Installing Win XP x64 Pro in AHCI mode on Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3

Solved or rather a workaround
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for the current issue i believe i am able to get the right intel drivers into the system thru many different ways, but some how the bios or MB itself is refusing to boot thru intel sata port for win xp in ahci mode. and i don't want to return this board and wait for a replacement just for this issue. for now i decided to use the marvell sata port for my primary disk. i was able to get win xp running fine in AHCI mode thru that port and the intel ports are also working fine in AHCI mode with this setup.. only issue is my win xp disk cannot be connected to the intel SATA ports..

thanks to "flea' for his suggestion which helped me in finally setting up xp with marvell sata ports.
thanks to others also who chipped in with their suggestions.. you all are simply great!! repped..

actually with SD i am getting more help with my technical issues rather than with any other tech elated boards.. surprising!! :-)

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I recently build a new desktop and I am having issues installing Wndows XP x64 Professional SP2 in AHCI mode. I have already installed Windows 7 in AHCI mode and it has been working fine for a while now. I have deleted the Win 7 partition and installing XP to that space, so its like installing Win XP to a new harddisk. Would appreciate if you can help me with this issue.. thanks!!

Issue:
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This is what happens if I select the AHCI option in BIOS and try installing Win XP Professional Sp2 x64 : The setup will continue fine till the first reboot. And on reboot it goes past the bios screen, then shows the message that the operating system is being loaded and after that just shows a blank screen. So then I cannot proceed with the install.

I had downloaded the pre-install drivers from Gigabyte website (And also tried the intel website for their latest drivers) and then slip-streaming it to the Win XP installation CD. These are the drivers that I tried (LINK [giga-byte.com]) :

1) GIGABYTE SATA2 Preinstall driver (For AHCI / RAID Mode)
2) Marvell RAID Preinstall Driver (SATA3) for AHCI Mode
3) Intel SATA RAID Preinstall driver (For AHCI / RAID Mode)

If I am not using these drivers then the installation will give me a BSOD as expected. (actual if the intel one is missing, the others are not really needed).

Oh btw there is no issue in installing the OS using the same CD with SATA in IDE mode. If I change the settings in BIOS to used IDE mode then with the same install CD I am able to install the OS without any issues.

Appreciate if any of you can help me with this. All the settings in BIOS are default except for the "PCH SATA CONTROL MODE" and "GSATA CTRL MODE". Both of these comes under "INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS" section in BIOS and I have set these to AHCI instead of IDE.

The install CD that I am using is from TechNet and its genuine. The only change that I have done is to slipstream SP2 into it and also the AHCI drivers for my motherboard. I am using nLite for slipstreaming

Here are the specs of my system (Bios version for the motherboard is F5 which is the latest one) :

1) Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (Link [newegg.com])

2) Processor - Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor (Link [newegg.com])

3) Memory - OCZ Platinum 2 x 2GB DDR3 OCZ3P1333LV4GK 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory (Link [newegg.com])

4) Video Card - ASUS EAH4350 Radeon HD 4350 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card (Link [newegg.com])

5) Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB Hard Drive (Link [newegg.com])

6) DVD Burner - LG GH24NS50 24X SATA Black DVD Burner (Link [newegg.com])

7) Card Reader - Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader (Link [newegg.com])

8) IR Receiver - Antec Multimedia Station Premier Deluxe IR Receiver and Remote (Link [antec.com])

9) Power Supply - CORSAIR CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 Modular Active PFC Power Supply (Link [newegg.com])

Change to AHCI after installing in IDE mode:

Try this guide. [wordpress.com]

Note, you will need to extract the SATA driver files for your chipset first. If they come in an exe file that starts a program when you click it, you'll need to go to the command prompt to extract the files without running the installer.

(Supposing your driver file is 'drivers.exe'

Start a command prompt, navigate to the directory of the drivers.exe file, and run the command: drivers.exe -a

This will cause the driver files to by extracted in the current directory. Use the above guide to navigate to the driver file you need (probably an 'inf' file).

Once installed, Reboot, go to Bios, change to AHCI, and it should work.

