Hi,

I have an old Dell 1501 laptop with a SATA HDD in it. Seeings it has no real use anymore I was gonna bung a copy of windows server edition on it. I was origianlly gonna use 2003 as it should be less demanding resource wise. However, google tells me that it doesn't support SATA without drivers (I have no floppy drives). However, the machine came with XP installed which doesn't do SATA either the be best of my knowledge. So howcome XP installed? Would Dell have inserted the drivers into the installation CD?

And secondly, would I be better off going with 2008 and not worrying about drivers, or faffing about to get 2003 to work?

Thanks in advance,

Joe.

Would Dell have inserted the drivers into the installation CD?

Joe.

Correct. not sure about your other Q's though sorry

Why not try Linux on it?

Cheers fatty.

I've tried Linux and got it on my current machine, but wanna try something new, plus it will be useful to get a basic understanding of Windows server for my uni course.

Joe

Whack Linux on it and Virtualbox, then run whatever you like on it.

Hi,

I have an old Dell 1501 laptop with a SATA HDD in it. Seeings it has no real use anymore I was gonna bung a copy of windows server edition on it. I was origianlly gonna use 2003 as it should be less demanding resource wise. However, google tells me that it doesn't support SATA without drivers (I have no floppy drives). However, the machine came with XP installed which doesn't do SATA either the be best of my knowledge. So howcome XP installed? Would Dell have inserted the drivers into the installation CD?

And secondly, would I be better off going with 2008 and not worrying about drivers, or faffing about to get 2003 to work?

Thanks in advance,

Joe.

when you put the xp cd in and proceed with a new install you will see at the bottom of the screen press f6 i think for third party devices ie your sata driver if it is on the recovery cd you will have to insert that and ito will install the sata driver so windows will then recognize your sata drive if not download the sata driver and put it on a cd or usb stick and browse to one of these...hope this helps

Use nLite to add any extra drivers such as the SATA ones onto a windows cd and then install from that.

Cheers all. I have no issues with the XP disk as it came pre-configured for SATA, but I guess the principle will be the same.

And cheers Dr. Z, will give it a go after the New Year.