You cant be serious! SATA needs a floppy?!?

T

The Chosen One

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2001
Messages
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Hi guys, just bought some bits for a comp for my uncle, decided to give him SATA HDD.

Got the ABit AV8-3rd Eye Mobo with an A64 3000+

Im trying to install windows, but it wont detect teh HDD, but BIOS does.
So I tried pushing F6 when windows install loads, and its asked for a Floppy disk, so i looked around in disbelief, and OMG, the mobo came with floppy disk for the SATA. You remember floppy disks? those little goddamn useless things we used to have in our comps before Burners. Well my problem is, i dont HAVE a FDD and i need to get it in the post for my uncle in 3hrs. What the hell are you supposed to do to get stupid XP to recognise my SATA HDD if, like me, youre one of those people who has moved on from those pathetically pointless drives, and now only have optical drives?


Any ideas anyone?
 
The Chosen One said:
Hi guys, just bought some bits for a comp for my uncle, decided to give him SATA HDD.

Got the ABit AV8-3rd Eye Mobo with an A64 3000+

Im trying to install windows, but it wont detect teh HDD, but BIOS does.
So I tried pushing F6 when windows install loads, and its asked for a Floppy disk, so i looked around in disbelief, and OMG, the mobo came with floppy disk for the SATA. You remember floppy disks? those little goddamn useless things we used to have in our comps before Burners. Well my problem is, i dont HAVE a FDD and i need to get it in the post for my uncle in 3hrs. What the hell are you supposed to do to get stupid XP to recognise my SATA HDD if, like me, youre one of those people who has moved on from those pathetically pointless drives, and now only have optical drives?


Any ideas anyone?
Click to expand...

I say it time and time again... Floppies will never go out of date... Unless you can rewrite stuff onto your XP disc (which if it's legit you can't) I don't know any other way of installing RAID drivers.
 
Find a floppy and hook it up temporarily so you can install windows. Or make a custom Windows XP install CD with the SATA drivers already integrated. The floppy way is faster.
 
Surely theres a better way, this is the most retarded thing ever...well...not quite...but its pretty damn stupid.

Will this be fixed with the next new version of Windows? SATA drivers already built in or something?
 
I've never had to install SATA drivers when installing XP on a SATA drive. The floppy is for a RAID array.
 
almostinsane1 said:
I've never had to install SATA drivers when installing XP on a SATA drive. The floppy is for a RAID array.
Click to expand...

I've got 2 wiht my setup.. one for if you are running plain old sata, one for if you decide to use the sata raid support.

Easiest way for you to get going is to just pull a floppy out of another computer.
 
...I still shake my head and wonder why folks get so spun up about a seven dollar part that offers so much versitality. If you're case modding and don't want it there for appearance reasons, that's one thing, but they are pretty handy to have around, IMHO. I still include one in every system I build up (even the last system I did with a lexan case).....

FWIW - B.B.S.
 
almostinsane1 said:
I've never had to install SATA drivers when installing XP on a SATA drive. The floppy is for a RAID array.
Click to expand...
...yes and no; depends on the motherboard and chipset. Chipsets with native SATA are "usually" recognized by the OS during install and no further drivers are required; this was the case with my i875 motherboard. But - anytime there's a third party chip, to run a RAID array or just to provide SATA ports....you'll need the disk.

Regards - B.B.S.
 
The Chosen One said:
those little goddamn useless things we used to have in our comps before Burners
Click to expand...

guess they aren't so useless afterall now, are they? :rolleyes:

I don't see why people think it makes them [H]ardcore to get rid of a $10 floppy drive, when you never know when you will need one for something like this


BlindedByScience said:
...I still shake my head and wonder why folks get so spun up about a seven dollar part that offers so much versitality. If you're case modding and don't want it there for appearance reasons, that's one thing, but they are pretty handy to have around, IMHO. I still include one in every system I build up (even the last system I did with a lexan case).....

FWIW - B.B.S.
Click to expand...

Well said. And you can always hide it inside the case in a hard drive slot.
 
Well I agree with the original poster that having to load up drivers off a floppy disk is just bullshit. Windows XP should have came with the ability to load drivers off a floppy disk or a cd. Windows 2003 is the same way and the only way to get drivers loaded before setup is using a floppy disk. Many companies have already started to make floppy drives an optional accessory on computer systems so they are certainly on there way out. I don't really mind having a floppy drive in my system, I just hate floppy disks in general. I can't say how many times I tried to load drivers off a floppy disk only to have it give me some stupid read error because the disk is screwed up.
 
