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Every so often I need to install Win XP on a machine that has a SATA drive and have to go through the whole mess of finding a floppy drive for the AHCI drivers and hitting F6 during setup, or slipstreaming them onto the Windows XP installation media.
I realise I could put the drive in IDE compatibility mode in the BIOS but I prefer to try and run with AHCI if possible.
With laptops these days, many have an option in the boot order of the BIOS to boot from a USB floppy drive and that got me thinking...
Is there a way to reconfigure a USB stick so that it appears to the system as a USB floppy drive?
If the BIOS believes it's a USB floppy drive, then Win XP setup should think there's a floppy disk attached and all I need to do is drop the AHCI drivers onto a USB stick!
Anyone know if anything like that is possible?
I've tried creating a single partition on a USB stick of 1.44MB and formatting as FAT12 but Win XP setup wouldn't recognise this.
I assume there's some sort of hardware "bit" that defines what class a USB device belongs to. Which is how Windows often can tell the difference between a removable USB stick or an external hard drive. And I think there might be a way to classify a USB device as a USB floppy drive.
Anyone ever been down this road and had any success? It's annoying having to slipstream the drivers onto Win XP setup CDs.
Ah ok - this looks like the best method. My WinXP install CD is already Nlited with SP3. So the Mass Storage DriverPack should contain my AHCI drivers so I don't need to press F6 during XP setup? – batfastad – 2011-06-24T12:46:05.620
Yes, correct... – Moab – 2011-06-24T14:14:49.920
Went with the DriverPack in the end and just slipstreamed all the Mass Storage drivers so I should be covered for a wide range of systems now. Used RyanVM instead of nLite so now I have an up to date disc as well. RyanVM Integrator was much easier than nLite as well, I remember hating the last time I had to do this but it was pretty painless. Cheers for the tip! – batfastad – 2011-06-24T22:48:20.633