XP and a SATA drive on a Linux machine

mr_magoo

I thought I sent a PM to Thrax, but there's nothing in my "Sent" mail, so I'll just post here.

I have a Toshiba Qosmio X300 Series laptop and I'm in way over my head. It's a long, sad story, but I got this with the help of another disabled vet who cut his teeth on DOS and worked crypto in the Army. Now I'm up in the hills, miles from any help and I'm stuck. It had Vista installed. I worked with XP quite successfully for five years and Vista just bewildered me. I finally ditched it and installed Linux Mint. Now, Mint is nice, but it has about a jillion choices and it's just not familiar, though I've tried valiantly to get a handle on its workings.

I ain't no spring chicken anymore and the learning curve is just too great. I bought an XP Home OEM, then discovered that my SATA harddrive requires a driver for XP to install. I started on Thrax's excellent article and got stuck on step 1a, "Download and install Microsoft.NET framework 2.0 SP1." Downloading was no problem, but it wouldn't install because my OS doesn't recognize .exe files. I picked up CrossOver (commercial Wine) while mucking with Linux and I tried installing it with that, but an "error" was encountered (it's not listed as a supported program). I'm no expert with CrossOver, either, but I'm trying to get my XP back and seem to get stalled everytime I turn around. Any help out there? Oh yeah, plain English, please. I'm not too great at "geek speak."

Snarkasm

I'm assuming the article you're talking about is using nLite to slipstream the driver into your installation? If you have access to any other Windows machine, that's, unfortunately, your best bet. If not, I might recommend just doing it the normal, old-school way - download the driver you need and find/get a USB floppy drive, plop it on a disk, and load it manually using F6 when the XP installation asks if you need to load drivers.

What parts of that are challenges? We might be able to work around it. Let us know.

mr_magoo

Damn! It has to be a floppy, doesn't it? Tried the trick from an external harddrive and after being prompted to look for external storage, it specifically said it couldn't find a floppy drive. Well, off to search for a vendor.

Snarkasm

Yeah. They added USB support in Vista and 7, but XP still requires a floppy.

mr_magoo

OK, got one ordered.

ardichoke

The other option would be to go into the BIOS and see if you can change your SATA mode from AHCI to IDE (or standard, or whatever your system calls non-AHCI). Chances are if you turn off AHCI, Windows XP will install without needing the drivers.

mr_magoo

OK, I had the .NET framework downloaded, had the nlite, even went out of order and grabbed the SATA driver. Got my floppy drive today and went through the steps (except the "directory" part - I set up a tree in my home folder (Linux)). Got notice that it couldn't find the txtsetup.oem . Googled that, trying for a DL, but it's some structure I need to set up somewhere I guess and, obviously, that's a bit beyond my capability.

Oh, and as to changing the BIOS, I went into setup, but the BIOS setting and most of the settings on that page were skipped when I arrowed down.

Just reread your post snark. DL the driver onto the floppy. Got it.

mr_magoo

I loaded the Intel folder onto the floppy (it's the only one that would fit, anyway) and got the same result. I need a txtsetup.oem and I don't know how to go about getting one and putting it the right place on this infernal damned machine.

:banghead:

ardichoke

There's actually a specific set of drivers you will need for the pre-install process. If you go into the folder where you extracted the drivers and search for txtsetup.oem, it should (hopefully) lead you in the right direction. Some manufacturers actually have a utility that will create the floppy for you, some package the pre-install drivers separately from the full Windows drivers package. Might want to see if there's any documentation with the drivers you downloaded.

mr_magoo

Yep. Found it in the Intel folder I put on the floppy, version 8.3.1.1009. In that folder are these:

ihaaci.cat
ihaaci.inf
iastor.cat
iastor.inf
iaStor.sys
TXTSETUP.OEM

ardichoke

Those files should be at the root of the floppy disk drive. If they are in a folder Windows won't load them.... because the Windows installer is a little bit special.

