How To Slipstream SATA Drivers Into XP CD
After the death of Windows XP, almost all notebook PCs come with Windows Vista pre-installed. But if you like Windows XP more than Windows Vista then a simple Windows XP wouldn’t suffice for installing it on your notebook PC. If you BIOS has an option to change your hard disk mode from SATA to IDE then you can just pop in the good old Windows XP CD and get it set up within minutes. But if it doesn’t, then you have to do it the other way as mentioned below.
You will just be requiring the Windows XP CD and a few softwares and stuff that I will tell you as we go along. You might ask just why wouldn’t a normal XP CD do the task? The answer is pretty simple. The original Windows XP CD does not have SATA drivers so it can’t detect your hard drive during the installation process. The solution is simpler. Just slipstream them into the CD! So lets begin.
Step 1 : Download and install nLite
This is an amazing software that lets you tweak and hack your XP CD to the core with an extremely easy to use UI. Download and install the software from here.
Step 2 : Download SATA drivers
You need to get your hands on the SATA drivers next, that you will need to slipstream into the CD. Although there are different version based on your motherboard that you can search them on Intel website or download the standard ones here, which work with most of the motherboards. After downloading extract the driver and remember the location.
Step 3 : Insert XP CD and start nLite
Now that you successfully have the tools and utilities, we can get down with the real stuff. Launch nLite after inserting Windows XP CD into the drive. Choose to make an image of Windows XP in a directory of your choice. Click next and proceed to skip import or load previous settings step by clicking next and proceed to next step.
Step 4 : Add the SATA driver
On the next page, you will find a “Drivers” tab. Click on it and also check the bootable ISO option and then click on next. Click on the button at the bottom to insert the driver. Give the location to the folder where you extracted the SATA driver. You will find a couple of inf files, select any one of them. Now select the all the driver files. That is it, click Next.
Step 5 : Burn the ISO
You will now be asked for confirmation, select yes and let nLite integrate the driver and create a bootable image. Burn it on a CD by just hitting the Burn button at the bottom and you will be ready to install Windows XP on your laptop!
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Ajay Pathak
July 22, 2008 at 10:39 am
as of now i am not using windows vista but this tip will help when i buy my vista loaded laptop.
Thanks
vinh
July 26, 2008 at 3:11 am
thanks a lot for this instruction. Sliptreaming is really made easy now.
Ankur Gupta
July 31, 2008 at 11:08 pm
@Ajay Pathak, vinh
Thanks a lot for your comments
Kabul
August 1, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Great job it is very good job. if it is possible you can add another video from youtube which it would show how to use NLITE
here is the link if you guys want more information about how to use Nlite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZFzkJyGxbM
thanks once again for great job
Kabul
copic
August 8, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thanks a looot, I searched whole internet to install XP on HP laptop… Great intro, you are the man
Luke
August 9, 2008 at 7:41 am
This article and utility are AWESOME! After reading page after page of ‘copy this here’ and ‘edit this there’ I had given up on ever getting XP onto my laptop..
10 minutes of mucking about with this software and I was on my way to an XP laptop.
Thanks heaps!!!
Ankur Gupta
August 21, 2008 at 1:13 am
@Kabul
Thanks a lot for the useful video link.
@copic, Luke
Glad that you found the tutorial useful.
The PC Doctor
August 23, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I can’t believe this even exists! How unbelievably useful, well made, reliable, powerful! Suddenly something very difficult and very very tedious just got very very very easy. Thank you deeply for all the time this will save me!
sreenidhibs
August 24, 2008 at 4:04 pm
nice info you got here.
thanks!! nlite is the best
tagada soinsoin
August 25, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I just tried it, and I just did it!!!!!!!!!
My asus W7Sg-3P012C ’s got a lovely XP running now
and I will be able to multiboot linux with /dev/sda disk driver instead of /dev/hda and the stupid compatibility HDD mode in the Bios!
It’s magic, you’re an artist!
Thanks ever so much
Bernie
August 30, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Many thanks, like luke I was going from site to site and not finding the instructions complete, files that were to be used were not at that location or even on the XPCD. I was on the point of giving up and going to accept Vista when I came across this. A lot of the other googled finds should be deleted or marked as “misleading”.
Again Many thanks
NAVEEN
September 25, 2008 at 5:58 am
Thank you very much for your guidance.
Chris
October 13, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Does this work on HP pavillion desktops, too?
Byulent
October 21, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Good post! Thanks a lot!
Ankur Gupta
October 25, 2008 at 11:09 am
@Chris
Yes it works for HP Pavilion desktops too.
Olle
November 3, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Where do I find the drivers? I have a laptop HP9870ep. Two harddrive eacg 250 GB MoDelL: HTS542525K9SA00. Intel chipset PM965. I have been trying for two days to install xp pro without any result (hours of searching an burning 5 images). XP still can not find the harddrives. There is nothing wrong with the hardware because Vista is installed on the laptop and everything is working. But I want to go back to XP pro. The laptop is new and came with Vista. Any help would be appriciated. Or if someone can provide alink based on the information provided. Thank you in advance.
Olle
November 5, 2008 at 3:21 am
Never mind I saw a useful video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZFzkJyGxbM.
The guy save my life=)
Bob
November 9, 2008 at 1:37 am
this method doesn’t work for some… you will need a USB floppy and 2 disks to install the sata controllers during setup (where you hit F6 to install third party drivers)
ashish
January 9, 2009 at 9:28 pm
can anyone give me link for all the popular laptops makers driver….i wana slipstream them in my window xp sp3 cd n then make it universal
Linda
January 20, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Thank you. I spent several days looking for drivers and having no luck. Your link to the generic SATA drivers plus the NLite link made it happen on my HP Desktop. Your instructions are clear and not overly explained. This will help me to recycle more computers back to XP. Blue skies.
godfrey
January 24, 2009 at 9:19 pm
this really worked for me ,now i am a very very happy xp user and to hell with Vista
Mohammed
February 16, 2009 at 8:51 am
Does it take too long making the Iso ?
Kafeel
February 18, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I have a problem installing windows XP SP 2 in my acer aspire 4710z laptop . After certain process it is saying that there is no hard disk found on ur computer. Press f3 to quit.
How should I do this, In bios there is no hardware tab, So that I could change it from SATA to IDE or AHCI and do but there is no such tab submenu like
Help me out to solv e this problem
RISHU
March 16, 2009 at 5:26 pm
hey buddy i sucessfully embedded teh sata drivers but after that while setup it is showing error that txtsetup.sif is missing how to get rid of that can u tell me all the way because it is asking teh driver type as pnp or text mode also
Aaron
May 29, 2009 at 10:34 am
hate to comment on something so old but thanks. =)
i’ve used nlite before so this should be a breeze for me to pull off
thanks for the simple tutorial