Running XP direct off Serial ATA HD

[RodW]

G-Day Mate,

Could anyone please advise how I can put XP onto my seagate 80G serial ATA hd so I won't have to ever put the cd in again when installing different hardware etc.
I want to have it so when it ask for "please insert your windows cd" when putting hardware in, it will just read the xp files direct off my harddrive.

Please go easy on explaining this as I am no expert at this type of thing. Word for word in explaining would be a tremendous help.

My motherboard supports serial ata so I know I won't have to add any extra drivers in for a pci card etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help with this.

Rod

[pave_spectre]

Have done similar with 98 and think its the same with XP.

Copy the contents of the CD to a directory of your choice (I always used c:\windows\files\cabs because its not a normally created directory).

Whenever the system asks for the windows CD just browse to the location you used and it should work just fine.

You can also install windows from this copied location if you have copied to a blank drive.

[RodW]

Thanks, but I don't have a directory to put it into nor do I know how to make one on a blank serial ata hd.


It is a new drive I just purchased the other day and I will be installing it once I find out how I do this.

Rod

[pave_spectre]

Is the the primary drive(or the only drive) in the machine and is windows to be installed on the serial drive?


One correction to my previous statement - It may not be possible to install XP from a hard drive as it would require DOS and if I remember correctly WinXP installation will not run from DOS mode. So you would need to do the initial install from the CD then you could copy the CD to a directory afterwards and use it when you would normally require the CD during other software or hardware installations.

[RodW]

yes xp will be running on this drive as the main drive.

Please explain very easy so I understand better what way I should go about this if possible.
I think I am ok about installing the serial ata hd and changing a few settings in the bios etc, but after that, I would not have a clue.
Actually I know how to install XP onto this drive from scratch, but I don't know how to have it reside on that main drive for the purpose as mentioned earlier.

If you know how I can do this, could you explain it fully so I can print your reply and try and follow your guide word for word. I am a bit uneasy about doing this type of installation even though I know it would make life much easier in the long term where I will not have to keep putting the xp cd in when adding new hardware.

Thanks
Rod

[pave_spectre]

Someone else will be able to give better specifics for installationon a serial drive and anything special that might need to be done.

Once windows is installed, you can open up an explorer window and create a directory. Call it whatever you like and put it wherever you like, but as I mentioned earlier I created several directories in the main windows directory (created 'files' and in 'files' created 'cabs'), this was to prevent me accidentally deleting it during one of my mass drive clearing sessions.

Once you have created a directory to store the files copy the contents of the i386 folder off the XP CD to the newly created folder on the hard drive.

Then whenever the computer asks for the XP CD you should be able to browse to the location and XP will install it from there rather than needing to use the CD every time.

[RodW]

thanks for your help anyway, I will wait and see if anyone else has any ideas.

Rod

[Budfred]

I think it is true that you will need to install WinXP from the CD and then set up a directory (or I would use a small partition) to copy the WinXP files to. WinXP is designed to run from the CD and even if you format in FAT32, you don't have any real DOS in WinXP, so it really isn't friendly to DOS intervention. If you format in NTFS, it won't cooperate at all....

[Paul Komski]

To install WinXP or Win2K directly from a HDD you need first to copy the i386 folder to a drive somewhere (just where is not important) and then run the winnt.exe file within the i386 folder and not any setup.exe file. The easiest way is to have these files on a fat partition, which can then be viewed from a boot floppy and the winnt file executed from the same floppy.

Win2K/XP save the location of where the files were installed-from in the registry. This can be changed in the registry at a later stage and the i386 folder moved to the changed location so that Windows can always find the the installation files should it need them in the future. The reg hack may in fact not be necessary, since if it cant find the files it will "usually" prompt you for a new location.

Your present problem would seem to relate initially to setting up on the SATA. When I did this not too long ago the drive needed to be installed as a "RAID/SCSI" and the drivers had to be ready on a floppy diskette to be installed by pressing F6 (I think) - but whatever it is, it appears at the bottom of the screen early on in the XP installation. Read up on your mobo manual about installing the drives.