mr_magoo

Assuming I understood what you posted correctly, ardichoke, I started with a clean floppy and placed all the files separately on it. Took a bit o' fiddle-fartin' to get 'em all on there. TXTSETUP.OEM is on there in big bold letters, but install still says it can't find it.

ardichoke

I'm at a loss then. Unless the Windows installer is case sensitive (which I doubt since everything else in Windows land is not case sensitive) in which case I would recommend renaming the file in all lower case letters.

mr_magoo

Close, so close. Dunno why it didn't work before, but this time it did. Unfortunately it still wouldn't install. Truncated version of advice: ck 4 viuses, remove new installed HD or HD controllers, ck HD make sure it's properly configured and terminated Run CHKDSK /F

Tech info: 0x000007B (0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Now what? Cant run CHKDSK w/o the OS. Did I maybe get some crap on it despite the Linux rep?

Thrax

Do you know how to enter the BIOS? If so, enter it and disable AHCI. You won't need drivers any more.

//EDIT: The option will look something like this http://www.hardwarezone.com.my/img/data/articles/2008/2754/7-sata-ahci%20mode.jpg

mr_magoo

The setup page skips past BIOS and most of the other entries when I arrow down. I think I might know what the problem was. When it asked which driver to install, I selected the one for a mobile SATA, but then it asked if I wanted to install the AHCI mobile driver as well. Why not? So, I tried to install 2 drivers. Lemme try this again.

mr_magoo

Well, that wasn't it. I'll look at da link.

mr_magoo

I hit F2, went through all the options and all the pages and the last one indicated whatever the settings were, they would be saved to CMOS. How do I get to that?

Well, I just looked through the file system for CMOS and three files came up, two empty and one with a few lines of Linux stuff. They're obviously not what I'm looking for.

Thrax

I don't understand what you mean.

mr_magoo

I just Googled it and since I have a newer computer, I need to push a certain key during boot to enter the CMOS menu. On one page, it indicated that for Toshiba, it was the ESC key. That brings up a splash page that lists some parameters that extend about halfway down the page, then it proceeds to the boot process. I looked as best I could on that splash page for a key combo, but couldn't find one.

Thrax

Just try spamming delete, f1, f2 and insert. One of those buttons will take you to a menu that looks almost exactly like what I posted. The colors might be different, though.

mr_magoo

I'm sorry Thrax. I don't speak geek-speak. How do I "spam" those keys? I tried all of them after and during boot. After boot, both the F keys brought up an Ubuntu help window. The only key that did anything during boot was F2, the settings key. Ill go through it once more to make sure.

Ryder

"Spam" = to press each key repeatedly before the screen changes. Line your fingers up on them and as soon as you see a logo, just press one after the other over and over.

If I am correct, with that Toshiba, you need F2 or F10 to enter the bios or "setup".

mr_magoo

Thanks.

mr_magoo

This is f**king hopeless, excuse my French. I'm blind as a bat, trying to see what I'm doing on this worthless black keyboard. It's getting late for me and I ain't finished packing. I'll put this in standby and pack it up last, maybe even in the morning (if I can get my old, sore ass out o' bed in the morning with all the damned drugs I take) and see if I can't get this OS in before the brick goes in the bag. I have Kapersky right here, ready to go in first thing.

Thrax

mr_magoo wrote:

I'm sorry Thrax. I don't speak geek-speak. How do I "spam" those keys? I tried all of them after and during boot. After boot, both the F keys brought up an Ubuntu help window. The only key that did anything during boot was F2, the settings key. Ill go through it once more to make sure.

If you have a digital camera, take a picture of that menu, and I can point you in the right direction.

mr_magoo

Just got back online today. Took this in to a private shop with one Linux expert besides the Windows techies and they couldn't do the swap. Thinkin' of just plunging for Windows 7 and giving that a try.

mr_magoo

My Windows 7 disk is supposed to be on the UPS truck today, but no one's rang my bell.