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Installing Windows on a SATA drive without the bloody F6 floppy

..or "How to do a Slipstream Install of Windows"

Today I bought a tiny Shuttle server to get myself up to speed on VSTS. The mainboard supported SATA, so I picked up a 200 GB SATA Maxtor to go with it ($99 after rebate!). But no floppy. I refuse. If Vista-era Windows doesn't support non-floppy F6 installs I will switch to whatever the anti-M$FT Windoze dopes are using.

The only reliable way I could find to get the SATA drivers installed without a floppy was to do a slipstream install. I've installed Windows millions of times (seriously), but I've never done a slipstream. Finding the right information took far too long, so bookmark this page. Here's the information you need:

Slipstreaming VIA Serial ATA drivers

Creating a bootable Windows CD with Nero (The first and second screenshots were most valuable. I didn't bother with the rest.)

Good luck!

Update: I should proof-read before posting. I didn't say how or why slipstreaming helped. Tthe drivers from the F6 floppy are slipstreamed into the Windows install CD and the drives are automagically recognized during setup.
Posted: Aug 28 2005, 10:38 PM by jeffreykey | with 39 comment(s)
Filed under:

Comments

Greg Menounos said:

Check out nLite for merging service packs and drivers onto the Windows installation CD. It's worked great for me: http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
# August 29, 2005 1:38 AM

Jeff Key said:

Thanks, Greg, I'll check it out.
# August 29, 2005 11:40 AM

Jeffrey Vanneste said:

You could take this a step further and start making a completely automated install.

Guides:
http://unattended.msfn.org/

Then you can use nlite to merge in all the current windows patches by grabbing RyanVM's update pack:
http://ryanvm.msfn.org/

And then you can take it another step by including all the drivers for all SATA drivers so the next time you get a new computer you won't have to worry about drivers either. More information at:
http://www.btsunattended.net/
Bashrat has made driver packs for pretty much everything (graphic cards, network cards, sound cards, motherboard chipsets, mass storage, etc)


# August 29, 2005 2:08 PM

Dez said:

Guys.. i need help badly.. im not a computer freak and i have no idea wat to do.. >.< - I tried reformatting my computer with Windows XP but it says that my harddisc "SATA" or sumthing is missing so it wont continue.. i need to know how to fix it any help plz? i got a message saying "Primary Master: HL-HD sumthing sumthing and below that it says "Secondary Master: SATA not found"

it wasnt like this b4.. and i realli need to re-format my comp.. please help me ~!!!

# October 30, 2006 10:38 PM

Nick said:

Am I an idiot or not?

Now it's February 2007, I just bought a new PC with a Gigabyte MB and Core 2 Duo 6300 CPU and a SATA 250GB HDD

I use a Hiren boot CD to partition and format the primary partition as NTFS

Then I go on to install Windows XP. It installed smoothly without any problem and without any damn floppy and driver stuff (the system doesn't have a floppy drive)

The funny thing is the MB manual did instruct the same thing about making a driver floppy for SATA drives!

Did Hiren boot CD do some wonders here or am I just lucky?

Weird, isn't it?

# February 9, 2007 4:31 AM

Dave said:

Is it possible to renew the mb without reinstalling xp on to my existing sata drive.

# February 15, 2007 1:30 PM

Gordon said:

Dave, I've been successful upgrading my motherboard without having to reinstall XP quite a few times.  Give it a try.  Just be sure to backup your important data files first, just in case it doesn't work.

# March 5, 2007 11:56 AM

Pete said:

I am having trouble formatting my SATA drive.  I have a sata drive and a ide connected with the sata holding my OS and ide just for storage.  I have tried using Maxllf but in DOS it wont pick up my sata drive just ide. I disconnected my ide then it did not pick up any drive.  The windows CD i am using does not boot on startup.  How can I reformat my SATA drive?  thanks to any who can help. It Western Digital

thanks,

# March 16, 2007 11:54 AM

Kivela » Blog Archive » Installing windows on a SATA drive without a floppy drive said:

PingBack from http://www.kivela.be/wordpress/?p=3

# May 15, 2007 4:01 PM

Paul said:

I have already installed windows on my hard drive

(a 500g sata) without the floppy driver. Can I slipstream in the driver without re-installing windows? Or more specifically, can i install the driver without starting over from scratch? I have already installed everything on the drive I need and dont want to start over.