If you also have a standard IDE then it could make life a lot easier (until you get to know your SATAs) if you can recognise and format the SATA from the IDE. First see if you can see in Device Manager and that there are no yellow exclamation marks. It would also make it easy to then copy over the i386 files.

Suggest trying to get your installation setup from the installation CD to begin with. Copy the installation files to the HDD later and adjust the registry appropriately.

You won't need the drivers for a PCI card but you will still need the correct drivers to support the mobo's sata controllers; they should be on its utility/drivers CD.

[Paul Komski]

HERE'S (http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml) confirmation of how to kick-off from a boot floppy. See Note 1 (which in that instance relates to the i386 folder on the CD) - but it works as well or better from an i386 folder copied to a HDD.

To copy over using dos commands and assuming the original i386 is on Drive E and you want the copied files on drive C - (just edit accordingly).
Type the following three lines - followed each time by the Enter Key.

C:
md  i386
copy  E:\i386\*.*  C:\i386\*.*

This assumes the floppy can see the SATA - if not then you will have to install from the CD or from another IDE HDD.

[drdan]

I have had XP Home and XP Pro on a couple of computers and have never been asked for the XP CD when installing new hardware. It either already has the the drivers it needs (from the original install) or it needs the third party CD which came with the hardware so I think your concern is unwarranted about this. It's not Win 98. The main issue I would be more concerned with is having to get all the new updates and activation if you have to reinstall. That actually is a pain where as adding new hardware is usually a snap.

I would suggest making a clone of your OS once you have XP installed, all basic devices working and XP activated. If you don't add anything else you may even be able to fit it on one CD. Then later if you need to reinstall you can use this. I would use Powerquest Drive Image or Norton Ghost to do this but I have had problems trying to use both of these on the same computer. They seem to conflict with each other so pick one or the other. I would also make a clone of the OS and copy it to another partition on your hard drive. There are third party partitioning programs such as Partition Magic (also made by Powerquest) but the easiest way (and reliable) is to use XP itself. When first installing XP it will give you the option of creating and formating a partition to install it on and show you the empty hard drive and the amount of space there. You can just let it format into one big partition which works fine but limits your options slightly. With 80GB to play with you have plenty of room for most things so I would change the initial partition size to something less than the whole drive. It will say something like 79568MB. Click on that number and use backspace to erase the numbers and enter 20000 MB for a 20GB partition (or whatever size you want) and install XP on that. Once XP is installed you can go to Performance and Maintenance, Administration, Computer Management, Disk Management and create whatever other partions you want and name them whatever you want. A reasonable partiioning for this drive might be to set 30GB for XP and all your programs, 45GB for storage of big files like pictures and music with out clogging up your OS with them and the rest for the clone of your clean, activated install and the copy of the CD files people suggested. I also like small partition (1GB) with all my downloaded programs and drivers on it. If I have to reinstall I still have that separate partition intact and don't have to redownload anything. That partition I call "downloads", the one with the clone to restore with I call "restore" the one for storage of big files I call "storage". It doesn't have to be complicated and the exact sizes are not critical.

If you ever have to reinstall you only wipe and reformat the original main partition and all your downloads, your pictures, your clone of your system and whatever else you put on there is still untouched and accessible once you have your OS up and running again.

[pentachris]

Windows XP copies all the setup files to the hard drive when doing a new installation. So you should never have to insert the disk unless you're doing a fresh installation. Same with ME (which is why a basic ME install takes up twice as much hard drive space as a basic 98 install, even though there's not that much difference between the two). Not sure about 2000.

Have you had experiences where you've been prompted to insert the XP disk, or are you just drawing on experience from 95 or 98? I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive I'm right on this one.

[Paul Komski]

If anyone wants to avoid reactivation after a clean reinstallation on the same hardware - then just make copies of the wpa.bak and wpa.dbl files in the Windows/System32 directory and save them to a floppy or somewhere else safe.

After the reinsallation boot into safe mode and replace these two files. Reboot and the installation should be reactivated.

[drdan]

Thanks Paul, I remember seeing that somewhere but couldn't remember the exact procedure. It still doesn't help with getting all the updates you might want. That's no big deal on broadband but can take days on dial up.