Don't Let This Happen To You

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

So you've decided to replace that old laptop computer with a spiffy new one, one with a genuine Texas Instruments firewire chip (the best kind). The laptop with all of the features you want comes pre-loaded with Windows Vista, which we all agree is a dud. "No problem", you think to yourself. "I can just format the hard drive and install Windows XP. What could be simpler?"

Not so fast, Maurice.

You format the hard drive and have a nice, new, shiny-clean partition. You insert the Windows XP installation disk and let 'er rip. The CD-ROM drive spins up and files are loading, loading, loading. When the files have finished loading, the moment of truth arrives. "If you want to install Windows XP, press ENTER" (or words to that effect). To your shock and amazement, Windows XP says there is no hard drive installed. The hard drive you just formatted. Yeah, that one.

Here is the catch. Windows XP was released in 2001, before the existence of SATA (serial ATA) hard drives. What do most laptops sold today have? SATA hard drives. So what is the one thing missing from the Windows XP installation disk? SATA drivers! For lack of SATA drivers, XP has no idea, repeat, NO IDEA, that there is a hard drive on your computer. I am using a brand new copy of XP with Service Pack 2, which came out after SATA hard drives came into existence, so you would THINK there would be SATA drivers on the CD.

They get you coming and going.

This is another argument for dedicated recorders. What a PITA for end users. I'm pretty experienced at getting computers up and running but this just takes the cake.

I happened to have an external USB HD lying around so I formatted it and was able to get XP to install on the external drive. The problem is, it won't boot. I am using NTFS and I suspect there may be an issue with drive letters. I plan to research this drive letter theory. If anyone has any ideas, please share.

I did make some test recordings with the original Vista installation using my M-Audio Firewire 410 and it popped like a pan full of Jiffy Pop. Running the DPC latency checking program, there were red bars all over the place, not a good thing.

Lee Kanne · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 129

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Thanks for the link, Lee. Here is someone else's solution:

Lee Kanne · **Voice Talent** Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 129

[quote="Chris Clementson"] I know you don't like dedicated recorders but in both my research and practical experience with them, you basically plug in and go.

not quite

you still have to transfer everything back into a computer....a time consuming, unnecessary, and potentially problematic step

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

Chris,

I'm confused... are you saying that WinXP SP2 can't be installed on a SATA drive?

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Could it be that the SATA drivers for your hard drive are old enough to already be included on the SP2 CD? Could it be that the XP installation CD does not include drivers for my particular HD?

I can only speak for my situation, but on the web sites I'm looking at there seems to be a preponderance of laptop users.

Trey Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 27

Installing Windows XP on a SATA drive can be done, but there are some extra steps involved. My home made desktop PC is running a dual boot of XP and Vista on two separate 250GB hard drives. You're right in that XP does not recognize SATA drives on its own. First you have to go to the PC manufacturer's website (motherboard manufacturers site if it's a custom built computer) and download the Windows XP SATA drivers. You then load the drivers from a floppy or USB thumb drive. The catch is your BIOS has to support booting (loading drivers in the BIOS) from a thumb drive. Both installation methods involve hitting the F6 key during the first :30 seconds of XP's blue screen installation process. The problem is since SATA came after Win XP--it will ask you to hit F6 to install drivers for a SCSI (not SATA) hard drive. SCSI is the former fastest hard drive form factor on the block. It was succeeded by SATA. Here is a decent explanation I found online:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Hardware/faqs/kb/15,24.html

Incidentally Chris... I agree with you that an end user shouldn't have to go through all this just to get an operating system loaded. Nor should we have to suffer digital hiccups and glitches when recording onto a modern computer. That is unacceptable. The only drawback I see to using a stand alone solid state recorder (whether hard drive, compact flash or secure digital media) is that it would be difficult if not impossible to playback previously recorded audio for those clients who want to direct via ISDN or Phone Patch. Also, I am not aware of a recorder that allows you to mark good takes the way you could with MiniDisc recorders durin their heyday.

Good Luck

-Trey

Clinton Nobles · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 197

They are correct it takes a little do-so but you can achieve windows XP goodness. I just built my comp and am using sata . . . now it is note worthy that I am dealing with a PC and not a laptop. I am brave, not that brave hahaha

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Trey -

One other option would be to buy a multimedia-ready DAW from a boutique, but that's $$$. It would come pre-tweaked.

The only reason this is an issue at all is because Vista is so dreadfully useless for audio recording. The DPClat program and my own testing prove it. Micro$oft really needs to address that latency issue in Seven. In the meantime they have introduced this MMCS deal which throttles back network throughput in a sort of band-aid approach.

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Joy at last!

Trey had the right ideas, but instead of getting the drivers from Toshiba I had to go to Intel and tell it my chipset model number. On my desktop computer I downloaded the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager". It is an exe file and you start the installer and go through the preliminary steps but don't actually install it (if you installed the drivers they would screw up your working machine). The files then magically appear in \WINNT\TEMP. A little clicking around and you find the actual driver files which you transfer to a floppy disk. Then, when installing XP on the machine to be downgraded you press F6 when prompted. Eventually XP enters a dialog where you select your SATA controller from a list. As if by magic, XP goes to your trusty USB floppy drive which you plugged in beforehand and which contains the disk with the drivers on it. You then have support for SATA drives and you're off to the races.

People like us who know how to build computers can muddle through something like this with liberal amounts of help from Google. For the computer illiterati this would be so over their heads that they would probably become very frustrated very quickly.