# May 18, 2007 8:59 PM

Lance said:

Hi.

I've just added another 500GB Sata drive into my computer and it is recognised but dosnt show in MyComputer and i cannot communicate with the drive.

It shows as working perfectly in the device manager, But dosnt show in MyComputer.

Is there a way i can fix this without a reformat? A reformat would be a desperate last resort for me as i have 200GB 99% full  of beloved files and i can only backup 120GB of it.

# May 19, 2007 7:43 AM

Lee said:

Just had this issue with a Philips, GET YOURSELF a compatible USB floppy drive and it will work fine.

Dell, TEAC and only 1 SONY is in the list that works with Windows XP setups.

No need to slipstream..

# May 22, 2007 1:36 PM

Phill said:

Lance, I'm having that exact same problem.  A new SATA in a system that's been running an IDE fine.  The new drive shows up in device manager and everything but I can't access it from anywhere.  Anyone know how to fix this please?

# May 24, 2007 9:46 AM

Phill said:

An update on that drive:  I went to control panel -> administrative tools -> computer management -> storage -> disk management.  From there I was able to right-click on my new drive and hit create partition, which set a drive letter and formatted it for me.  It works now.

# May 24, 2007 10:49 AM

Dean said:

That's right Phil, another way is to type in "mmc" without the quotes, into your RUN dialog, to get into the Microsoft Management Console. From there you need to Add/Remove Snap-in "Disk Management". from there you can assign or change drive letters, format and install drives/partitions, etc. etc.

# May 26, 2007 11:12 PM

John said:

I found this post when trying to install Win Server 2003 Standard and do not have a floppy. I downloaded nlite and was sucessful with creating a new CD with the drivers but when I got to the Partition Selection it kept wanting to write files to the non SATA drive. My configuration was 120gb SATA and 160gb EIDE. I wanted everything to be on the SATA drive.

The result of all this is, after spending several hours, creating multiple new install CD's, when the EIDE drive is present, Windows will try to write data to that drive. I unplugged the power to the EIDE drive and now the installation is working just fine. It seems to me that when you tell the installer to use s specific device that shoulld be the end of it. Had the EIDE drive not been without a partition, the installer would have written filles to that device and I would not have known the difference.

# August 19, 2007 7:13 PM

jagdeesh said:

please help my Asus K8VSE DEluxe mother board refusing Xp instalation on my segate sata 250Gb hard disk..Updated bios .still not not recognising sata.Provided Sata drivers with F6 during installation.Blue screen with software/hardware conflict message coming.

thanks in advance

# August 22, 2007 11:14 PM

Dee Jay said:

You just want to do it quickly with no fuss right?  Also want a Free utility you can use to create a CDROM bootdisk that will do the same job as the floppy bootdisk?

Go to the website below and download the "ISO image to burn a CD" at the bottom of the page.  I haven't tried this yet, but I'm about to.  Hope this works for all that try.

hddguru.com/.../2006.02.10-Magic-Boot-Disk

# September 9, 2007 12:31 AM

Phishybongwaters said:

The first step is to check your BIOS and verify that you do NOT have the option to turn off "native sata mode".

Depending on your BIOS it will be different.  For my desktop it gives me the option to run the sata drive as RAID or IDE.  RAID means you need the sata drivers, IDE means it will be discovered just like any standard drive

In this newest latop (hp 6710b) it's under device configurations, and you have to disable "Sata Mode Native"  then it works.

I spent an hour messing around with flashkeys trying everything short of remaking my custom disc.  If you do not have that option in your bios (newest bios) then you'll have to try the other methods outlines.

