Alan2273 Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 This is just a general question.I am building an AMD 64 bit computer, but I am not putting a floppy drive in it.The mobo is an Abit AX8, the BIOS is Pheonix-award.When installing XP home it asks you to install the SATA drivers and these are on a floppy.My friend has a USB2 floppy which I can borrow, but can I use this USB floppy to install the SATA drivers before I have installed the operating system.Or would it be better to take the floppy out of my old computer and install it temporally to get the SATA drivers installed then remove it after-wards.The problem with temporally installing the floppy is a friend at work is buying my old computer so if I have to re-install the OS I would be in trouble.Any thoughts appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homecomputeraid Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Will you be booting from one of the SATA Drives, or is it an extra?If you're not booting from it, you could install the OS, burn a copy of each floppy to a CD (make directories like disk1, disk2...), then browse to the CD for the drivers.If you're booting to them, I'd recommend keeping things as simple as possible by installing a floppy temporarily. My concern is whether you'll be able to use a USB floppy. USB devices often require drivers, which aren't present if you have no OS yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted May 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 I am installing 2 80gb SATA drives.But was unsure if the USB could be enabled in the BIOS before the OS was installed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homecomputeraid Posted May 16, 2005 Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Personally, I'd go the route of borrowing the non-usb floppy from another PC for the install. I've always felt that USB devices need some OS to operate. If anyone believes differently, please post. :)Since it is a clean install, with no data on the line, the only thing you'd be wasting is time though if you want to expirament. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted May 16, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2005 Thanks for that homecomputeraid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 Ability to use USB before OS depends on the motherboard. I've built an XP machine and never used a floppy once, but then again, I did not have sata. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted June 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 All up and running now.I had to use a floppy drive, so I cheated, I left the floppy in my old machine and just unplugged the ribbon cable and plugged it into the new machine, I even had the power to it of the old machine but it did the trick.Here`s hoping I do not have to do a reinstall in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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