Trying to install Windows XP on a laptop with SATA support

[CamTron]

I have an Acer Aspire 5920 laptop from 2007 which came preinstalled with Windows Vista, and I decided to wipe the hard drive and downgrade to Windows XP today. As we all know, Windows XP lacks builtin SATA drivers, so it's impossible for the installer to detect SATA hard disks without either slipstreaming the drivers or loading a driver from an obsolete floppy drive. The BIOS in my computer allows me to set the hard disk to legacy IDE mode, so that it appears to the software as a PATA drive. I didn't want to go through the trouble of slipstreaming the drivers and burning another CD, so I set the hard drive to legacy IDE mode in the BIOS, and installed XP that way. Now I want the extra speed boost that SATA offers, but I'm having trouble installing the driver. I downloaded the Windows XP SATA AHCI Driver from Acer's website (link), but it refuses to install, giving me this error.

Im puzzled, because Windows XP Home Edition is listed as a supported operating system, and I downloaded the driver from the Windows XP section of Acers driver list for this laptop.

[dencorso]

Use Fernando's modded drivers, then change the Start to 0, then reboot and change to AHCI in bios. I think Fernando gives more detailed intructions (either somewhere here at MSFN or at his own forum), but that's the gist of it.

Then, after all the effort involved, you may realize... ...it's not quite worth the effort (IMO, YMMV).
Good luck!
 

[jaclaz]

see also this:

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?444831-HOWTO-enable-AHCI-mode-after-installing-Windows

jaclaz
 

[Dibya]

Try using Nlite.

Please provide your dev id.

[HarryTri]

Perhaps just changing the BIOS mode back to SATA before trying to install the driver may do the job.

[CamTron]

HarryTri, That's not possible because my XP installation doesn't have SATA support, and switching to SATA mode in BIOS causes a blue screen of death since Windows can't read the hard disk. I tried both modes in Linux and didn't notice much of a difference, so I'll leave it with IDE mode. If I ever need to reinstall, I'll slipstream the drivers and use SATA mode.