during the installation of XP, it says that there is no hard drive found.
i have heard its because i need to install SATA RAID drivers for the motherboard:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/0...-your-computer/

but i cant find the drivers for the motherboard online.
the motherboard is: springdale-g-6A79AD19C-00

can anyone help? is there a way around this?

Did you ever open the computer to try and determine the exact motherboard?

Noted in your thread here: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/USB-wont-wo...te-t186201.html

i opened it up, but its a compact case and i think i would probably need to take the whole thing a part to find any information. i found the intel chip model? intel fw82801eb

In general the mobo ID would be printed either near the RAM slots or the graphics card slot.

Is that any help?

these are some pictures from the one side..the only thing i see on the other side is a chip like thing that says winbond w83627hf-aw

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2625/405105...81b1d9369_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2431/405105...c5da4c4d5_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3510/405105...05fa517d8_o.jpg

The ID would be printed on the blue board and not on any raised or black chip.

You're looking in the right place. Anything printed on the blue board?

hmm theres this FC symbol thing, then CF-EG65?

That appears to be it.

http://www.google.com/search?q=CF-EG65&...lient=firefox-a

I will try and search for drivers. Will post back in a bit.

Nothing on the easy side.

You might try and email the manufacturer with your info and issue.

Wouldn't hurt to try:

http://www.chyangfun.com/contact.asp

I will keep looking as well.

thanks, will do.

can you think of anyway around the problem if i cant find the drivers?
installing XP on the hard drive in another machine? i have no idea how hardware works.

You need to install XP on the mobo that will run it.

If Setup does not see your SATA drive you need drivers.

We could try and find Intel drivers etc.

You could also install onto an ATA drive with no issue and use your SATA drive as your main storage drive.

that sounds a lot easier. whats the difference between ata and sata? do you think it would for sure work?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000O9T5IA/ref=as...ASIN=B000O9T5IA
something like that one?

ATA was the hard drive "type" when XP was developed. SATA I then SATA II were developed afterwords. Hence the XP Setup does not "see" SATA drives without a motherboard driver inserted at the F6 prompt of the Setup.

SATA connections are thin cables and you should see them going into your drive.

ATA connections are the old wide ribbon connections as you probably see going into your CD or DVD drive.

As far as I can see that board has two ATA ports. Again look at where the CD/DVD is plugged into the board and there should be two of these ATA ports.

The drive you list from Amazon is a good price as well.

ah i see. would my problem be fixed then if i tried to install vista or windows 7 instead?

As for the driver issue yes it would.

Unless you have a spare copy of Vista I would definitely recommend 7.

The only question here is whether or not your current hardware will support 7.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Or:

Windows 7 system requirements