Trouble booting from SATA drive

[johnhc]

neonnlarry, please see this thread, especially Fernando 1's reply. He is the expert here on this and has some BIOS advice. This appears to be a thorny problem. Please let us know what you learn. Good luck, John.

[neonnlarry]

Thanks John, I read the post you refer to a while back when I did a search for my problem.

I was hopeing to find a solution that did not require buying an expensive USB connected IDE optical drive.

I have tried BIOS settings to no avail.

I did not think it was going to be this difficult to get XP on a Vista machine.

I guess my best bet from here would be to try with PE on a flash drive, unless someone has some other suggestions.

Thanks for all you time and help.

[johnhc]

neonnlarry, I know almost nothing about laptop computers. Is there an IDE socket that you could temporarily attach an IDE optical drive? If so, perhaps you could borrow one. You could even buy one for a few bucks (maybe $20 or so at Frys or the like.) You could also consider using a USB stick. There is a forum here about installing from a USB stick. If you are interested, let me know because you will want to test to see if you can boot from a USB stick. I tried and my current machine will not. The test is easy to run, but I'll need to find the link if you are interested - let me know. I am glad we got your problem cornered, but sorry it appears to have you cornered. Please let us know where you are headed. I am off to finish my day. Enjoy, John.

[neonnlarry]

Unfortunatlly no IDE port, that would be too simple. And I even have a spare IDE drive. It appears my only choice would be a $100 external USB connected IDE optical.

Like I said above I think my next step will be Win or Bart PE and a USB flash drive install. Boot from USB is supported in sys BIOS on the laptop. Wish me luck.

Thanks Again

[johnhc]

neonnlarry, I know almost as much about Vista as laptops. What happens if, with Vista running, you load your XP install disk? Does it auto start and give you the options to install? If it does not autostart, can you start it from My Computer (Computer?) If it will open, possibly you could install XP from here, it may be over the top of VIsta. There is also a method called installing from a 'flat' - install directly from an HDD folder. MS H&S site has instructions - have not used it. I do wish you the best. Have fun, John.

[neonnlarry]

MS in all its wisdom precludes you from installing a legacy OS (XP) over a newer OS (Vista). I tried this first and when the first GUI screen comes up the 'install windows XP' option is greyed out.

[johnhc]

neonnlarry, I guess that makes sense in a corporate sort of way. Fernando 1 also suggested to update your optical drive firmware. I have done this, a few years ago, for what turned out to be a HW problem. It was not too difficult. I went to the manufacturer's site and DLed the firmware and a utility. Updated with no sweat - still had to RMA my drive, great since. Have you looked at the flat install? Enjoy, John.

[mara-]

@neonnlarry

After you are completely finished with nLiteing your disc go here and download the DriverPacks BASE Tool and download DriverPack MassStorage drivers which you will integrate into your disc using the mentioned tool. This should solve your problem. And, do not try to integrate DriverPack MassStorage drivers with nLite, it won't work.

Cheers

[roirraWedorehT]

Perhaps I scanned the replies already made too fast, but I didn't notice anyone mention the possibility, actually what is common from OEMs, that the boot priority in the BIOS is set with the hard drive before the optical drive. I always change this on every computer I work on or build. Also since it's a newer laptop, there may be a function key for bringing up a boot menu (F12 possibly?) which would allow you to select what drive to boot from only for that boot session.

I apologize if someone already mentioned this and I missed it.