I never use floppes anymore except for this reason, to install windows when i buy a board with a raid controller on it, like the Si or marvell. I just put it in for the windows isntall, and take it out when it reboots, and back into the closet that ugly thing goes, next to my B: Drive :)

I use thumb drives now, all my computers and friends computers have USB, so thats all i need.
 
I keep a USB Floppy drive around for just such a purpose. Most Modern mobos support booting from a USB device and the systemboard itself can read the floppy as if it were connected to the controller.

Score 1 for Intel chipsets though. They don't need a driver for WinXP.
 
I agree that it's a pain in the arse that they insist on providing driver software on floppies. I still haven't got the hang of that newfangled technology yet and I wish they'd go back to sending out card-decks instead. Much more reliable.

Chris.
 
It's not that the manufacturers of controller cards insist on it. Microsoft does, as that's the only way to load up drivers for controller cards during Windows' install routine.

I'm sure that will change in the future, perhaps with Longhorn.

Personally, I have all of my controller drivers on a ZIP disk and put it into Floppy mode whenever I need to reinstall Windows.
 
this kind of problem always appears when new stuff becomes avaliable and an OS is becoming a bit long in the tooth. i remember how cool it was when i put XP on a pc chips POS bookPC and XP found all of its obscure devices and there were no "!" in device manager:

im sure longhorn or even XPSE if it comes out will "find" those things right away just as xp loads tons of super obscure drivers for legacy things (who has "scsi floppy drive" anyways :) )

you can make a USB "thumb drive" a: drive in some bios you could copy the floppy to one on another pc if you have one.it doesnt really care if it an actual floppy just something on "a:"
 
This one bugged me a lot too. I did not have a floppy and needed to install xp in a hurry, my USB floppy was not recognized so I ended up using a (P)ATA dirve to install and then transfer, contents to SATA.
I learnt my lesson when windows crashed in a week and I could not "repair" it cause I was back with same problem, so I decided there is no use fussing abt a device that costs less than 0.5% of my pc cost :)
 
DropTech said:
I say it time and time again... Floppies will never go out of date... Unless you can rewrite stuff onto your XP disc (which if it's legit you can't) I don't know any other way of installing RAID drivers.
Click to expand...

Umm, you certainly CAN change the files on your XPCD and burn a new disk. Doing so doesn't violate the EULA in any way, shape, or form. In fact MS even makes all of the services packs with a feature to incorporate the new files onto the disk (ever hear of slipstreaming?). It's a very common practice.

Anyway, add the drivers for the SATA controller to the CD, or get a floppy drive somewhere. I know it's a pain. Unfortunatley, the last build of Longhorn I tried (4051) still didn't have the capability of reading from a CD, but here's praying they add it later. It would only make sense. Good Luck, and here's a handy link:

http://greenmachine.msfnhosting.com/READING/addraid.htm
 
Wouldn't an XP install CD with SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed into it solve this issue (= a more up to date driver pool available)?
 
cccc said:
Wouldn't an XP install CD with SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed into it solve this issue (= a more up to date driver pool available)?
Click to expand...

Only if MS added the drivers. It's worth a shot, but no guarantees. If they didn't, using a floppy (or some kind of device to emulate one) or adding them yourself is the only option. Pain in the butt huh?
 
cccc said:
Wouldn't an XP install CD with SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed into it solve this issue (= a more up to date driver pool available)?
Click to expand...

only if the new device is included in SP2 inf files. unlikely with new SATA chips.
 
Use a USB floppy. The new motherboards these days are able to use those in DOS and Windows setup.

Cheap, cost effective, and don't have to go inside the case.
 
I've run into the floppy issue recently with BIOS updates. However, if you had Windows, you could run it within the OS. Only problem was it was Linux on that machine.

Here's a slightly different one I ran into with a fresh build of Windows XP. The computer only had USB connections, there was no PS/2 ports at all. So I load Windows XP then I start to install the Chipset drivers from Intel. Well, during the installation, it knocks out both USB and Power management. So I can't get the computer to respond to the keyboard or mouse and I can't get it to do a clean shutdown from the power button. Ended up holding down the powerbutton for a dirty powerdown. Just found it amusing.
 
