP.

i did this.