is XP not compatable?

i got a new 1737 dell studio, upgraded from a e1705. i had 3 hdd's, 2 with vista, one with xp. i still wanted to keep one with xp, so i put it in the studio. as windows was booting, i got the BSOD, a problem with the hdd. i figured it was a problem, since it was configured to my old laptop, so i inserted the xp cd, and booted from the cd drive. the windows installation process began, and as it does in the begining, it says windows loading files. after it did that for a bit, i got the BSOD, same error. so i figued the hdd was no good. i then put in the hdd that i knew was good, that i had been running vista with the new studio. i booted from the cd drive, and at the windows loading files screen, i got the BSOD, same error.
is xp just not compatable with this laptop?

 

Go into the bios and turn the SATA/AHCI mode to IDE/Compatibility mode , then try again

You get a BSOD because Xp does not natively support SATA

 

Yepp, or if that doesn't work you need to slipstream SATA drivers into your installation CD - or provide them via a floppy drive - that should work too.

 

Just messing about i tried from a floppy the other day, and it does not work, just gives the message no txtsetup.oem file.

I am sure it use too work?

 

Maybe you need a bootable floppy?

I suppose you can find guides if you needed to online...

 

no, the floppy doesn't need to be bootable. but i've seen it to not work on external usb-floppy-drives.

 

For the floppy to work it might be that you need Legacy USB support enabled in BIOS.

 

I have tried a bootable floppy, formatted in FAT and you can see the drive being read , but as i said before i get the message no txtsetup.oem file.

 

no clue what i've done back in the xp days. i once got raid installed from a floppy, but that's years back