S-ATA drivers.

[just_laze]

Hi,

It was my understanding that with all S-ATA based boards you're required to press F6 during Windows XP Professional/Home installation in order to load the drivers.

Am i wrong? I haven't built an S-ATA based PC with a Windows XP installation but i plan to shortly. The reasoning behind my question is that i have created an 'unattended' installation and for this reason the option to press F6 is stripped.

My only alternative is to integrate the drivers (which i'm happy to do) only i don't want to waste my time doing so if there's no need to.

The board is an ASROCK CONROE945G-DVI, will Windows detect the S-ATA hard-drive during text-based setup? Is it only boards without 'native' S-ATA that require the F6 option (i.e. Abit NF7-S for example)?

laze.

[directhex]

Hi,

It was my understanding that with all S-ATA based boards you're required to press F6 during Windows XP Professional/Home installation in order to load the drivers.

Am i wrong? I haven't built an S-ATA based PC with a Windows XP installation but i plan to shortly. The reasoning behind my question is that i have created an 'unattended' installation and for this reason the option to press F6 is stripped.

My only alternative is to integrate the drivers (which i'm happy to do) only i don't want to waste my time doing so if there's no need to.

The board is an ASROCK CONROE945G-DVI, will Windows detect the S-ATA hard-drive during text-based setup? Is it only boards without 'native' S-ATA that require the F6 option (i.e. Abit NF7-S for example)?

laze.

depends on your version of windows, and of the controller you use.

an i945 board will probably be using the AHCI driver, which i don't think is included in windows at all. most boards also have a secondary sata controller chipo like a silicon image, which may be supported

[kalniel]

I just built a set up with this board. Nothing extra is needed at all with XP Home SP2. Just install windows as normal - it went onto a Samsung 160gb SATA2 drive (with jumpers set for Sata2) without a hitch.

[this_is_gav]

If possible however, always stick the drivers on a floppy - or better still, slipstream them into a new WinXP CD. NLite can help you with that if you wish.

If Windows setup can't detect the hard-drive, the you're going to be putting the existing hard drive back in and hoping it can still boot... or using another PC. Personally I'd always make the disk, but it depends on how many PCs you have at your disposal.

[abeacock]

If you want to use a non-standard SATA driver (i.e. one that supports AHCI or RAID) then you need to press F6 - otherwise Windows has everything you need for a basic SATA install.

[just_laze]

Thank you for all your advice guys - i wouldn't touch nLite, eww :-).

[Disturbedguy]

Just a quick question from me, rather then opening a new thread about it.

Am building my system and am going to be using a S-ATA 2 drive, so from what I have just read, I will be ok to just connect it all up and then turn the computer on and it will work?

[abeacock]

I think you should be ok if you don't want to take advantage of your motherboard's RAID or AHCI features.

[kalniel]

Just a quick question from me, rather then opening a new thread about it.

Am building my system and am going to be using a S-ATA 2 drive, so from what I have just read, I will be ok to just connect it all up and then turn the computer on and it will work?

Yes, should do

[Disturbedguy]

thanks

[kalniel]

Check that you actually have a Sata2 port and that it's enabled in your BIOS as well - if not you may have to use jumpers on the back of the hard drive to select legacy/sata1 mode.