New here...

[caesarh]

Hey guys,

I bought a machine with Vista pre-installed. I wanted to install XP back on it (hardware compat issues) but didn't have the SATA II drivers or a floppy to install them from. I tried slipstreaming what I thought were the drivers into an XP CD but 15 CDs later I still wasn't having any luck.

So I went into the bios and noticed that I could change the drive to "IDE"...so I did and XP installed fine without a new formatting.

I then wanted to do a clean format from scratch just for organizational purposes - get everything off the drive

I boot from the windowsCD fine and begin to format (quick) my drive.

The windows setup checked my drive and seemed to have loaded the files onto it fine, but then when it tried to boot from the hd, I got a "disk read error".

Now, no matter what I do or how I try to partition and format this drive, I keep getting the error.

My questions are:
- Can I use generic SATA II drivers?

- If so...which ones? I have the new Gateway FX8020 Intel® Core(TM)2 Quad machine.

If not, which drivers am I supposed to install? Controller drivers? Chipset drivers? Drivers from the HD manufacturer? Motherboard drivers?

There is no factory CD

The drivers on the website seem to only be for Vista:

HardDisk: 5503665R - 500 GB Serial ATA II/300 7200 RPM Hard Drive With 16 MB Cache

Motherboard: 4006151R - Intel (Big Arm) 975X Viiv Motherboard

Processor: 4506385R - Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 (2.40 GHz)

link to specifications:

http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1009475/1009475cl3.shtml

My other question is, can I just take my SATA I drive from my old machine that has XP on it already and simply replace the SATAII and use the SATAII as a secondary drive? Will XP jive with the new hardware?

Thanks in advance,
Caesar

 

[wahnula]

which drivers am I supposed to install? Controller drivers?

Yes. You need the SATA controller & chipset drivers for XP. Call Gateway and explain your scenario, maybe they can help. Or, you can download the driver from Intel for the ICH7-DH controller chip or equivalent:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

There is a decent chance a generic will work.

You will need a floppy drive to install XP SATA drivers. They cost around $6, and you seem to have a floppy connector. It will be a good investment. The floppy cable will probably cost more than the drive, I have a closetful. Once the drive is in place you can experiment with loading F6 drivers downloaded from the Intel site. Once you get the OS sorted out, then you can address the VIIV functions (also on the Intel site) NIC drivers and whatever else you need, all from the Intel site.

Please note that sometimes the proprietary vendors like Dell and Gateway will "break" their systems to prevent what you are trying to do, so I would recommend calling Gateway support first...if the first CSR is not helpful call right back and you might get one who will help.

BTW I can sympathize with you, Vista is not ready for prime time for me either. My Vista HDD sits in the closet until they fix all the problems, and I get a new printer and scanner. It is more a late beta than a ready-to-go OS.

Best of luck.

Tony