Satellite Laptops :: A-Series models

[mdel747]

hi guys / gals 

 I'm going to upgrade my A105-S4211  , every thing has always run very good on this lappy ,

 but now im going to upgrade it to a SATA 500gb HD and install XP-pro  ,  instead of xp-home

 is there any thing i should do  before i install  the new HD  , and is there drivers or any thing i should get before installing  the XP-pro  onto this lappy ,

 I will be putting my 80gb hard drive in a usb enclosure  so i should have access to  it ,

 any recommendations on pre installs  before i get started  ?

 thanks  mdel747

[cee_64]

I would download the drivers from the support site so that you can install the latest ones. 

You'll also need to modify your XP install disk.  Since XP doesn't have native SATA support and your laptop doesn't have a floppy drive to install them via the F6 method it can't install to a SATA drive without having the SATA drivers integrated into the install disk.  See this guide for accomplishing this task.  I recommend using the drivers that they link to in the guide. You also need to make sure the XP install disk is at least at Service Pack 1 level or higher.  If your's isn't you can integrate the SP while you integrate the SATA drivers.

[mdel747]

the xp pro sp2  new sealed .

i have some of the drivers  on a pen drive    i will read the link you sent    thank you  i will let you know how she turns out , im installing the  old hd into the external case so i will have  other options  if it all fails for some reason ,

 are you sure on xp not supporting  sata drives , i have xp home on mine now and i have a sata in it ,

[cee_64]

Not on retail versions of XP.  If you purchased a OEM computer from Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc. they will often times integrate the necessary SATA drivers onto the XP disk.  You'll know if they aren't when you try to install as it will go to a BSOD fairly quickly into the install, well before the first reboot.

[mdel747]

ok thank you 

 i have the page bookmarked  in case i need it ,   the disk i believe is for system builders  ,

 but it dose make sense  on the acer  we are trying to load up with a OS  ,

 i still have to waite until the hd gets here  its in the snail mail  as we speek

[cee_64]

If it's a standard OEM disk it probably doesn't have them as they would use the F6 floppy drive method to install them.  Unfortunately modern laptops don't have floppy drives any longer so that doesn't work which is where integrating the drivers comes in. 

Good luck and let us know if you run into any more snags.  We'll do what we can to get you though this.

[a105user]

Umm...

Not sure what kind of systems you people are installing XP on (home or pro), but of the hundreds - thousands of systems I've built at work, I've NEVER had to install drivers for the SATA controller at install!?

...With a few rare exceptions being aftermarket controllers / raid controllers in desktops, or if I was setting up a raid config at install - but never for just a standard install?!

BTW, most OEMs (like toshiba) stop updating drivers on older products (EOL products). I'd d/l the utilities if you want them like toshiba's power save profiles or connectivity doctor for example. However, I would definatly check in device manager which exact versions of products you have (chipset, wifi, video, etc) and try to find them from their manufacturers instead. More times than not you'll find newer updates on their sites!

[cee_64]

We aren't talking desktops here.  I've installed XP on thousands of systems with a SATA controller as well.  On laptops the SATA controller is set to SATA mode and XP WILL NOT install if you don't either change the bios setting to Compatability or IDE mode or by integrating the SATA drivers into the install disk.  Desktop motherboards on the other hand tend to come with the bios set to IDE or Compatability Mode by default so one doesn't need to do this. 

I wouldn't even have brought it up if I didn't know for a fact that this will be an issue on a laptop.