Re: SATA - So Another Twisted Ambiguity...

Johnny B Good wrote:
The message <3sGdnZMcKd24UwLbnZ2dnUVZ8sSrnZ2d@xxxxxx>
from "Dr.H@l0nf1r£$" <yeah@xxxxxx> contains these words:

Johnny B Good wrote:
The message <HPOdncfT1_x1sAPbRVnyiAA@xxxxxx>
from "Dr.H@l0nf1r£$" <yeah@xxxxxx> contains these words:

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article <QYSdnSsEpbcX1QbbRVnyhwA@xxxxxx>, Dr.H@l0nf1r£$
<yeah@xxxxxx> writes

Couldn't a BIOS or something be armed with a SATA driver which it
could install to any connected SATA optical device on POST, just
so that the system can see it/them until the proper drivers are
installed?

They do. It's called IDE emulation, but for motherboard SATA
devices only. You can't expect a BIOS to be able to detect and
provide IDE emulation for the large variety of controller chips on
SATA add-in cards.

The answer to your dilemma is to work out how to get the drivers
XP needs onto a floppy so that you can use the F6 driver install
method. If you can't do that, ask someone who can.

"...one which said to make a
floppy from the mobo CD on another computer and load that at
install start by pressing F6... The mobo CD had a "Make Disk"
section for just that purpose, so I made a floppy and inserted Win
XP CD, pressed F6 at the prompt - to which Windows took a quick
look at the disk and asked for a different one which I didn't
have."

OK I give in to male expertise on this occasion. : Guide me oh thou
great testosterone...

Why didn't the floppy I made from the mobo CD work, and what is the
other "Manufacturer's..." floppy it asked me to insert? (I don't
remember the entire message.) I'm off for a spot of googling whilst
I await an answer.

It looks as though you've misunderstood the message that reminds you
to insert _any_other_ similar driver disks _if_ there are other
similar interfaces fitted that might also require such pre-install
driver support.

That's not what it said. : It didn't appear to read the first disc,
although
it tried seemingly, and it definitely didn't ask for *another* disc.
As I said I think the floppy drive was busted. I still haven't
removed and looked
at it yet.

Ok, fair enough. I didn't see that until _after_ I'd sent my post :-(

You have to consider the message carefully to properly
interpret what your next action is supposed to be (press the enter
key, afaicr, only press the 'S' key if you do have another driver
floppy to insert for other similar hardware).

The cheauvanism appears to be starting to become evident possibly?

Not quite sure what the heck "cheauvanism" has to do with anything...
Ah! Just spotted the "Guide me oh thou great testosterone..."
reference. You must be of the feminine persuasion then? Sorry, I
don't take account of the gender of the poster in order to make
allowances, I mean, am I supposed to? To me, you're (or were) simply
another _person_ relating a problem and asking for assistance in how
to overcome that problem.

That nicely pre-empts my sure-to-emerge feminist catchphrase "I'm not a
gender; I'm a person.".


No offence meant or taken BTW; 'just my standard facecious humour. :)

I was simply responding the bit where you asked:

"and what is the other Manufacturer's..." floppy it asked me to
insert?"

I was refering to my own experience when I saw that message for the
very first time. I had to peruse it carefully to be sure I was
providing the correct response.

The normal response to a correctly created "F6 driver floppy" is the
appearance of a list of the available drivers - usually compounded by
the fact that there will be a win2k and a winXP version of each. It's
not unusual for the driver floppy to include driver software covering
several variants of the hardware in question so you could quite easily
be presented with a 4 or 6 item list from which to choose (half of
which will be for the 'other' OS :-).

After the chosen driver has been copied to the hard drive (and added
to the driver manaifest), you are prompted to either continue the
install process (by pressing the 'Enter' key, afaicr) or insert
another manufacturer's driver floppy to provide additional driver
support and press the 'S' key to indicate such.

Since this procedure is the means by which driver support for devices
critical to the reboot process can be installed, essentially relating
to disk drive interfaces, in particular the interface that will be
used by the boot drive, it seems unlikely that more than one
manufacturer's item of hardware would be involved, let alone a
hardware combination involving _two_ manufacturers!

My thoughts entirely; which brings me back to the conclusion; the fitted
off-the-shelf floppy-drive is a gonner.
Thank you for your careful and most useful analysis.

<polite snip as the rest is not applicable to me>

Sharron.


.

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