CPU Question

[MjTalon]

Alright, Quick question. Got everything for my new rig, except the OS. Tried to boot just to see if it would fire up. Plugged up my new Barracuda 80GB sata, and got Disk Read Error, enter start up disk and hit enter.


Do i need to grab my OS CD and pop it in the DVD before it'll boot correctly? Also, i gotta download the MB drivers for the AMD, any tips?

[TheZohan]

in theory thats the idea. if it dont then you will know somethings not right. are you running sata drives? make sure you set the sata to native in the bios or have the drivers ready when it ask if you need to add them usually hitting the F6 key.

[Zazen13]

Most HDs don't come pre-formatted. You will likely need to boot from CD and format prior to Windows installation. Whether formatted or not though, your BIOS should recognize the drive type if you look in there. That would be your indication it's not a bad drive.

[Bino]

According to the guys over on the un-official WarBirds site Hardware and Software forum, load it up in this sequence:

"Let Windows format and partition HD, (I would choose NTFS) ...

- Install windows
- install windows service packs
- install chipset drivers
- install device drivers"

[Chalenge]

Have on hand the MB driver CD and SATA controller device drivers.
Start your system and enter the BIOS (its the DEL key on my system).
Under the BOOT heading (might be different depending on BIOS) set your CD-ROM/DVD-ROM as first boot device.
Insert the Windows CD CD-ROM/DVD-ROM and reboot.
You should be asked to hit a key to boot from CD so do that.
When asked if you have additional drivers to add hit F6 and then insert the CD with your SATA drivers.
After Windows starts for the first time you can insert the MB device driver CD and motherboard resources should be discovered.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Windows SP2 and later can install straight from CD with built in sata support. If you have an older CD you need drivers on floppy.

[llama]

Have on hand the MB driver CD and SATA controller device drivers.
...
When asked if you have additional drivers to add hit F6 and then insert the CD with your SATA drivers.
After Windows starts for the first time you can insert the MB device driver CD and motherboard resources should be discovered.

I'm sorry, but that's just wrong.

Windows XP can utilize SATA drivers at installation in just one of two ways:

1. You press F6 to install the SATA driver from FLOPPY.

2. You have a Windows XP installation CD that has the SATA drivers slipstreamed in, (either by yourself of from the distributor of the disc). In these cases, you don't need to press F6 - the drivers are just found automatically.

Windows XP simply has no mechanism to read storage drivers from a CD at installation, other than slipstreaming the drivers on the OS disc. Period.

If you have a machine that's newer than 2 years old or so, then a USB floppy drive should work just fine. The easiest way to test this before hand is to create a bootable floppy disk with that USB drive (and you can make one by going to bootdisk.com) and try booting from it. If you can, then you can be assured a SATA-driver floppy will work fine.

I normally just slipstream the drivers into an XP disk, however.

Finally, you need to tell your modern motherboard's BIOS to set the SATA mode from "IDE Emulation" (names vary with manufacturer) to AHCI. Most modern motherboards with SATA drives will load Windows XP just fine without any SATA drivers when the BIOS is set to IDE Emulation, but then your SATA drives won't be taking advantage of SATA features like NCQ or hot-swapping. If you set the BIOS to AHCI AND use the SATA drivers then your computer can take advantage of these features.

Having done hard drive benchmarks on identical machines and hard drives with Windows installation with both SATA drivers and then again under IDE Emulation mode, I can tell you that there is next to no speed improvement one way or the other overall. AHCI makes multitasking slightly faster, but it makes mono-tasking (such as booting) slightly slower. And we're talking differences of between 1% and 5%.

-Llama

[Chalenge]

I'm sorry, but that's just wrong.

Windows XP can utilize SATA drivers at installation in just one of two ways:

1. You press F6 to install the SATA driver from FLOPPY.

2. You have a Windows XP installation CD that has the SATA drivers slipstreamed in, (either by yourself of from the distributor of the disc). In these cases, you don't need to press F6 - the drivers are just found automatically.

Windows XP simply has no mechanism to read storage drivers from a CD at installation, other than slipstreaming the drivers on the OS disc. Period.

If you have a machine that's newer than 2 years old or so, then a USB floppy drive should work just fine. The easiest way to test this before hand is to create a bootable floppy disk with that USB drive (and you can make one by going to bootdisk.com) and try booting from it. If you can, then you can be assured a SATA-driver floppy will work fine.

I normally just slipstream the drivers into an XP disk, however.

Finally, you need to tell your modern motherboard's BIOS to set the SATA mode from "IDE Emulation" (names vary with manufacturer) to AHCI. Most modern motherboards with SATA drives will load Windows XP just fine without any SATA drivers when the BIOS is set to IDE Emulation, but then your SATA drives won't be taking advantage of SATA features like NCQ or hot-swapping. If you set the BIOS to AHCI AND use the SATA drivers then your computer can take advantage of these features.

Having done hard drive benchmarks on identical machines and hard drives with Windows installation with both SATA drivers and then again under IDE Emulation mode, I can tell you that there is next to no speed improvement one way or the other overall. AHCI makes multitasking slightly faster, but it makes mono-tasking (such as booting) slightly slower. And we're talking differences of between 1% and 5%.

-Llama

Thanks for clearing that up llama. I guess I have been tainted by a later version. 

I think you could have said the same thing in two sentences or less though. 

[Fulmar]

I still have to hang onto floppy drives (boxed up) for RAID setups on XP installs.