I did all the prep work (setup partitions, disk image backup) and was following instructions posted by William Wilson dated 04-18-2007 about dual boot setup.
When it came time to actually install XP onto partitioned drive, setup told me it couldn't find any hard drive. Dead in water.
System boots fine in Vista (both before and after this attempt).
Have Dell 1525 laptop w/ Intel Core2 duo cpu
250 Gb SATA hard drive
Vista SP1

How to get XP install procedure to recognize presence of hard drive?

This has been answered a lot of times. You are using a SATA harddrive and must install the drivers for the SATA controller during the set-up by pressing F6

You will have to get the drivers from the motherboard driver cd or from the manufacurer's website. There are certain proceedures that have to be followed in setting up the media that you will need to use for your specific computer....ie. floppy disk or CD. These instructions are also on the mobo driver CD or at the maunufacturers website

I got the instructions for loading SATA drivers to help install XP onto Dell 1525, but the Dell website refers to a "FastTrak Driver diskette" which I can find no trace of anywhere on the website.
They even tell me that my warranty for chat support has expired even though I only purchased this thing 9-25-2008,
so I am unable to get info regarding this item.
It has to be this diskette, as loading the SATA driver straight onto a 3.5" floppy does no good.
Any idea how to track down the FastTrak driver diskette?

Ed

From what I have seen and read on various websites, that FastTrak driver refers to RAID setups, something that you will not be doing on a laptop...

Need to know exactly what model computer you are using.

Exact model of computer is Dell Inspiron 1525
Uses Intel Core 2 Duo cpu
Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A13

I went to Intel.com and TRIED to figure out where to go to find download (went to download link) and I have no idea what to search for to locate the necessary files for my purpose. Tried several Search engine queries all of which came up with "Nothing found for your search".

Where do I go, what do I type when I get there?

I know what I have to do when I get the RAID driver downloads, I simply cannot FIND them!

You can look through this list from the Promise FastTrak driver site...

http://www.promise.com/support/downl...0&productId=88

Check your BIOS and see if there is a setting for the SATA controller in there. Your system might be a BIOS controlled harddrive controller where the setting is changed in the BIOS and it will auto boot to the right controller

RAID set ups must use at least 2 seperate harddrives....stay away for this configuration.

This is what I found for the model you gave and for using windows XP

Drivers & Downloads

There is a SATA driver and it has specific installation proceedures but only after it has been installed from what I read....Dell might be using a generic download/install note for covering all driver downloads....you might try it and do the set up and see if this is what you are needing.

Ususally a program called "Make Disc" is used to set up the correct media(floppy disc or cd) for installing SATA and/or RAID controllers during the F6 installation method.

I think that you are going to have to take a look at the BIOS and make a determination!

I ran across a description of the 2 possible methods for the workaround I need, the first of which was the BIOS setting change to IDE. My BIOS only allows me to change the SATA to either ATA or AHCI.
It looks like I can only go the way of the Media disk controller driver to circumvent my problem.

Any other specs I can give you I am only too happy. I'm certainly grateful for your attention to this dilemma.

Ed

Lurkswithin,

I appreciate the help you've given me so far, but I need a little assitance getting to the drivers that everyone tells me are located at the intel.com website. If you could provide a link and a suggestion as to what to ask for when I get there, I would be grateful. You also alluded to a 2 hard drive approach, or something of that nature. I have additional external drives, USB floppy drives and other means to "Fast track" the necessary drivers once I can access the files.
I await your input.

Ed