Loading SATA driver without floppy drive, possible?

XP no, Vista yes...

You could get a USB floppy for about $20, thats what I have, just for that purpose. Well that and building boot sectors on CD's and DVD's...
 
Another option is to disable AHCI in your BIOS. It can be labeled as many things (assuming your motherboard supports it -- some don't). Look for AHCI, or SATA Compatibility mode, or IDE Emulation....

In this mode, you won't need to use the drivers.
 
^^^ Great guide, but doesn't apply. OP asked if Windows supported a flash drive for loading drivers at text mode. XP doesn't, vista does.

Slip streaming drivers into the install is a completely different topic!
 
I have used this process with (also mentioned in the link) an unattended install to completely bypass the need for a floppy in text mode. Once the appropriate files are modified the system is able to load the drivers on its own. You dont even have to do unattended if you dont want to.

Hence the editing of TXTSETUP.sif.

EDIT: My linkage was in response to his title coupled with "or something like that." I agree you cannot use a flash drive in XP text setup, but with this you dont need to.
 
Use nLite to slipstream. No need to do any of it manually. You can slipstream SPs, hotfixes, drivers and more. Vista has a similar vLite but at least you can use USB for Vista drivers.
 
Use nLite to slipstream. No need to do any of it manually. You can slipstream SPs, hotfixes, drivers and more. Vista has a similar vLite but at least you can use USB for Vista drivers.

On a side note, has this gotten any better? The last time I used this (.8 or so version) it was really buggy.
 
On a side note, has this gotten any better? The last time I used this (.8 or so version) it was really buggy.

nLite or vLite? I've used nLite for a long time and it has been very solid for me for quite a while. I've had bad luck with vLite but I have not tried the latest.
 
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