If you bought a brand new computer within the past few years, you might have noticed that your computer shipped with a Serial ATA (SATA) controller instead of the convetional Enhanced IDE (EIDE) controller. The reason for this is to enhance performance and power management as SATA controllers and their supported Hard Disk Drives have a higher data transfer speed against their IDE counterparts. And they are supposed to use lesser amount of power thereby saving you more battery life in your notebook's battery or UPS as the case may be.

If you want to install and run Windows XP on your computer, their is a higher possibility that Windows XP will say no HDD detected on your mobo, whereas infact, the HDD is there and working properly. The reason is because your computer shipped with a SATA HDD controller. The unfortunate thing here is that there is nothing you can actually do about the hardware, but there is definitely something you can do about the software.

There are two options here:

1. Disable SATA from your system BIOS and install Windows XP and;
2. Sliptream your Windows XP installation and add your SATA controller driver in there, burn it as a bootable disc and install Windows XP with your SATA driver loaded and working fine.

Steps:
1. Start your computer and during Power On Self Test (POST) press F2, F10, F12 or Del as the case maybe on your hardware to enter your BIOS setup. navigate to your SATA controller config and disable it. Now that you have dont this, you should be able to install Windows XP without any hitch, but this means your computer isn't using the HDD controller in SATA mode. Rather, it is in IDE mode which is a lil slower than SATA. Most computer users out there wouldnt want to deter their computer's performance in any manner. So, if you still want to use SATA, you can download your manufacturer's SATA controller driver and then do this:

Download and save the driver installation package in a folder of your choice, but I am gonna use My Documents (C:\Users\Your Username\Documents\) for Windows Vista and (C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\) for Windows XP.
When you try to run the driver, it will say you dont have a compatible driver because you computer is in IDE mode so dont do this. Extract the driver's .exe or .zip file with Winrar. Open a command prompt Window. When you do this, you will be presented, by default, with your ducoments folder in which case mine is C:\Users\Michael\Documents. Use the CD command to navigate to the folder where your driver is kept which is: C:\Users\Michael\Documents\Driver folder. After this, I then type [i]setup -A -P C:\Users\Michael\Documents\Driver folder\. The cabinet file carrying your SATA driver will be extracted into a folder named Driver. Now, go to Device Manager. Right click on your IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers and select the SATA controller. Click on update driver. Select no dont search Microsoft website and click next. Select Advanced and then select no, do not search. Click next and goto the next page, then click on Have Disk to browse to the folder where the drivers where extracted. Select your SATA AHCI or RAID .inf file and click OK. You will recieve a warning that Windows cant verify the driver, ignore this and click on continue to install the SATA driver. You will be prompted to restart immediately after the driver has been successfully installed. Click OK to restart. Immediately goto your BIOS setup and re-enable your SATA controller native mode or your will get a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) if not enabled.

You are done. Enjoy your Windows XP.

2. Download nLite and use it to slipstream your Windows XP. It is a very easy step. All you have to do is to follow the easy instructions. Click next and click browse to select your Windows XP installation CD (which you must have inserted in your CD/DVD Drive). You will then be prompted to select a folder where your temporary files will be kept. You can select any folder of your choice, but it is better to create a separate folder for easy deletion later on. Your installation Disc will then be copied to your temp folder. After this, you will be presented with your version of XP. Click next until you get to where you see a series of buttons. Select Drivers and bootable Disc and continue until you have the insert button on the lower right side of the nLite Window. Click on it to select your dowloaded SATA controller .inf file (which in most cases will be iastor.inf or iastar.inf) and then select your particular SATA controller model (in my own case, it is Intel 82801 GBM ICH7-M), hit next to continue. You will then be prompted whether you want nLite to start the slipstreaming. Click OK and nLite will then combine your SATA controller Driver with your Windows XP installation. After that, you can go ahead and burn the New Installation Disc with nLite or your can use it to make an ISO image for later burning with another burning software like Nero or Roxio. Restart your computer and and install your Windows XP without any problems.

I hope this my little contribution will help my fellow Trap17 members who encountered the same problem I encountered with the new Intel SATA controller.

 

 

 

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this is a great lil guide! ive been trying to work out how to get windows installed on my laptop again for ages!

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thanks m8 this worked for my office machine.

Do you know how we can configure a COM port on a motherboard that has an option for COM port via header ? and does that work ?

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