Can't install windows XP on an XP machien

Just looked up your HDD. It is not IDE. You will need to incorporate Sata driver into your Setup by either using the F6 (3.5 Floppy) or Slipstream ISO method (if you can find the drivers). You might get lucky and find them incorporated in the "Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility 5.0.2.1003" on this site.

P4P800S-X - Support

www.asus.com www.asus.com

Most MB manufacturers have separate Sata/Raid drivers though.

Without the Sata drivers, you'll never be able to Setup XP on that HDD. (directly)
 

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The "infupdate.zip" file on this page includes a Readme.txt which says the driver package includes support for Sata storage.

ASUS P4P800S-X

ASUS P4P800S-X is a motherboard based on the Intel 848P (Breeds Hill) chipset. Get specs, BIOS, documentation and more!
theretroweb.com theretroweb.com
 
You might want to consider using SATA HDDs instead of IDE one. I found SATA drives noticeably faster than IDE ones. For both my computers shown below I started with IDE HDDs but switched to SATA ones. However, I still had to use IDE optical drives because the SATA controllers did not support ATAPI. Optical driwe rquiire ATAPI support.

Another reason I switched to SATA HDDs is because my supply of IDE HDDs was running out. I tried to buy additionl ones but they failed shortly after I started using them. I had to accept that IDE HDDs haven't been made in a long time.I bought four refurbished 300 GB SATA HDDs. Even though they weren't new I trusted them more than any IDE ones.

BTW, someone on these forums tried to argue that there was no need for me to load the SATA drivers during Windows XP setup. That may be true for newer motherboards but I was using older motherboards made in 2002-2004. Motherboards made back them had no support for SATA in the BIOS. That meant that Windows XP did not see SATA hard drives until I loaded the SATA driver from a floppy disk.

Desktop #1:
MBD: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (Socket A)
CHP: NVIDIA NForce2 Ultra 400/Nforce2 MCP-T
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (2.25GHz)
RAM: Corsair XMS DDR 400 (2x1GB)
GPU: PNY Verto GeForce FX5900 (AGP)
FDD: 3-1/2 Floppy
DRV1: Seagate Barracuda (300GB) 3.5" HDD (SATA)
DRV2: Seagate Barracuda (300GB) 3.5" HDD (SATA)
OPT: Memorex DVD/RW 16X (PATA)
PWR: Antec TruePower TRUE550 (550 watts)
O/S: Windows XP Pro

Computer #2:
MBD: ASUS A7V400-MX (Socket A)
CHP: VIA KM400A/VT8235 CE
CPU: Athlon XP2400+ (2.0GHz)
RAM: Super Talent DDR 333 500GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce4 ti4600 (AGP)
FDD: 3-1/2 Floppy
DRV1: Seagate Barracuda (300GB) 3.5" HDD (SATA)
DRV2: Seagate Barracuda (300GB) 3.5" HDD (SATA)
OPT: LITE ON CD/RW 52X (PATA)
PWR: Antec TruePower TP-II 430 (430 watts)
O/S: Windows XP Pro

Computer #1 had 2 onboard SATA ports. However, the BIOS did not support it.
Computer #2 had no onboard SATA ports. For SATA support I used a Syba SD-VIA-1A2S IDE/SATA PCI controller card.

Neither computer motherboard supported SATA in the BIOS. That meant that SATA drives weren't available by default to install Windows XP on. To get around that I had to put the appropriate SATA driver on a floppy disk. During Windows XP setup I had to ht F6 to load the SATA driver. After that I could install XP on a SATA hard drive.

Note the ASUS A7N8X series motherboards first came out in 2002. At first nobody could use SATA hard drives because the first SATA hard drives were not available until 2003.
Click to expand...
 
MisterEd said:
You might want to consider using SATA HDDs instead of IDE one.

BTW, someone on these forums tried to argue that there was no need for me to load the SATA drivers during Windows XP setup. That may be true for newer motherboards but I was using older motherboards made in 2002-2004. Motherboards made back them had no support for SATA in the BIOS. That meant that Windows XP did not see SATA hard drives until I loaded the SATA driver from a floppy disk.
Click to expand...
"Computer #1 had 2 onboard SATA ports. However, the BIOS did not support it."

