Computer help forum: Reinstalling XP on a SATA hdd

Thanks for your reply Steve. Unfortunately I do not have a disk for my motherboard. The SATA HDD in my computer is the original, it is not a replacement. My original operating system was an OEM XP Media Centre Edition but this became corrupted and a computer technician installed XP Professional for me in a new Windows2 folder alongside the original Windows folder containing the corrupted files. He gave me the XP Professional installation disk. Eventually I removed the old Windows folder.

As I don't think the computer technician had any problems installing XP Professional (this was several years ago now), I wondered if the necessary SATA drivers were embedded in the chipset so there is no need to have a set on a floppy or to create a slipstreamed installation disk containing them. Information I have gleaned about the motherboard chipset lists an included PATA/SATA IDE Driver package. I hoped, therefore, that this meant the OS installation disk would find the required drivers on the chipset. I just need to to know if this would be a correct interpretation or have I completely misunderstood?

I do keep image backups of the system drive so have some protection should a crisis occur but I would like to be sure I could undertake a complete reinstallation of XP should that become necessary.

Thank you.

Wherever you got the info stating that the SATA driver was available, then get it. You should be able to get the driver from the mtrbd. maker or the HD maker for your current HD. Now, some later released mtrbds. due to the bios status may have an easier time at this or not. But, as you may know during the XP OS install it will ask for those SATA drivers, thus access via the FD diskette. What you may find is the later release of XP OS or at least XP SP2 may help, but there are varied favors out there(OEM supplied?) and while slipstreamed disc actually does the job your disc may too. Again, even if it didn't the later bios status *may* allow it to proceed as in using chipset for SATA because it provides access. On top of all that, your chipset from VIA- P4M890 was widely used in various favors too, so its an open question. It's not going to hurt to try at least and see where it goes. Of course, the old fashion way is to see if the mtrbd. has FD port, if all else fails then use it for that special purpose for lack of anything else. Borrow or temp. usage of a FD drive in a jerry-rigged way for this task.

tada -----Willy

Thanks for your input Willy.

The Via P4M890 includes the VT8237A South Bridge controller suite for which the manufacturer's specifications includes the following:

"Featuring the new VIA DriveStation™ Controller Suite, the VIA VT8237A South Bridge enables multiple drive connectivity options and brings native support for Serial ATA and Serial RAID to the Mainstream PC for the first time, across a complete range of VIA core logic chipset platforms supporting the full spectrum of Intel Pentium® 4, AMD Athlon™ XP, AMD Opteron™, and VIA C3®/Eden™ ESP processors."

I need to know if I am interpreting this information correctly in assuming that necessary SATA drivers are available for a reinstallation from the operating disk without the need to have the drivers on an attached floppy drive or to use a slipstreamed copy of the installation disk.

Look here...It appears to be the MB manual

http://www.machspeed.com/manuals/G03-P4M9MP-FREV.3.0.pdf

It tells how to make the SATA driver disk but you need the disk or file that creates the floppy. Have you checked the manufacturer's web site for this.

Thanks Grif and Steve for your input.

Although I am reasonably competent with my computers, my experience, knowledge and understanding is somewhat limited in certain areas. If I have seemed a little naive regarding this issue then please excuse me.

I presume, as nobody has responded to my supposition regarding embedded drivers, that the necessary SATA drivers are not embedded in the chipset but the chipset supports SATA if the appropriate drivers are installed. What I have done therefore, as an initial step in a possible later reinstallation of XP, is to run a driver utility (Driver Magician Lite) that has not only identified the drivers on my system but has also indicated those which are not included on the XP installation disk. The utility also enabled me to backup any selected drivers so I have backed up all those not on the installation disk. It is now a question of downloading and running Nlite to create a copy of the XP installation disk with the drivers slipstreamed. I've ruled out a floppy drive has some of the driver packages in question are rather large.

Again, thanks for your interest, I would be interested in any more advice that you or other forum members might offer.

that is not present or enabled in the BIOS. As such, they cannot find SATA drivers for a MB if the BIOS is set to emulate PATA (IDE). They can only do so if BIOS is set for SATA and the OS has been successfully installed. The bottom line is that you cannot use driver finders reliably for your intended purpose. You are saying you think the drivers might be embedded in the chipset driver package. If they are, it may be possible to extract them from it on another machine. Such might allow the F6 floppy pre-installation. Many executable can be run with switches that will extract the files without installing them I just don't know if your chipset driver package allows this or what the switches might be. I suppose you could explore that possibility.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your continued interest and helpful suggestions. Apologies for the typo in my last post (has instead of as in the last sentence of the main paragraph).

My BIOS is set for SATA , my internal drive, which contains the system partition (C: drive), is a SATA drive and has been running correctly. There is no problem at present but my concerns relate to the possibility that I may need to reinstall Windows XP one day. When I discovered that XP installation disks will not install the OS on a SATA drive, because the necessary drivers are not present on the disk, I was worried and so have been investigating ways of getting around a potential problem. If those necessary SATA drivers are not embedded in the motherboard chipset, then they are on the internal SATA hard drive. Driver Magician Lite found those drivers as did Driver Identifier which suggested updated drivers to download to replace some of them. In the past I have updated some of the Via drivers with no issues.

I hope that I now have explained more clearly my situation.

Thanks again, cheers.

This is something I've been able to do with other hardware that installed only with other software that I did not want. I was able to find the files needed by their identity as listed in Windows device manager and copy them to another location. In your case, it would need to be on a floppy disk. I don't know if that will work for you. In my case it was some wireless device and I was able to uninstall the software and replace the driver files to make it work again. In the meantime, you make sure to keep full HD backups, images, etc. and hope for the best.

Thanks Steve, I will report back when there are any significant developments.

Further research relating to my motherboard revealed that is was manufactured by MSI for Packard Bell following Packard Bell specifications. As such, the MSI support forum expert could not offer any direct support but referred me to the Packard Bell support site. He did indicate, however, that the BIOS settings for my system had more than likely included an IDE mode setting for the HDD (which, I believe, is what Grif was referring to in an earlier post) and that he believed the XP reinstallation process on to my internal SATA HDD would not be compromised.

I checked my system's BIOS and found the following advanced chipset features:
SATA Controller [Enabled]
SATA Controller Mode [IDE]
This would seem to concur with the MSI forum expert.

Incidentally, Packard Bell do not seem interested in systems the age of mine (2006), I could find neither reference to the computer model nor the motherboard model on their website. However, if my understanding of the BIOS is correct, the reinstallation of XP, if the need should arise, would work normally using the original installation disk.

Investigating Nlite has still been a useful experience though. I can afford to experiment a little for the cost of a CDr. I might try to create a slimmed down XP installation disk leaving out some of the unnecessary clutter and perhaps add drivers for some of the hardware additions I've made since the original installation, there are a number of possible options. A disk failure will not be too serious as I will still have the original installation disk.

Thanks Willy, Steve and Grif for your interest and suggestions; your contributions were valuable and have helped build the confidence of an old codger like me, encouraging me to explore the mysteries of computing.