Installing XP from SATA HDD

[salut]

Hi MSFN people,

I have read a lot (well, till headache was too much... if u think not enough, gimme some pointer(s)) about people trying to install from hard disk but i didn't manage to understand and adapt all that to my situation..

Let's explain what my aim is :

I would like to be able to install my XP without the CD , which would result in something like "e:\I386" ("e:\" is on SATA Maxtor 6B300S0) hierarchy being the source for all my future reinstallations ; having "tuned" BOOT.INI in such a way that, at the boot loader prompt i can choose between : "WinXP" and "Recover WinXP" (which would allow me to reinstall clean and come up with fully functionnal and ready to use environement).

Here about my hardware environement :

IDE0=WDC WD800JB-00CRA1 (actual system drive, 2 NTFS partitions, no space left)

IDE1=Maxtor 7Y250P0 (my GNU disk)

SATA0=Maxtor 6B300S0 (my data disk, 1 NTFS partition, no space left ; i have set it as active while trying to get it all work)

Here a sample of my BOOT.INI on %systemdrive% :

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\I386="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)"

I tried to simply copy and past all files from %systemdrive% to "e:\" (i mean ntldr, ntdetect, io.sys, msdos.sys, bootfont.bin, etc ...) and it didn't work (i thought that simply adding those files would make the "e:\i386" work).

I have tried by simply copy/paste my XP CD on "e:\i386" and also to use setupmgr.exe to build a distribution tree, none worked.

I really must be missing something obvious about BOOT.INI parameters or something about the SATA driver.

Here is (from memory, i don't exactly remember) the error i got at boot time when choosing "Recover WinXP" option in boot loader :

Windows cannot start because it cannot read or access the disk ... blabla... I think it talked about drivers and documentation (no specific information that would be helpfull, it looks like pretty generic error message).

I may have forgoten something in my problem explanation, tell me what if so.

Many thanks in advance, since i probably will have more headaches doing this alone as doing it with the help of thoose smart looking (writing) people out there ...

Bye

Edited October 15, 2006 by salut

[salut]

So someone there can help ? ... Or just point me to some generic (but detailed, if possible)

information about the boot process, that may help i think.

I didn't tell you : i don't have floppy disk

I mean, i would really PRAISE people who may want to help me, so please

Perhaps i posted in the wrong place, tell if so

And i have an intel d865perl MB, sorry for omission

I will try tomorrow, many thanks

Edited October 16, 2006 by salut

[pmshah]

See if you can set your sata channel to ide mode. It depends on chipset & bios.

On original intel motherboards with ati chipset you have to choose sata or pata. Set ir to sata & you have errors. Set it to pata & the system works but is practically dead.

However on my asus board with phoenix or ami bios & intel 945 chipset I could set it as combination - with support for both. The installation went on without a hitch.