The drivers that mention SATA from
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2115&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Home+Edition&lang=eng&strOSs=45&submit=Go%21
Sorry, I don't know any other way than the floppy drive F6 method. It's why I added an USB floppy drive to my install kit.
Bob
I've been reading all the posts regarding the downgrade procedure from Vista to XP. Here is my present situation and problem:
Computer:
HP a6157c purchased recently from Costco
Intel Dual Core 4400 processors
System Board Chipset: Intel i945G
Southbridge (not sure what this is?): Intel 82801GH (ICH7DH)
Came pre-installed with Vista Home Premium (no original disks included)
One drive came with computer 320GB SATA drive (Hitachi HDT725032VLA380)
According to the device manager, (and BIOS), this drive is set to RAID enabled (which I thought strange as I thought RAID pertains to two or more drives?)
Device manager shows driver controller as: Intel 82801GR/GH SATA Raid Controller
Have not been able to find the appropriate driver that would be compatible with XP.
FYI, initially, I was planning on setting up a dual boot system with Vista on one partition and XP (Home) on the other. I ran into problems when installing XP and cannot get the computer to boot XP (I believe this has to do with not having the correct SATA driver.
After reading the posts here, I plan on using Dban to wipe the drive and just run Windows XP for now instead of dual boot config. (already created the Recovery disks for Vista should I wish to go back to that at some point in the future).
After drive wipe, will create a slipstream disk using Nlite and include the correct SATA driver compatible with XP (at least, that's my plan here)
In searching for drivers, I read a "Read Me" (http://downloadmirror.intel.com/13806/ENG/readme.txt) under the section entitled " Determining the system mode" on what I thought was the correct Intel driver and it said to first confirm what driver was installed for the chipset and then to check the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller. Device manager shows IDE ATA/ATAPI controller to be:
Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers-27DF. According to this read me, I don't have the right ATA/ATAPI controller and have to contact HP to get the right driver. HP's support says there are no drivers for this computer for XP.
I'm confused as the BIOS says I am running in RAID but the ATA/ATAPI controller says it is an Ultra ATA controller? Sorry as I am a bit if a nube here and probably a in a bit over my head here. Still, with a little guidance, I think I can complete the downgrade to XP.
FYI, initially had to switch the BIOS to IDE when I ran the Windows XP setup in order for the disc to be identified at all. I did this, then had to switch back to SATA RAID in order to boot the computer but XP does not complete boot up (again I think due to the SATA issue)
Hope I've included all the necessary info here. If not, let me know what else I need to detail here.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions here.

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