WindowsXP on SATA, HELP!

S

Somatization

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Sep 13, 2008
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Gateway Laptop Model: MP6954
Intel DualCore 1.6Ghz
CD-RW/DVD-ROM-R-RW
320GB SATA 3.5 Hard Disk
Dynex USB FLoppy Drive

STORY/PROBLEM:
I, like so many other people, am unable to find a SATA driver for my motherboard.
This of course means that when attempting to install WindowsXPSP2(new, as is the hard drive), the Windows setup claims that there is no hard drive.

I am currently trying this:
"You can download the SATA drivers from Intel. Look for the 32 floppy configuration utility. Run it on a computer that has a floppy drive and then open the disk and save the files to the hard drive. Then get nLite and slipstream them in as Text mode and only select the Mobile drivers (don't really know which one it is exactly) Then you will be good to go. I am currently formatting my Laptop drive right now getting it ready with XP :) If you dont' have access to a computer with a floppy i guess i could e-mail the files to anyone (consider this a last resort)."
Found on, http://forums.driverguide.com/archive/index.php/t-28415.html
I'm in the stage of burning the disc that I slipstreamed from my new copy of WindowsXP.
Also, if anyone has experience with this process, it would be greatly appreciated if you could tell me what set of drivers he is talking about.
I kind of just selected them all, which I'm sure is awfully incorrect.
Sadly I dont know which Intel Chipset my laptop has.

Perhaps I am just cynical, but I doubt that it's going to work ,and so I am wondering if ANYONE has the SATA drivers for my laptop.
If I could acquire the drivers, I could simply burn them to a floppy, and use the F6 method on my motherboard to load the 'third party SCSI Drivers', and finally accomplish my WindowsXP installation.

I've spent the last few hours researching and looking for these fabled drivers, and I'm sure that if all of us(we, the people searching for said mystical drivers) combined our time in search, we could have likely cured cancer, created millions of dollars from selling dust at 1cent per pound, and we may even have acquired girlfriends.

But of course, I'm at this forum, really quite desperately asking for help.
I've spent over $500 trying to get this thing to work, and I guess that asking for help is my last resort.

Please respond on this thread, AIM, or Email.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated; I'm in a long distance relationship(fiancee is a country away for college), and our primary means of communication is laptop.
And for the past 2 months, our communication has been rare.
It would truly mean the world to me if anyone could help me.
I'll even pay if it works.

AIM: GasolineDiamonds
Email: DisturbedGeneral@Ameritech.net
 
here ya go

get a usb drive and make a folder called "Drivers" extract the contents of the downloaded file to this folder
Put in the XP cd....when prompted for RAID, Hardrive drivers press F6 browse to your usb drive and select the appropriate .inf file
 
You can't browse USB sticks using XP's setup installer, you only have two choices with XP:

1) Put the drivers on a floppy and F6 it in

2) Integrate the drivers

That's it. Vista can browse USB sticks or USB external drives, even networks, and optical media as well. XP doesn't offer that ability.

How_To_Integrate_SATA_Drivers_into_A_Custom_Windows_CD

If there's a better or more thorough guide out there for creating a properly slipstreamed XP CD with the correct SATA drivers integrated, I'd love to see one. I wrote that one and I've got a few thousand emails saying it taught them everything they needed to know like no other guide ever has or probably will.

Good luck...
 
He has a USB FLOPPY DRIVE so pressing F6 should work unlike with USB flash drives. You can boot from, flash BIOS from, and yes, even press F6 during XP install on most computers using a USB floppy drive.
 
Yah, I got that but it wasn't relevant: the proper method is making a slipstreamed and properly integrated installation CD so he doesn't have to do this crap ever again unless he gets a mobo with a new chipset that requires entirely new drivers at a later time.

Thought you would have understood that...

To the OP:

Get this tool from Intel and it will specifically ID the exact chipset and the exact storage controller in your laptop as the "root" level chipset can have multiple revisions (82801GB, GBC, GBH, GBM, etc etc).

Once you have the specific info, integrating the drivers becomes that much easier.
 
Joe Average said:
Yah, I got that but it wasn't relevant: the proper method is making a slipstreamed and properly integrated installation CD so he doesn't have to do this crap ever again unless he gets a mobo with a new chipset that requires entirely new drivers at a later time.

Thought you would have understood that...
Click to expand...

Ya but sometimes a slipstreamed CD just doesnt always work and knowing how to slipstream a cd generally entails knowing how to press F6, and then you figure out that you can slipstream....anyways slipstreaming just doesnt always work I can slipstream the drivers all day long for my integrated LSI chipset on my mobo....but on XP x86 or x64 it just doesnt do shit unless I load them with F6

So I just go with F6
 
nitrobass24 said:
Ya but sometimes a slipstreamed CD just doesnt always work and knowing how to slipstream a cd generally entails knowing how to press F6, and then you figure out that you can slipstream....anyways slipstreaming just doesnt always work I can slipstream the drivers all day long for my integrated LSI chipset on my mobo....but on XP x86 or x64 it just doesnt do shit unless I load them with F6

So I just go with F6
Click to expand...

