i've spent the better part of my weekend trying to tackle this problem, hopfully you guys and gals can toss me a bone on this... but first some background

I setup a nice network install server, i boot from a floppy disk (which does nothing more than format the HD and connect to network share and initiate unattended install). since it is a network install i use unattended.txt and don't even have a winnt.sif file. So this setup was working perfectly until i get a new batch of Dell GX280s which has a gigabit card and SATA built on. made a new floppy to handle the new nic and that part works fine.

now the problem i'm having is with windows automatically seeing the SATA drive. now i'm sure by this point your screaming "for the love of mike do a search! we've covered this 209348702938472938times", i have done searches here and in google and spent a good portion of last week and some time over the weekend trying to pin this down and i can't. All the posts i've seen here relate to loading from the CD and not a network share.

When the computer connects and trys to start install i get a "windows is unable to load swap file" aka, "where is your **** harddrive at?". I have tried BTS driver pak, i have edited the txtsetup.sif file, i have tried several different drivers for it (it uses a intel ICH6 chipset and i tried both the Application Accelorator drivers and the Instal Chipset installation drivers). I have read intel's setup instuctions and followed them to the T with no luck... windows setup just won't find the harddrive.

i have tried "txtsetup.sif method tutorial by GreenMachine (most used method)" and "txtsetup.oem method tutorial by Trainee" from this website along with doing a serach. part of hte problem is this dosn't use the IAstor.sys driver, infact it dosn't even have a .sys driver just a bunch of .inf and .cat files.

I guess my question is, everything i've seen here seems to be related to a cd-rom based install of XP, does any of it apply or does anyone have any suggestions as to why it refuses to see the harddrive? I'd be willling to post any of my files that i'm using if you guys think it will help. Any suggestions/comments/advice?

Thanks much

Jsak,

Were you able to get your issue resolved? I'm running into the exact same issue (ICH6R) with a novell network install and it can't find the bloody iastor.sys file eventhough it's right in \i386 folder. If after it chokes, I can manually add iastor.sys to $win_nt$.~bt and restart and THEN the driver is found and is fat, dum, and happy. I tried the BTS driver pack and IT bombs too but complains of not finding some other Via driver.

I'm trying to slipstream the intel driver (and others if I can get it to work) using txtsetup.sif.

Thanks in advance.

S_A_R99

ya i did. the easiest way to do it is to go into the dell bios, and set the SATA HD for "compatible" mode to start the installation. then once windows is installed you can switch it back to the higher performace setting