Fix for SATA/RAID Floppy Disk Requirement and File Copy Errors

[patwa]

I apologise if this has been posted elsewhere, but hopefully it will help other members in similar situations.

Since the introduction of SATA and associated RAID configurations, it has been necessary in a large number of cases to use a floppy disk to load drivers for these devices and associated onboard controllers via a floppy disk when installing the Windows Operating System (2000/XP). This is because Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, did not provide even basic drivers for SATA and RAID chipsets, as they have done for video and sound.

Not only is this highly inconvenient due to the need to have a floppy disk drive, which many new computers and indeed most new laptops now don't ship with, it has also caused major and frequent problems with drivers not being recognised by Windows Setup, resulting in the infamous "Setup cannot copy the file xxx" error message. An example of this is with the VIA SATA/RAID drivers, and in particularly the viamraid.sys file. Search Google for viamraid.sys and you'll find many forums with many posts from members desperate to find a way to install these drivers which Windows simply will not accept.

Fortunately, or maybe its just co-incidence and already known (although I only saw this method posted on one forum), there is a way around it that a) does not require a floppy disk, and B) will allow you to install windows without difficulty.

If you download the nLite application from www.nliteos.com and then run it, you will see, after initially clicking 'Next' and specifying the source for you Windows XP installation, and option to 'Integrate Drivers'. You can then use this to 'slipstream' the drivers for your SATA/RAID controller into the actual Windows installation, meaning that Windows will instinctually use them without complaint, and without asking you for them. Note that you will need to copy the contents of your Windows installation CD to your hard drive before using the above method, as well as the drivers for your SATA/RAID controller. i strongly recommend you use the latest driver from your motherboard chipset manufacturer, and NOT those that came with the board, as these will be newer and will have had fixes integrated into them to resolve any faults/problems. This is particularly importnat in the case that you have a VIA chipset on your motherboard.

nLite will automatically, once you've pointed it to the SATA/RAID drivers, detect them as TEXTMODE drivers. This simply means that they're used in the initial part of Setup, and before anything gets copied to the hard drive - after all, one needs a drive to be present before you can copy files to it! You can just go ahead, click OK, then 'Next' and 'yes' to apply the changes.

After this is done, and nLite has done its thing, you will need to convert the folder where you copied the Windows installation CD files to into a bootable ISO. Don't worry, nlite can do this, simply go back into the application and select 'Make Bootable ISO' and follow the instructions there. You can then burn this ISO to CD and use it to install Windows as normal.

I know this is a rather basic guide to doing the slipstreaming, but more information on using nLite can be found on their website www.nliteos.com and on their forum, or indeed here at MSFN. If there's anything I've omitted here or mistakenly got wrong, please feel free to correct me.

Happy installing, and enjoy the freedom of non-floppy computing!

Hussein.