I'm looking to part with my floppy drive. My floppy drive certainly isn't hurting anything, but it's an extra piece of equipment I feel I do not need. My main uses for my floppy drive are:

1) Flashing the BIOS. I rarely do this anymore. Besides, don't motherboard manufacturers offer more convenient options to do this now?

2) Installing Windows XP's Serial ATA drivers. I've thought of slipstreaming my XP installation CD, but I'm really intimidated by that procedure.

That's it. Otherwise, I'm prepared to rid myself of the floppy drive forever.

So, I've always wanted to know, what controls Windows XP's need for Serial ATA/RAID drivers on a floppy disk? Is it the operating system itself or the motherboard? If it is the motherboard that determines this, how do I look for a motherboard that no longer requires a floppy disk for this procedure?

Any information/details are appreciated. Thanks!

Operating system. Windows XP w/SP2 = no need for SATA drivers inserted at F6 prompt. Of course, Vista needs no SATA drivers at F6 prompt, nor does XP w/SP3. Only an original XP or XP w/SP1 installation disk need SATA drivers inserted at F6 prompt to load OS on a SATA drive. No such thing as SATA drive when XP was released.

Even with SP2 I always needed the F6 disk. Never integrated SP3 as it does not integrate right with MCE 2005.

The need for RAID/AHCI/SATA is due to the fact that when XP was released, there was no such things. Running sata in IDE compatibility mode will allow installation on XP without the F6 disk, but you will not have raid,hot swap or NcQ(not used much for most desktop users anyway). You can slipstream SATA/RAID/AHCI drivers with something like Nlite(http://www.nliteos.com).

Vista does not need it any more as it is a new OS and has the drivers for most common devices. In the future when hardware changes to the point of needing a new driver, Vista will also need drivers. Vista allows you to use USB for drivers so the floppy can now be called dead.

One trick to not need the disk and get raid would be to use a basic hardware driverless raid setup like the one found on the P5W DH board(ez-raid). This is a small chip that does all the raid 1,0 or jbod modes in hardware with no setting options other then a jumper block for mode selection. This mode is slightly slower then Intel's onboard system because it does not have the software optimizations Intel has on its software raid.

Looking at this you can see one of the onboard ports goes into a chip that gives the board 2 raid ports that can be used even in IDE compatibility mode.

This "hardware" raid while being fully hardware does not match a high end raid card that has options and its own data buffer.

Hope this clears it up a bit.

I recently made a slipstreamed XP SP3 disk. Installed SATA HD on an ancient MSI 754 MB with two SATA controllers. An XP install disk with SP2 added would have worked fine too I am sure. I would have needed to install the SATA drivers at the f6 prompt with an original XP disk or XP SP1 disk.

So does all this mean that if you have successfully got a SATA disk to talk to an Asus P5Q SE board using IDE compatibility mode that there's no need to go through the F6 install process? Won't the AHCI mode be a lot faster? I have a floppy with the right drivers on but I don't now know if I need to do this or not.

One other weird thing I noticed was that the drive I've used is an WD500 GB model. the Bios correctly identifies it but XP says it's 131GB - any idea why?

Thanks.

It depends on the drive and board.

This bench shows there is a varying degree of performance gain depending on the app used. Personally in everyday use there may no be a noticeable difference.

http://expertester.wordpress.com/2 [...] advantage/

If you have the drivers and a floppy, there is no point in not using it. Hot swapping alone is worth it. If you do not have a drive and do not want one, I would just not bother.

Your drive may show up as 131GB if you are using XP without any service packs. Even after it you may need to extend the drive with another app like gparted or even just make a data drive on the end with windows disk management.

I would recommend you integrate you SP's to the XP cd and burn your own so you do not have this issue on future installs.

Try downloading and instaling WD Data Lifegurad tools. Run the software and the first thing it should do is 'fix' the drive space your HD shows. Like Nukemaster said, this happens when you use a Windows install disk with less than SP2 on that disk.

http://support.wdc.com/product/dow [...] =6&lang=en

http://support.wdc.com/product/dow [...] 01&lang=en

Many thanks for the help folks. I'll stick with the IDE mode for now and install the LifeGuard stuff.

Chipchap42

So, next problem... I downloaded the Data Lifeguard stuff from WD. There are two versions. The first (for Windows) tells me not to run it on a drive which I've loaded Windows onto. The 2nd (for DOS) warns me that if I run it, it will wipe all data on the drive. If that happens then I would have to reinstall windows again, and would go through the same cycle all over again. Any ideas as to how to break the vicious cycle? I have tried the Windows version and it allowed me to create a new partition in the unused space (the other 500-137GB), but I'd really like the merge the two. Any way of doing that without going through the whole slipstream XP/SP2 and reinstalling windows thing?

Really appreciate anyone's help. Badge's point about Lifeguard's "fix" only seems to work if it's not the boot drive.

Thanks,
Chipchap42

So, your drive is loaded with your OS and must not be 'repairable' with WD's tools at this point. If you were to take that SATA drive, save all your important data to disk or removable storage, then reformat and reinstall your Windows XP OS with an install disk with Sp2 or SP3, the drive would be formatted correctly with the proper amount of disk space. If you partition, format and install to the same HD with Windows original disk or with SP1, you will get the 'drive space' problem you are having.

I have installed the WD lifeguard tools before and the first message when the software initiates states something like, the drive is incorectly formatted and Lifeguard tools can correct this error now. Then restart the computer and the HD shows the proper space available. So, I don't know. Apparently you will have to save your data, then reinstall with a windows XP SP2 disk. I would slipstream SP3 with your disk or just buy Vista 8)

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/h [...] _vista_sp1

Thanks badge - I'll do as you suggest with the fresh install. Or just live with the dual partitions. Either way, I'm creating an SP2 slipstream disk for next time!

Chipchap42

Not that I require further explanation for my floppy disk question - but has this topic just been hijacked?

Security is on heightened alert. No hijackers around here.