As for hiren, i thin kit's got a default set of sata drivers integrated into the disk, which is why you could format it from dos, depending on your drive it might not work.

# September 25, 2007 11:57 AM

Fr0sty said:

THis is great thank god some one has got one of these now. . . I used to spend Hrs try to figger out how to do it till one day i bought a floppy disk drive again i just formated my harddrive like 2 days ago put my floppy disk drive in my computer try to run the drivers gess what my floppy disk drive is broken :S :'( Well anyway thanks for the guide i am about to reinstall windows (Letz hope it workz!!!)

# October 8, 2007 3:17 PM

steve said:

I went into the bios on this Dell and changed the bios option to something OTHER than what it was and now it continues past the "No hard drive" point.

# October 17, 2007 4:59 PM

Robert said:

robertbisping@yahoo.com

i have a dell inspiron7000 laptop 98se os on it and then all of the sudden i went to boot up and all that came up was operating system not found the only way i can make a boot disk for it is on cd but i haven't been able to find place that i can do that any help would be nice i put my email address up here to send me the info or links thanks

# October 25, 2007 12:20 PM

Mark said:

I have a similar problem but a little different with a twist.  I am building a new system with a WD 500 GB SATA.  Got ready to install XP and got to the create partition screen and it showed me the max size was 131062 MB!  Now math wasn't my strong suit but me thinks that is in the neighborhood of 369000 MB (+/-) short!!!  Do I have a funky drive, or is this XP sp-1 maybe, or what should I do from here?  Thanks.

# November 24, 2007 8:38 PM

Rakesh said:

Dear Sir/Madam

Greetings

I have sata disc i dont know why its want floppy drive or not. i am new with this type of drive & want to install it but whenever  i will try to install xp on my pc it show that the hard drive is not connect.,

ple help me in this regard. for this my heartly thank to you

with regards & warm wishes

Rakesh

# December 14, 2007 3:28 AM

Stitllams said:

Although not always possible, it is very handy to have more than one computer, that way you have another option if things don't go right.

# January 25, 2008 11:41 PM

Brian said:

Mark, it would appear as if your have XP and not XP SP1, XP won't recognise your full drive, it has a limit of that 131062 MB which you have experienced.

# April 8, 2008 1:33 AM

sata drivers slipstream said:

Pingback from  sata drivers slipstream

# April 17, 2008 7:41 PM

Technical Support Section said:

http://www.nliteos.com/ worked with me great!

# May 8, 2008 4:01 AM

Mario Deligi said:

I bought a Mac Pro recentely and the only problem so far is with the external DVD burner, which is not designed for Mac.

I tried Samsung for drivers but to no aval. Is there a place where I could find the necessary drivers, or I just can't use the burner at all?

Will appreciate any help.

# May 21, 2008 7:47 PM

Alexander Mikhed said:

A connected USB floppy disk drive does not work when you press F6 to install mass storage drivers during the Windows 2003 installation process

I have found a solution.

In a microsoft website ( support.microsoft.com/.../916196 ) you can see only a part of solution. Below is full info:

You need to modify txtsetup.sif in i386 folder of your windows 2003 setup disks (this will work with windows 2003 R2 installation!).

See Microsoft website:

--------------------

The following USB floppy disk drives are included in the Txtsetup.sif file and are therefore supported for use during Windows XP installation:

USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901  Mitsumi  

USB\VID_057B&PID_0000  Y-E Data; Sony part number 09K9835

USB\VID_0644&PID_0000  TEAC; IBM option part number 27L4226, FRU 05K9283

------------------------------------

Find in txtsetup.sif:

USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901

or

USB\VID_057B&PID_0000

or

USB\VID_0644&PID_0000

and, below, add for USB floppy disk drive models (HP, Sony, Y-E Data, NEC, SMSC):

USB\VID_057B&PID_0001 = "usbstor"

USB\VID_0409&PID_0040 = "usbstor"

USB\VID_0424&PID_0FDC = "usbstor"

USB\VID_08BD&PID_1100 = "usbstor"

USB\VID_055D&PID_2020 = "usbstor"

It is easy, BUT, this is not all! You need to change another block!