@MisterEd

The OP does have a SATA drive listed. It must be an older model as the capacity is only 80Gb. As I recall from checking his MB Manual, that Asus MB also has 2 SATA ports, and systems which I upgraded to SATA drives also had SATA ports, but WinXP would not install on any SATA HD I've tried so far unless I included the correct Sata/Raid drivers provided by the MB (chipset) manufacturer.

I've always been of the opinion that the BIOS cannot provide drivers required for "foreign" hardware, but only provide settings for hardware on that MB.

Are you suggesting that Windows XP 32 can be installed on newer MB's without drivers specifically for SATA or SDD drives added during the Setup?
 
ImWolf said:
Just looked up your HDD. It is not IDE. You will need to incorporate Sata driver into your Setup by either using the F6 (3.5 Floppy) or Slipstream ISO method (if you can find the drivers). You might get lucky and find them incorporated in the "Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility 5.0.2.1003" on this site.

P4P800S-X - Support

www.asus.com www.asus.com

Most MB manufacturers have separate Sata/Raid drivers though.

Without the Sata drivers, you'll never be able to Setup XP on that HDD. (directly)
Click to expand...
so now I know what's the problem. I downloaded the intel chipset utility file I remember installing it on this machine because it didn't have any drivers when I got it. I extracted the exe file and here's what's inside
1740594121964.png

1740594140465.png

so what should I look for?
 
When I looked up your Maxtor HDD, and saw the word SATA on the top of it, I kinda figured it's probably a SATA HDD. If you open your case and see the HDD is connected to either a SATA port, or a 40 pin ribbon cable to the IDE plug on the MB, then you'll know for sure?

The software you D/L looks to be drivers to be installed AFTER an OS is Setup, in which case you would run that "Setup.exe" file. But you haven't got there yet. First, you need to install XP onto the hard drive.

I did some looking around, and there are XP ISO's available on archive.org that already have SATA drivers integrated.... but I've never used any of them and always added my own SATA drivers via slipstream. You'll have to read the reviews to decide if you trust those ISO's, and if they also provide the correct product key.

Since you've already installed versions of Linux (which come with SATA drivers) on this machine, I would assume your BIOS settings are good to go.
 
ImWolf said:
When I looked up your Maxtor HDD, and saw the word SATA on the top of it, I kinda figured it's probably a SATA HDD. If you open your case and see the HDD is connected to either a SATA port, or a 40 pin ribbon cable to the IDE plug on the MB, then you'll know for sure?

The software you D/L looks to be drivers to be installed AFTER an OS is Setup, in which case you would run that "Setup.exe" file. But you haven't got there yet. First, you need to install XP onto the hard drive.

I did some looking around, and there are XP ISO's available on archive.org that already have SATA drivers integrated.... but I've never used any of them and always added my own SATA drivers via slipstream. You'll have to read the reviews to decide if you trust those ISO's, and if they also provide the correct product key.

Since you've already installed versions of Linux (which come with SATA drivers) on this machine, I would assume your BIOS settings are good to go.
Click to expand...
You didn't say which SATA drivers the ISOs had. It would have to have a lot of drivers since there were probably a lot of different controllers out there that each needed its own driver. I could have slipstreamed the SATA driver into the ISO but it is easy enough to just load the drivers from the appropriate floppy disk.

Twenty years ago Maxtor had two series of DiamondMax Plus 9 drives. One was IDE while the other was SATA. The OP obviously has a SATA drive.

BTW, back in 2003 I bought a 80GB DiamondMax Plus 9 IDE drive. Here is a picture I took of it:

Maxtor80GB.jpg
 
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MisterEd said:
The OP obviously has a SATA drive.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that photo. When I looked it up, all I saw were SATA drives. I'm not sure what the OP has now, but odds say if his HDD was IDE, he wouldn't be here saying XP wants AHCI OR SCSI drivers.

You're right about the ISO as well, it would need a ton of drivers. I don't think OP ever referred to having a 3.5 floppy drive.
 
ImWolf said:
When I looked up your Maxtor HDD, and saw the word SATA on the top of it, I kinda figured it's probably a SATA HDD. If you open your case and see the HDD is connected to either a SATA port, or a 40 pin ribbon cable to the IDE plug on the MB, then you'll know for sure?

The software you D/L looks to be drivers to be installed AFTER an OS is Setup, in which case you would run that "Setup.exe" file. But you haven't got there yet. First, you need to install XP onto the hard drive.