God forbid anyone actually point the blame where it belongs....the chipset makers for AMD processors. They did not get the drivers to MS, and therefore they weren't included. When using an Intel chipset board, no extra drivers are needed, unless RAID functionality is used. But then again, why should I expect people to blame the right parties anyway, when it's much easier to just blame MS for everything!

Also, if you've been reading these forums at all, you'd see the RIDICULOUS amounts of threads with people complaining that XP can't find their drives during the install. It's really a simple world, but some people are the last to learn. Maybe Charles Darwin was absolutely right after all.
 
only a CD with integrated Sata drivers will work, not one with SP1 or SP2 slipstreamed

(I just made a Sp2 / Sata driver CD for XP Pro and its great, no more floppies!)
 
TLS2000 said:
Personally, I have all of my controller drivers on a ZIP disk and put it into Floppy mode whenever I need to reinstall Windows.
Click to expand...
Sorry for crapping on this thread, but how do you do that? I have an old ZIP ATAPI drive and didn't know that was possible. I should stick it back in for that reason.....so is this a motherboard BIOS option or something?
 
Met-AL said:
Sorry for crapping on this thread, but how do you do that? I have an old ZIP ATAPI drive and didn't know that was possible. I should stick it back in for that reason.....so is this a motherboard BIOS option or something?
Click to expand...

It's a BIOS option on the last couple of Asus boards that I've had.
 
What I find even more annoying - motherboards that have the sata driver floppy compressed on their CD. Now you need a second computer to uncompress the files to a floppy to install. Or install XP without, then make the floppy and start over.
 
I always put a floppy drive in my systems. They cost like $8......

I wish the 120 meg ls120 drives became popular and cost $8 bucks
 
djnes said:
God forbid anyone actually point the blame where it belongs....the chipset makers for AMD processors. They did not get the drivers to MS, and therefore they weren't included. When using an Intel chipset board, no extra drivers are needed, unless RAID functionality is used. But then again, why should I expect people to blame the right parties anyway, when it's much easier to just blame MS for everything!

Also, if you've been reading these forums at all, you'd see the RIDICULOUS amounts of threads with people complaining that XP can't find their drives during the install. It's really a simple world, but some people are the last to learn. Maybe Charles Darwin was absolutely right after all.
Click to expand...


You know, I don't really disagree with you on this, and I'm certainly no MS hater. I'm pretty sure every distro of Linux would be taken apart just like MS if anyone cared. It's not that the security flaws aren't there, there just aren't as many people looking.

That said, how difficult could it be to add CD rom support to the preload phase of the install? While it's obviously not a gigantic problem for most (maybe most here, but we don't really represent the genral PC owning public now, do we?), I would think it would be a small enhancement to make, that would make a lot of people happy. The MS newsgroups for XP install prob. get this question at least 30 times a week, and I know the MVP's get pretty sick of it.

Here's a challenge: Anyone out there got the skillz (becuase I don't) to add the CD rom support? Post it here, and maybe we could get a MOD to put it up top since it gets asked so frequently.
 
djnes said:
God forbid anyone actually point the blame where it belongs....the chipset makers for AMD processors. They did not get the drivers to MS, and therefore they weren't included. When using an Intel chipset board, no extra drivers are needed, unless RAID functionality is used. But then again, why should I expect people to blame the right parties anyway, when it's much easier to just blame MS for everything!

Also, if you've been reading these forums at all, you'd see the RIDICULOUS amounts of threads with people complaining that XP can't find their drives during the install. It's really a simple world, but some people are the last to learn. Maybe Charles Darwin was absolutely right after all.
Click to expand...

You can't blame the chipset companies for things like this. There are always going to be new chipsets coming out and there is not way for Microsoft to integrate drivers in their operating system for chipsets that are not even released yet. Microsoft just needs to load some simple cdrom drivers before setup and allow you to use a cd to install additional drivers in addition to the floppy drive.
 
DropTech said:
I say it time and time again... Floppies will never go out of date... Unless you can rewrite stuff onto your XP disc (which if it's legit you can't) I don't know any other way of installing RAID drivers.
Click to expand...


Floppy drives are 5 bucks. So i always have one just in case.
 
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