Find (these strings will be below strings that you have added):

USB\Class_08&SubClass_02&Prot_50 = "usbstor"

or

USB\Class_08&SubClass_05&Prot_50 = "usbstor"

or

USB\Class_08&SubClass_06&Prot_50 = "usbstor"

and, below, add:

USB\Class_08&SubClass_04&Prot_00 = "usbstor"

Das it alles! :) That's all!

Just write new distributive to a CD and boot!

# May 26, 2008 11:45 PM

Javan said:

PHISHYBONGWATERS solution worked perfectly for me, thanks a million!

His advice:

The first step is to check your BIOS and verify that you do NOT have the option to turn off "native sata mode".

Depending on your BIOS it will be different.  For my desktop it gives me the option to run the sata drive as RAID or IDE.  RAID means you need the sata drivers, IDE means it will be discovered just like any standard drive

In this newest latop (hp 6710b) it's under device configurations, and you have to disable "Sata Mode Native"  then it works.

I spent an hour messing around with flashkeys trying everything short of remaking my custom disc.  If you do not have that option in your bios (newest bios) then you'll have to try the other methods outlines.

As for hiren, i thin kit's got a default set of sata drivers integrated into the disk, which is why you could format it from dos, depending on your drive it might not work.

# June 1, 2008 6:39 PM

chel said:

Okay I was having problems with my sata and I also got feed up with the old floppy BS. I found a VERY simple solution for my problem that may help others.

In BIOS you can set your SATA to auto detect where it will read it as an IDE. Mine had already had that on BUT I also had RAID enabled. Disabled that ran winxp and everything went smooth. It auto detected my SATA drive like it would an IDE.

I'm still a newb but I hope I helped someone out, GL guys.

# June 3, 2008 2:52 PM

installing windows on a gigabyte motherboard with sata hdd and no floppy said:

Pingback from  installing windows on a gigabyte motherboard with sata hdd and no floppy

# July 9, 2008 4:59 PM

slipstreamer said:

i found my answer this way. nliteos works best..

you can find a detailed yet simple explanation here also.

techtricks.x10hosting.com

# August 17, 2008 11:10 AM

RandomHero said:

Hey whats up everyone?....well,  i just bought a new motherboard (ASUS-M3N72-D) and a new processor (8450-AMD Phenom x3) and tried to hook them up with a 250g SATA2 HDD that has a copy of windows on it, but i want to format it and put a fresh copy of windows on it, but i keep getting either this same error or it will not boot off the windows XP disc......i think it has somtin to do with a RAID driver or somethin but not sure wat to do, any help would be greatly appreciated.

# August 20, 2008 5:35 AM

Passer-by said:

AHCI (advanced Host Controller Interface)

worth trying to understand this feature which allows better SATA hdd performance.

When you change your BIOS settings to 'compatible' /IDE+SATA /etc,  you bypass F6 and XP 'finds' your hdd and installs. Vista does not need F6 and works directly with SATA features.

nlite is simplest solution. Especially for laptops and newer PCs without fdd.

google AHCI and nlite

# December 18, 2008 12:23 PM

Installatie laptop met serial-ATA schijf | hilpers said:

Pingback from  Installatie laptop met serial-ATA schijf | hilpers

# January 23, 2009 7:19 AM

hp pavilion dv799 laptop said:

i need the Serial-ATA driver to install xp. i cant identify my motherbord chipset. can any one help me to find the SATA driver for hp pavilion DV799 laptop motherboard.

# May 18, 2009 4:37 AM

Ron Deere said:

Actually, I have installed XP several dozen times without the use of a floppy.  However, when I upgraded to SATA earlier this year, my old IDE based floppy drive would no longer work.  I have tried to find a SATA based floppy drive, but to no avail.  Can anyone help me locate a SATA based floppy drive?

# July 8, 2009 8:56 AM