I did some looking around, and there are XP ISO's available on archive.org that already have SATA drivers integrated.... but I've never used any of them and always added my own SATA drivers via slipstream. You'll have to read the reviews to decide if you trust those ISO's, and if they also provide the correct product key.

Since you've already installed versions of Linux (which come with SATA drivers) on this machine, I would assume your BIOS settings are good to go.
Click to expand...
it's connected to the motherboard with a large flat cable on Linux it's detected as SCIS. I have no idea why I can't install Windows XP on this thing it's definitely a driver issue, I probably have to try installing with a CD however I'm sure it'll require a floppy disk.
 
As MisterEd made clear, your HDD did come in both ATA (IDE) and SATA options. The large ribbon cable definitely sounds like the IDE version.


www.seagate.com

DiamondMax Plus 9 Ultra DMA 133 - Jumper, CHS, and Install Guide | Seagate US

Overview and details for DiamondMax Plus 9 drives, including model numbers and specifications.
www.seagate.com

Is there an OS on it now? Is it the only HDD in the system?

When you post pictures clearly showing how the drive is connected to the MB, give us your BIOS version as well.
 
retroxpuser said:
it's connected to the motherboard with a large flat cable on Linux it's detected as SCIS. I have no idea why I can't install Windows XP on this thing it's definitely a driver issue, I probably have to try installing with a CD however I'm sure it'll require a floppy disk.
Click to expand...
Since my old motherboard BIOS knew nothing about SATA it called them SCSI. To boot from SATA I think I selected SCSI.

With old motherboard like mine the Windows XP setup did even see the SATA drives at first. It finally did after I hit F6 and installed the proper SATA driver from the floppy disk. That was only a problem with early motherboards since later motherboards supported SATA in the BIOS.
 
MisterEd said:
With old motherboard like mine the Windows XP setup did even see the SATA drives at first.
Click to expand...

Madeleine had posted a link to OP's MB manual, and the board does have 2 SATA ports. So surely, the BIOS would have SATA support options.

The MB also has two 40pin IDE sockets. Maybe someone did something screwy and used one of those 40pin to SATA adapters?
 
ImWolf said:
Madeleine had posted a link to OP's MB manual, and the board does have 2 SATA ports. So surely, the BIOS would have SATA support options.

The MB also has two 40pin IDE sockets. Maybe someone did something screwy and used one of those 40pin to SATA adapters?
Click to expand...
You shouldn't assume that. One of my motherboards is an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe. It has two SATA ports on it. It has absolutely no support in the BIOS for these SATA ports. During the Windows XP setup I have to hit F6 and load the SATA drivers from a floppy disk.

My other motherboard is an ASUS A7V400-MX. It has no SATA ports. I used a PCI card with SATA ports. Naturally during the Windows XP setup I have to hit F6 and load the SATA drivers from a floppy disk.

I bet the ASUS A7N8X series of motherboards were some of the first to have SATA ports. In fact when they came out in 2002 you couldn't even buy SATA drives.

Update

I looked at the support information for the ASUS P4P800S-X motherboard. It seems to have come out in 2004. There is no separate SATA driver shown. I expect the BIOS for this motherboard supports SATA drives. That means that Windows XP should see SATA drives during setup.
 
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MisterEd said:
I looked at the support information for the ASUS P4P800S-X motherboard. It seems to have come out in 2004. There is no separate SATA driver shown. I expect the BIOS for this motherboard supports SATA drives. That means that Windows XP should see SATA drives during setup.
Click to expand...
There aren't any MB's with SATA drivers on them. The drivers either come with an OS, or are supplied by the MB manufacturer for use with a certain OS that might not have the needed drivers. Windows XP will not detect a SATA drive unless the drivers are provided by the MB manufacturer and introduced during the Setup process.
 
update on this whole situation! I bought a raw CD and burned a Windows Xp service pack 2 bootable CD then it installed normally without issues I could even activate it using the telephone method and an app that gave me the activation ID (archive.org link), thanks everyone for answering and helping.
 
Yeah, Winsetupfromusb and it's sister YUMI are not very skilled at USB booting Windows installation discs. Rufus is better, but still not perfect. www.Easy2Boot.xyz is the newest and most compatible option, I haven't seen it fail on any Windows, it's quite user friendly.
As you have discovered, everything is much easier when you just use a real CD/DVD drive and disc.
 
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