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When I install Windows XP on an SATA hard disk drive and then reboot, the setup program asks me if I want to begin the setup all over again

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Problem

I am trying to install Windows XP on an SATA hard disk drive. When I insert the Windows XP CD in the CD/DVD drive, the setup program works just fine. The install program recognises my SATA drive and starts installing the system. Then I have to reboot. Unfortunately, rebooting results in going back to XP's install menu that gives me the option to begin the process all over again. It appears that the BIOS doesn't try to boot from the SATA drive. Having no experience whatsoever of SATA hard drives (I have hitherto only had IDE hard drives), I don't have a clue about what I should do to fix the problem.

Answer

You must have formatted the drive from the Windows XP installation CD, because you wouldn't have been able to install Windows XP if that wasn't the case. You might also have partitioned the drive.

Click here! to go to the information on this site on how to install an SATA hard disk drive. Windows XP requires the drivers to be installed at startup. It asks you to press the F6 key and then insert a floppy disk containing the drivers, which you would obtain from the drive-manufacturer's website if you don't have them. If your desktop PC or laptop doesn't have a floppy disk drive, which most don't, here is how to create an updated Windows XP installation disc that provides the SATA drives:

Install Windows XP on SATA without a Floppy (F6) -

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Windows Vista and Windows 7 both have SATA drivers in their driver library, so doing that in not required. Windows Vista and Windows 7 detect an SATA drive and install the drivers automatically.

You should have the boot sequence in the BIOS set to boot from an SATA hard drive. If your PC has a fairly recent motherboard, the setting for that must be there because it will have SATA connectors. For older motherboards that only have two IDE connectors (Primary and Secondary) for IDE (PATA) hard drives and don't have SATA connectors, you would have the SATA drive installed on an SATA PCI or PCI Express x1 controller card. If that is the case, there should be a setting in the BIOS called something like Boot from an SCSI controller. An SCSI controller for SCSI drives works in a similar way to an IDE or SATA adapter card. Enabling that setting should enable the system to boot from the SATA drive instead of from the motherboard's IDE controller to which there is no IDE hard disk drive installed.

You only have one SATA hard drive installed. The SATA (IDE) RAID feature (that controls two or more hard drives in a RAID array of drives), may be enabled in the BIOS as a default setting, so, start the computer up and enter the BIOS setup program (usually by pressing the Del key after the memory count), and make sure that the RAID feature is disabled.

For some reason, some motherboard manufacturers are under the impression that nobody installs only one SATA hard drive and therefore set the BIOS up for multiple drives by default, thereby making it impossible for a system with only one drive to function without changing that setting.