Help - Installing XP and I'm Confused :-(

Baron_Samedi

Baron_Samedi

Baron_Samedi

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Hi Gents,

Since I installed XP Pro on my machine back in March 06, I have been less than satisfied with the disk access when loading large files.

Now, when I installed XP, I don't remember hitting F6 at the start and allowing the install of Sata drivers (Si 3114) before getting into the install proper.

So, unfortunately I now have to re-install and I am wondering whether I need to install the SATA drivers on install and whether this is what caused my slow disk access.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Gary
 
Even if you are using XP SP2, you will still need to install the SATA drivers. If you don't have a floppy drive (as most people don't these days), the easiest way is to integrate them into your XP disk using a program such as nLite.
 
Gents,

Thanks ever so much for your replies!

Now, I wonder about the use of the SATA drivers - previously I would have considered them necessary only for RAID, but.... on Gigabytes web site there is a driver for SATA alone, ie not in a RAID configuration :rolleyes:

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Gary
 
Baron_Samedi said:
Gents,

Thanks ever so much for your replies!

Now, I wonder about the use of the SATA drivers - previously I would have considered them necessary only for RAID, but.... on Gigabytes web site there is a driver for SATA alone, ie not in a RAID configuration :rolleyes:

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Gary
Click to expand...
You will only need to do an F6 install for SATA & RAID drivers if your hard drives aren't seen by Windows setup, if the drives or raid array are seen by Windows setup then you can install the latest drivers after Windows is installed.
 
From my experience, SATA drivers are almost always necessary, even when RAID is not being implemented - which is why (as you've found) there are usually 2 versions of sata drivers - one for RAID use and one for ATA use (basic disk). Occasionally, the these 2 drivers are unified into 1 driver, but I haven't found that very common.

EDIT: although if Windows does recognise the controller during the install, you can update the drivers once you're booted into the OS.
 
Last edited:
Hi D,

Thanks for the info - I just read the nlite website and it implies the same thing, so thanks for that.

Now, assuming this to be true (and I do), why is the drive access sooooo slow?

Loading files on my second machine (XP2700+ with IDE drive) is way faster...
 
Baron_Samedi said:
Now, assuming this to be true (and I do), why is the drive access sooooo slow?

Loading files on my second machine (XP2700+ with IDE drive) is way faster...
Click to expand...
Did you install the latest SATA/RAID drivers after you installed Windows, if so did you install the chipset drivers first as the chipset drivers should be installed before anything else.
 
Well, as I last installed XP in March 06, I'm not sure :-(

That's why I'm wondering if disk access would be improved by ensuring that I install the drivers at the F6 point rather than let Windows take over and install something inferior....

Thanks!
 
Even if Windows does install inferior drivers during setup you could still try updating them to see if disk access improves, i would suggest updating the chipset drivers first.
 
True, but I have been thinking.... dangerous I know, but...

Is is possible that disk access is slow because I have both my DVD drives occupying the master IDE port while my main hard drive is on a SATA port that may not have the same priority?

Thanks!

Gary
 
Baron_Samedi said:
Is is possible that disk access is slow because I have both my DVD drives occupying the master IDE port while my main hard drive is on a SATA port that may not have the same priority?
Click to expand...
This won't make any difference at all.
 
You could check to see if your SATA hard drive is running in PI0 mode or Ultra DMA Mode in the device manager, it needs to be in Ultra DMA Mode, the setting you need is "DMA if available".
 
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