In other words, based on what you said that I just quoted, you have no clue how to slipstream drivers and integrate them properly. I did say properly because if it's not properly done then no, you won't get anywhere. The guides floating around on the Internet about slipstreaming and integrating drivers aren't fucking detailed enough and end up with people thinking and saying what you just said. It's not you, it's the instructions you've been following in the past to get the job done - because they're all wrong and leave out the specific details that make slipstreaming drivers into an installation CD that matter the most.

Leave out the one crucial step in the process and it won't work, hence your failure(s) in the past. Slipstreaming a CD has absolutely NOTHING to do with pressing F6, not sure what the hell you're going on about there but... whatever.

My guide teaches you how to do it right, step by freakin' step, and if you can't follow it and get a CD that has every driver you need integrated for SATA controller purposes (it's about that and only that, not any other type(s) of drivers) then it's a simple case of PEBKAC and even I can't help with that.

'Nuff typed.
 
Some guy who isn't that experienced working with computers has an XP SP2 install CD, an external floppy drive, and desperately needs to get his laptop up... He has 2 choices, press F6, stick in a floppy and be on his merry way in 30 secs past the SATA road block or create a slipstreamed XP CD for the "next time" his laptop has a fatal crash... Hmmm, hard choice. Especially when another friendly user already basically sent him the drivers he needs to just unpack onto his floppy.

1. slipstreaming is not hard and multiple guides have sufficient info for anyone with even average computer experience to get working fine. been there done that as as most ppl on this forum, nothing special.

2. even an experience computer user who can slipstream, create custom boot cd's, run XP from a flash drive, create unattended installs, etc, would likely choose the 30 sec F6 method if he desperately needs his laptop up and already has a floppy drive, XP CD, and the SATA drivers sitting in front of him.

Nlite is awesome, slipstreaming is easy, but it's not the answer to everything. And BTW the guide on Nlite's website is more than sufficient and detailed for anyone would can make their way to this forum to follow. If someone can't understand their well-written guide with step-by-step screenshots, they need to just take their broken laptop to Best Buy and pay per hour.... Or press F6.
 
In my experience, making a slipstream CD always pays off in the long run... And you're always glad you did it the next time something happens, heh. It does work every time as long as you properly build the CD too, 'course if you mess it up then the install won't work, big surprise... But it'll always work if it was built properly. That being said, most of you seem to have missed the point, which is, the thread author can't find the drivers themselves... At 'least dbwillis answered that as best as anyone here can (w/o wasting time looking up the specifics of the laptop anyway).

Btw Joe, did you always post here under the username Joe Average? I remember seeing (and using) that guide ages ago, probably even re-uploaded it and recommended it to someone at some point... I could've swore someone with a nick along the lines of ghostsomethingorother was pimping it originally though. /shrug Doesn't matter one way or the other, it's a nice guide.

Edit: Google is your friend, drives are all on Gateway's support site, and it's like the second hit when you search for Gateway MP6954... I think this is the link dbwillis tried to post but he typod'd it and it doesn't lead anywhere.

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?st=pn&param=1009031

More specifically, these are the drivers you need for an XP install:

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20974&dscr=Windows%20XP%20and%20Vista%20(32-bit%20or%2064-bit)%20SATA/Mass%20Storage%20Controller%20version:%20Intel%206.2.0.2002&uid=208372809

Do note that you may need to download the file linked and run it (it's a self-extracting zip file) so it dumps the files into a directory from which you can then extract them and put 'em on your floppy, slipstreamed CD, or whatever. Can't just put the zip file into a floppy and go... But when it extracts it even creates a folder within the main folder titled F6 Floppy X86 (you can ignore/delete the rest of the stuff)... It really isn't very hard to find, dunno why or how you might've wasted $500 on this, but whomever lead you down that path just swindled ya or didn't have a clue. :(
 
I ended up slipstreaming it and then installing WindowsXP, getting the drivers that Windows didn't come with (Intel Graphics Acceleration, WiFi, Sound, etc..), and I didn't have any problems at all.

The whole problem with this thread was that Gateway does NOT have the drivers specifically for WindowsXP on their site.
And as we all know, the drivers are packaged with Vista as well.
Sadly I was a bit too lazy to actually investigate the extracted files from the .exe I got from Gateway.

By the way:

$500= 320GB hard disk, WindowsXPSP2, and an external USB Floppy drive along with some floppy's.

Kinda sucked, but oh well.

Thanks to everyone who answered, although I... actually just did it all myself.
Slipstreaming it was probably the second easiest choice to do.
 
$500= 320GB hard disk, WindowsXPSP2, and an external USB Floppy drive along with some floppy's.

wow
 
Somatization said:
I ended up slipstreaming it and then installing WindowsXP, getting the drivers that Windows didn't come with (Intel Graphics Acceleration, WiFi, Sound, etc..), and I didn't have any problems at all.

The whole problem with this thread was that Gateway does NOT have the drivers specifically for WindowsXP on their site.
And as we all know, the drivers are packaged with Vista as well.
Sadly I was a bit too lazy to actually investigate the extracted files from the .exe I got from Gateway.

By the way:

$500= 320GB hard disk, WindowsXPSP2, and an external USB Floppy drive along with some floppy's.

Kinda sucked, but oh well.

Thanks to everyone who answered, although I... actually just did it all myself.
Slipstreaming it was probably the second easiest choice to do.
Click to expand...


$500 - shoulda just bought a new computer for that much sheesh
 
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