Ok... so I haven;t done this for a while so I thought I'd ask...

[tiggerai]

Right, finally installing my upgrade, which includes an Abit AN8-Ultra.

Now, I've got to the stage where I'm installing the OS, do I still need to faff around with floppy drives and disks to get the SATA to be picked up? (I had to do this with my AN7... big PIA)

Thanks!

Tigs

[Agent]

It depends on what you're doing with the SATA. If you're using RAID then its a must (or Slipstream)
If you're using normal SATA then you can set the BIOS to be in 'legacy' mode (I am fairly sure the AN8 can do that, its been a while) meaning you will not need additional drivers for the drive to be seen by the OS.
If you use this mode though you loose the more advanced stuff of SATA like hot swapping.

If this isn't the case and you're using Windows XP then you will need them.

Unless you Slipstream the drivers onto the XP install disk using nLite. Otherwise XP is hardcoded to look at the floppy drive for mass storage drivers.

Having said that IIRC there is 2 SATA controllers on that board. One done by the southbridge (NF4) and one via the SiliconImage 31xx. If you use the SiliconImage one, you will need to use the drivers, although I don't recommend using that controller unless you really have to.

In short: Grab nLite. Go to Abits / Nvidias driver pages and download them. Slipstream them onto disk along with SP3. All in all it will take less than 10mins and save a lot of time and will be a lot simpler should you run into driver issues at the install stage.

[tiggerai]

ok, cool... I'll give it a go... ONly ever done it one, 3 years ago anyway.

Won't be in RAID so i'll give the legacy thing a try... don't need hot swapping