Prompt for SCSI driver installing Windows XP - No Floppy

Software & Apps
#1

I’m trying no install Windows XP Pro on a system that has no floppy drive in it. I want to install to a partition which is on RAID 10 set (striped & mirrored). During the Windows install I need to press F6 to specify an additional driver for the RAID Controller (an adaptec 1200a - sits in a PCI slot) – the install then asks me to insert the driver disk into drive A – problem is that I don’t have a drive A…
A similar thread in this forum suggested connecting the hdd directly to the mobo - I can’t as I’m installing to 4 physical drives not one.

Any ideas on a work around ?
:confused:

#2

Hi there Ziggy, be welcome!

I’m not sure about this, but it could be that perhaps by faking a floppy drive, you could install this SCSI driver. What you should do, is make a dos-bootable CD with the subst command on it (comes with Windows as well). Put the SCSI driver on that CD and boot from the disc. Once you’re at the DOS prompt, type “subst a: cdrom:\folderofthescsidriver” You’ll notice that a drive a now exists, with the contents of the SCSI driver. Then go to your Windows install CD and run setup (from the dir i386, run winnt32.exe).

One good tip: when running Windows install from Dos, you really should load smartdrv first. I believe smartdrv is on the Windows 2k/XP installation CD, but I’m not too sure about this. If not, the 98 setup disc (cd or floppy) can help you out for sure…

I hope I helped you out a little. If not, feel free to report back. I’m quite anxious to know wether my suggestion works or not… :slight_smile: