Windows MCE 2005 can read SATA drives for fresh install right?

Yea yea, the dreaded SATA drive dilemma for fresh clean windows install.

But i read somewhere that any WinXP with SP2 integrated can read SATA drives for a fresh clean new installation... and that does include MCE 2005 right?

So can anyone confirm this is true? Also, I read you should get the latest drivers for your SATA drives once you login to Windows. So, when all this is said and done, will it have all the features and equal performance to a SATA drive that was originally installed with the damn floppy and stuff?

Thanks!

Theoretically if a drive and controller work fine with AHCI calls and can be set for "IDE/ATA" mode meaning they appear as a regular old IDE/ATA controller to the operating system they should work.

For me, across several hundred builds, I've never had much success using any version of Windows with any SATA controller hardware unless it's pure Intel (almost always works except for the latest ICH7/8 controllers which don't have drivers in XP/2K3/MCE2K5 bare installer CDs/DVDs), or you get lucky.

I wrote a guide for adding SATA drivers to any Windows CD and making it a custom installer disc, you can find that guide here:

http://members.cox.net/br0adband/How_To_Integrate_SATA_Drivers_into_A_Custom_Windows_CD.zip

It's long, it's overly thorough, but that's just me. If it helps, so be it... if not, well, you'll figure something out I guess.

Good luck...

bbz_Ghost said:

Theoretically if a drive and controller work fine with AHCI calls and can be set for "IDE/ATA" mode meaning they appear as a regular old IDE/ATA controller to the operating system they should work.

For me, across several hundred builds, I've never had much success using any version of Windows with any SATA controller hardware unless it's pure Intel (almost always works except for the latest ICH7/8 controllers which don't have drivers in XP/2K3/MCE2K5 bare installer CDs/DVDs), or you get lucky.

I wrote a guide for adding SATA drivers to any Windows CD and making it a custom installer disc, you can find that guide here:

http://members.cox.net/br0adband/How_To_Integrate_SATA_Drivers_into_A_Custom_Windows_CD.zip

It's long, it's overly thorough, but that's just me. If it helps, so be it... if not, well, you'll figure something out I guess.

Good luck...

Click to expand...

thanks for your reply, i actually have your work saved as a backup plan lol. my board is the BX2 so im guessing this will be a problem -sigh-

edit: question though, if i integrate the drivers this will make windows automatically see the SATA drives? i read somewhere that you cant search for drivers through the CD or some shit during installation. this will be my first sata drive so im unfamiliar, can you elaborate a little on this please? i think i am going to go in this direction. it will be good to learn this anyway and maybe strip XP n stuff like that.

Windows 2000, XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP x64, and MCE (any version) can't get those drivers from anyplace other than:

1) A floppy disk that has the drivers on it and is inserted after pressing F6 to specify additional devices/drivers

2) A custom created CD where the drivers are integrated into the installation media so 2K/XP/2K3/XP x64/MCE will automagically detect the hardware during the initial phases of setup using the text-mode drivers which are part of the driver set (text-mode and Win32 drivers are what's on the floppy from method 1 above)

Vista is a major improvement over those older versions because not only can use a floppy as always, but now you can burn the necessary driver to a CD or even a DVD, and better yet you can put them on a USB thumbdrive if you want - and you can even browse to locate the driver location if they're not immediately in the root as required on a floppy or else it won't find them.

Took 12 years to improve the process, you could say, but it's finally here. But, for older versions of Windows the best method is still either 1 or 2 above, and I lean towards 2 because of the unreliability of floppy media right when you need them the most as is so often the case.

Hope this helps...

thank you very very much :]