windows xp sata driver for ASRock 960GC-GS FX mobo?

[Nemesis the mage]

Just installed ASRock 960GC-GS FX mobo and need to reinstall my dual boot windows 7 and windows xp but the xp installation cd doesn't see the SATA acpi hdd. What drivers do I need and where can I find them?

 

[ganon11000]

Here is the driver page for your motherboard: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/960GC-GS%20FX/?cat=Download&os=XP

 

[Nemesis the mage]

Thanks ganon11000. Can I just check I'm trying the correct driver - I've downloaded the one described as "SATA RAID Driver (For system to read from floppy diskette during Windows installation)" even though I'm not actually trying to use RAID mode; then from within the ZIP file, I've used ahcix86.inf..but it still doesn't see my hdd when I try installing win xp.

 

[ganon11000]

I would install the AMD driver (north & south bridge). It is best to install all needed drivers so installing all of them can't hurt.

 

[GhislainG]

Where did you unzip the contents? You need it on a floppy (press F6 at installation time) or slipstream the drivers from the XP64_XP(3.1.1540.127)\x86 folder. You need all files in the folder; the .inf file alone is useless.

 

[Nemesis the mage]

Where did you unzip the contents? You need it on a floppy (press F6 at installation time) or slipstream the drivers from the XP64_XP(3.1.1540.127)\x86 folder. You need all files in the folder; the .inf file alone is useless.

GhislainG, I tried to slipstream the drivers (with service pack 3 as my original win xp cd is at service pack 2) using nLite but when I selected "Add Drivers" and browsed to the directory I'd unzipped them to, it only shows the .inf file for selection ie the.sys file doesn't appear for separate selection.

 

[Nemesis the mage]

I would install the AMD driver (north & south bridge). It is best to install all needed drivers so installing all of them can't hurt.

I can't see north & south bridge mentioned in the descriptions of any of the drivers on that site - would it be part of the AMD AllIn1_XP64_XP(8.512-127).zip?

 

[GhislainG]

nLite needs the .inf, but it should include all required files.

 

[ganon11000]

Install the AMD All in one driver

 

[Nemesis the mage]

Many thanks ganon1100 and GhislainG. I was still unable to get the ahci drivers working correctly with windows xp but I had some advice from pcupgrade.co.uk support suggesting I try setting the SATA drives into IDE mode instead of ahci mode from the BIOS.

This seems to have done the trick so that I was able to reinstall win XP ok.

From what I can see, the only thing I miss by using IDE instead of ahci, is the ability to "hot plug" drives in - but I wasn't really planning to do that anyway so this workaround seems OK.

Thanks again for all the help.