Installing XP on a Laptop? :'(

[phantomdesign]

So, my laptop came with vista & tons of crap I didn't want installed on it (as expected). Seeing that 960mb/2gb are automatically trash, it's imperative that the first thing I do is brainwash the mutha-f***er!

Now I'm trying to install XP on it, and it's telling me that it can't find my harddrive. (Harddrive works, can boot (preinstalled) vista just fine, just XP setup won't recognize it).

Laptop Specs:
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnline...InventoryDetails?systemId=E6RLPADD&POPUP=true

Dell Inspiron
Screen 17 inch WUXGA (1900x1200) TrueLife High Resolution
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Memory 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 677MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive 320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
Video 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Optical Drive 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

 

[Link]

Laptop prob has a sata drive. Best and easiest solution is to use XP SP2 disc. Either borrow from a friend, or torrent it, then use the key from your legit copy.

Failing that, your gonna need the sata drivers on a usb stick.

 

[Barney Fife]

Laptop prob has a sata drive. Best and easiest solution is to use XP SP2 disc. Either borrow from a friend, or torrent it, then use the key from your legit copy.

Failing that, your gonna need the sata drivers on a usb stick.

Most probably.

 

[giant384]

im not sure how drivers would help since they wouldn't be running to allow windows to find it.

 

[99.vikram]

Copy somebody else's hard disk image onto yours?

 

[phantomdesign]

I guess the harddrive is a Samsung HM320JI. Haven't found the SATA drivers yet. The disk I have is supposedly SP2.

Maybe I should look into the Vista/XP "downgrade?"

 

[Sedako]

This is, in fact, a problem with older Windows XP installations not having SATA drivers. You can either find an XP installation that has SP2, or you can follow this guide to copy your existing XP CD onto a new CD that includes the drivers for the SATA drive:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

You'll need the drivers of course. I'll see if I can locate some.

 

[Sedako]

Actually, before you do that, try this:

Go into the BIOS and navigate to "onboard devices", then where it says SATA operation, change ahci to ata if it isn't. Restart and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[phantomdesign]

Awesome! I'll try your suggestions & look into acquiring another XP CD that I KNOW is SP2 (this one says it is, but it's possible it's not).

EDIT: Changing to ATA configuration owrked!!! Hopefully I can switch back to SATA after the windoze install.

 

[phantomdesign]

Vista is dead! Now to manually find all my drivers and crap by looking at hardware IDs (this is why I prefer BUILDING my computers).

P.S. While searchign for SATA drivers I found something (don't remember hte name, I'll post it here when I get home), but it takes your windows disk and according to parameters you enter creates a new one that it allows you to....

[1] COMPLETELY automates windows install (except partitioning), including CD key, languages, everything.
[2] Select in detail all the features you do and do not want installed (at first boot, only 390mb harddrive space used (not including page file).
[3] Select all your windows optimization and customization settings. All my folder, start menu, and more indepth options are exactly how I want them, and best of all it's only using 70-76mb of memory!

Install and . . . you're done! I'm considering reinstalling XP64 this way on my main computer.

 

[Sedako]

Do tell.

 

[phantomdesign]

It's called nLite. Anyway it mostly worked, except I was having problems with DirectX and a few applications, so I decided to just do a full install, then manually get rid of stuff myself. Took me a while to find all the drivers for it, but it seems to be working great now.