gateway notebook

Hello, this is my first thread.
I need to install Windows XP Pro in a Gateway Notebook other than the one that comes with it. I did what is done in any desktop computer, I put the XP CD in the drive and boot, XP starts instalation normailly until the select partion screen. There it says there is no HD instaled ou that it is not connected. The notebook has a SATA HD. I download the HD drivers from the Gateway site and copy them to a Pen drive and connect it to the USB. After boot from the XP CD I pressed F6 to load 3rd part drivers, but in the end it the SATA HD does not appears to be selected, the pen drive is the only option to select from the screen. Do I need a disk drive and a floppy disk to install 3rd part HD drive? How to install a Windows XP PRO from other CD than the one from the recovery disk?

 

If you could, could you tell us the notebook model u have?

You should be able to see that HDD there, SATA shouldnt mean anything, but knowing the model of the computer would probably help us a little more

 

SATA drives are not recognised by setup, because it cannot assign drivers to it. Since you already have the drivers, you need to slipstream them onto the Windows XP disc, using a program called nLite. That way, when setup starts, it can assign a driver to the hard disk, and it can be detected.

 

is that right?

I suppose that would make sense, assuming the OEM XP CD's that were shipped with laptops with SATA drives already had those drivers on the discs, because I know my SATA drive in my 5720 is always found when I run XP setup on it.

 

Its a common problem when people come to format and reinstall Windows XP. Its easily solved by slipstreaming, and its a very easy procedure to do. All of the recovery discs that normally come with a notebook, already have the SATA drivers on it, and thats why it always recognises it.

 

That will be very usefull to know in the future. I guess yah learn something new everyday

Im assuming vista comes with SATA support in that case? I did a clean install of vista without a problem on a retail disc, which is why i got confused.

 

Windows Vista doesn't have SATA drivers either. Its something that it really should have had sincepractically all desktops and notebooks now use SATA hard disks. The problem will go on for some time, until Microsoft implements the drivers straight into setup.

 

hmm, im not really sure how I was able to do a clean install of vista on my machine then without them hah, but whatever, it worked so I guess it doesnt matter.

 

Hello, sorry the late reply, I was away from internet this last days.
The Notebook is Gateway MX6930.
It seems that nLITE may do the trick. I will try to create a XP CD including the SATA drivers I download from the GW site and see if I can get it work fine.
Thanks for your replies

 

yeah now i'm wondering how i got vista onto my machine as well since I did a clean install and did not slipstream sata drivers either

 

Help:
im have a gateway notebook mx6930 too. i also want to format my notebook. as i read from the previous reply i need to download nLite.. i already downloaded nLite but i don't know what to do next. could you guyz please give me step by step instructions on how to use nLite in formatting my notebook..

thanks in advance