Raid/Sata slipstream in xp (No F6 needed while installation)

almighty · 04-10-2007, 01:52 PM

Everyone who uses Sata/Raid face a problem during installation of xp .To reconize hdd we need to Press F6 for third party driver installation.But in some cases those who dont have Floppy drive or sometimes Floppy currupts (Floppy is not reliable anymore)Most people don’t have a USB floppy drive. So the alternative is to slipstream the drivers into an XP cd. This is a guide on how i went about doing it. Please note there are two guides here so please scroll down further till you reach the the word EDIT The second way is one which can be used for every laptop or desktop.

To start I would recommend that all drivers and information needed are backed up prior to attempting this (or burn them onto CD).
(plz note I do not take responsibility for anyone who does this. You do this at your own risk)

This is how I went about doing it.

METHOD 1

1. The software/hardware needed
* Windows XP CD with service pack 2 (SP2)
* nLite
* Also a CD-Burner (and blank-Cds)
* XP drivers for the hard drive

2. Create the following Folders

C:\CDImages\Drivers\
C:\CDImages\XPCD\

3: Preparing the Drivers

Go to the VIA Website and download the hard-drive driver dedicated for XP.
If your having difficulty finding your drivers but know what it is i would recommend checking out www.driverpacks.net they have a huge database of drivers for MassStorage controllers (PATA, SATA, SCSI, RAID)

Extract the ZIP file

Then open up and go to “DriverDisk” and copy the items in that folder elsewhere (e.g. “C:\CDImages\Drivers\” )

Then within the 'Drivers' folder go into ‘i386\NT5’ Folder and copy all the files except the txtsetup.oem (you will need the other txtsetup.oem file which is already in drivers folder)
Paste it back in “C:\CDImages\Drivers\” and delete the folders in there
So you should be left with this in your “C:\CDImages\Drivers\”:

For those with Xa will have to go to the AMD folder instead

Open up “TXTSETUP.OEM” in NOTEPAD

In the section [DISKS] you will need to edit the driver directory listing. Hence this line:

D-I386-NT5-RAID="VIA V-RAID Driver Diskette",\I386\VIAMRAID, \I386\NT5

Needs to be changed into this:

D-I386-NT5-RAID="VIA V-RAID Driver Diskette",\VIAMRAID.SYS, \

And save the file:

4.0: Creating the XP CD

Using Nlite

Follow the instructions given and copy the XP cd into C:\CDImages\XPCD
Then skip the preset by pressing next…

4.1 Task selection
under task selection press drivers and bootable ISO…you will know that both have been selected as both will turn blue and click next:

4.2 Drivers
go to insert then single driver then when its asks you to choose any inf file go to c:\CDImages\Drivers and select the VIAMRAID file and click open. When you click 'open' another window called 'driver integration options' will open. Select “VIA- V-RAID Controller Series (Windows XP)” and then “Regular PNP driver” tab.

Then click ok and it will revert back to the drivers windows and click next. It will ask you if you want to start the process then click yes.

It will integrate the drivers:

Once it is done then click next Then create an Image (ISO) of it and then mount (burn) that image onto CD. You can use nlite of nero or whatever tickles your fancy. I used nlite and it worked perfectly fine.

Once you mounted (burnt it), label it and your good go. You have an XP cd with your drivers installed this time when you boot up it will detect your hard drive

Hope this helps.

METHOD 2

This is an alternative method that will create an XP CD slipstreamed with a large number of 'Mass Storage Drivers..so this method could be attempted by anyone not just via users. I would suggest that prior to doing this you back up all the drivers that you will need on to CD. I would also suggest that you check that the drivers that are needed are in the list of drivers that come in with this package.

Please note i do not take responsibility for this. Do this at your own risk

1. Software/Hardware needed
* NLite
* DriverPack Mass Storage
* DriverPacks BASE
* CD-BURNER
* Blank CD
* Windows XP with service pack 2 (SP2)

2. Create the following Folders

C:\CDImages\DriversPack\
C:\CDImages\XPCD\
C:\CDImages\ISO\

3. Downloading DriverPack files
Download DriverPacks BASE to C:\CDImages\DriversPack\
extract it... you will get the following folders:

Then download DriverPack MassStorage (have a look on the website as they update all packages they have there on a regular basis) to C:\CDImages\DriversPack\DriversPack\

4. Copying the XP CD

Using Nlite

Follow the instructions given and copy the XP cd into C:\CDImages\XPCD

5. Slipstreaming the drivers

Leave Nlite open and now run the DPs_BASE application in C:\CDImages\DriversPack\

Select your language and click apply then click next twice

5.1 Select location of platform

Click the browse button and set the loaction of the platform as C:\CDImages\XPCD\ you will know if

it is right as it will tell you in the location section what Operating System it is :

5.2 Select the DriverPacks to slipstream

Select DriverPack MassStorage and tick the DriverPack MassStorage text mode and click next (>)

5.3 Slipstream Method

Select method 1 click next

5.4 Choose the methods to start the finisher

Select GUIRunOnce click next

5.5 KTD

Select Enable KTD for ALL slipstremaed DriverPacks
and also select default under KTD cache location:

click next

5.6 QuickStream Cache

select Enable QuickStream Cache

Keep clicking next until you get to UdpateChecker. Make sure that the driverpack is up to date and then click next.

Then at the final page click slipstream this process will take aroudn 30secs-3mins depending on your notebook and what your running in the background (one time it took 1min 30 sec and another time it took 33 secs )

6.0 Back to nLite to create the CD
After this go back to Nlite and click next until you get to Task Selection (here you can do what you want as in if you know how to use nlite)

Click bootable ISO and click next

Then create an image of the iso into C:\CDImages\ISO\

Then after change the mode to burn image and Burn that image onto a blank CD. You will have a XP cd with a large collection of hard drive drivers...(just to make sure...when you have burnt the cd open it up and make sure a folder called $OEM$ is in the root)

Now when booting up from the CD and going through the XP intial stages of it loading up things etc you wont need to push f6. Also note it will take a lot longer to load up the intial stages before choosing to install xp but if you look across the bottom you will see it will load up all the different MassStorage drivers (hopefully yours will be there and it will detect it.