can i install sata drivers without a floppy drive?

[aowen512]

when i first installed windows and what not i had a floppy drive installed. i need to do a windows repair and to do so i need to install these external sata drivers for my hard drives. i do not have access to a floppy drive and i would like to know if there was anyway to get around using the floppy drive to install these drivers. one question i had was would i be able to change the drive letter of one of my dvd drives to A so that windows will install from there instead of an obsolete floppy drive A.

thx for your help!


nf7-s 2600xp oced to 3200 speed fsb 210
3500 kingston hyper-x ddr 2x512 CL2 (discontinued, they only have CL2.5 now
leadtech 6800 gt @ ultra speeds
hitachi 2x80gb in raid0

 

[Jake_Barnes]

Why do you have to install drivers from "A" ... use a CD or a flash drive ... I don't see why not (you'd have to burn the drivers to CD).


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>

 

[riser]

Do as listed above..

I don't recall having to install sata drivers when I built my computer though.. maybe after I got into windows I installed something.. but not for the install.

 

[jihiggs]

any time i have installed windows it doesnt give an option to get the drivers off a cd, only from a floppy. the only option is to slip stream the drivers onto the install disc and have windows load them when setup initialises. good luck with that though.

go tell your alien brothers, that ronnie cordova says they're gay!!! <A HREF="http://sockbaby.com" target="_new"> sock baby </A>

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I just reinstalled windows and loaded all my drivers (chipset, vid, audio, network, etc) off a flash drive ... all others were on windows XP by default ...

Some OEM/store bought PC's now don't have an "A" drive/floppy drive ...

Edit: I can't say about RAID drivers, I don't have a RAID config ...

<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Jake_Barnes on 07/12/05 01:20 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[pat]

right from Windows install, no, you need a floppy drive. I always have one even if I need it only for my RAID installation. They are cheap and you dont have to install it in the case. Just open the side and connect the wire. install windows, then remove it and close the case. It doesnt worth wasting 1 day to find a workaroud for a 84 floppy drive, IMHO..

<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[jihiggs]

i assume you are talking about after you got windows up and running, you installed the drivers from a flash drive. i can see that you have never had to install windows to a raid controller. unless you are lucky enough to have a raid controler that is recognised as native or whatever to your bios and bootable you NEED a floppy drive durring windows install to install the raid card drivers. it doesnt even have to be raid, scsi, sata.. whatever.

go tell your alien brothers, that ronnie cordova says they're gay!!! <A HREF="http://sockbaby.com" target="_new"> sock baby </A>

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I don't have a RAID controller - I said that. Must be the bios/firmware on my board ... SATA and PATA, both recognized. (Windows doesn't know the difference).



<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b>

 

[pat]

That because the controller for the SATA interface is the same for the PATA interface. The one from the chipset. Unless you set you controller as RAID, you wont need drivers. Third party controller, which were common with older chipset, need drivers whenever the controller is set as SATA or RAID. It is because the controller is a device on the PCI bus, as opposed to the native one which is part of the chipset. SATA drivers doesnt really exist. They are rather for the controller used in SATA or normal mode while RAID drivers are for the controller when set as RAID.

SATA is only an interface.. nothing more. whenever it is a SATA or a PATA device, the controller need to be recognized by windows.. the controller, not the interface.



<font color=red>Sig space for rent. make your offer.</font color=red>

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I thought that was what I was saying ... but you said it better. Now, I forgot, was the original question about RAID drivers or just SATA?

Edit: External SATA ... don't know about that ...


<b>"The Edge - there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Hunter S. Thompson, </b><b><i>Hell's Angels, 1965</i></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Jake_Barnes on 07/13/05 10:12 PM.</EM></FONT></P>