Connect HDD to Intel SATA
Goto bios, Set the Intel SATA to IDE mode.
Install XP64.
In Windows, Install drivers for Marvell SATA controller.
Shut down.
move HDD to Marvell SATA
Boot to Windows. Ensure it works.
Reboot and go to BIOS and change Intel IDE to ACHI.
Boot to Windows. Install Intel AHCI drivers.
Shut down, move HDD to Intel SATA.
Boot to Windows

Quote from hbarnwheeler : Change to AHCI after installing in IDE mode: Try this guide. [wordpress.com] Note, you will need to extract the SATA driver files for your chipset first. If they come in an exe file that starts a program when you click it, you'll need to go to the command prompt to extract the files without running the installer. (Supposing your driver file is 'drivers.exe' Start a command prompt, navigate to the directory of the drivers.exe file, and run the command: drivers.exe -a This will cause the driver files to by extracted in the current directory. Use the above guide to navigate to the driver file you need (probably an 'inf' file). Once installed, Reboot, go to Bios, change to AHCI, and it should work.

i tried this already.. no luck.. i was getting BSOD when i try to even install the AHCI drivers. the intel ones.. i also tried doing it thru safe mode and again BSOD..

Quote from flea : Connect HDD to Intel SATA Goto bios, Set the Intel SATA to IDE mode. Install XP64. In Windows, Install drivers for Marvell SATA controller. Shut down. move HDD to Marvell SATA Boot to Windows. Ensure it works. Reboot and go to BIOS and change Intel IDE to ACHI. Boot to Windows. Install Intel AHCI drivers. Shut down, move HDD to Intel SATA. Boot to Windows

wow.. this looks interesting.. will try out and let you know.

when you say move to the Marvell SATA controllers you mean to connect to the SATA 3.0 ports right?

Quote from flea : Connect HDD to Intel SATA Goto bios, Set the Intel SATA to IDE mode. Install XP64. In Windows, Install drivers for Marvell SATA controller. Shut down. move HDD to Marvell SATA Boot to Windows. Ensure it works. Reboot and go to BIOS and change Intel IDE to ACHI. Boot to Windows. Install Intel AHCI drivers. Shut down, move HDD to Intel SATA. Boot to Windows

tried this.. i followed this fully word by word.. but after the final reboot it shows me a blank screen and sits there.. :-(

anyways i decided to connect my primary harddisk in the marvell sata slots. that way i can get AHCI to work in win xp.. interesting part is that the the other drives connected to intel sata ports works just fine.. :-)

i guess this is motherboard model specific or bios specific issue, hopefully Gigabyte will fix them soon enough. i do consider myself as pretty good with all kind of windows installation and to be frank i have never spend this much time for any installation.. i have been trying all sort of things for the past week..

hey once again thanks for the idea.. it helped one way or the other.. :-)

You can try this utility
http://www.911cd.net/forums//inde...22523&st=0
It should be easier since you already have the drivers installed. It basically changes the critical device record in registry for you. Before that, to accomplish the same ask I remember I had to boot in Bart and edit the registry manually. This program makes it much easier.

Quote from mail2vrp : tried this.. i followed this fully word by word.. but after the final reboot it shows me a blank screen and sits there.. :-( anyways i decided to connect my primary harddisk in the marvell sata slots. that way i can get AHCI to work in win xp.. interesting part is that the the other drives connected to intel sata ports works just fine.. :-) i guess this is motherboard model specific or bios specific issue, hopefully Gigabyte will fix them soon enough. i do consider myself as pretty good with all kind of windows installation and to be frank i have never spend this much time for any installation.. i have been trying all sort of things for the past week.. hey once again thanks for the idea.. it helped one way or the other.. :-)

Glad it helped. Not sure why it wouldn't let you boot to the hdd.
FYI, my method (usually) works for transferring a Windows installation from one PC to another PC if you have a mass storage controller like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...-_-Product

The steps would be the same except you'd be installing drivers for the controller card in the old machine and then installing both the controller card and the hdd to the new machine.

Quote from flea : Glad it helped. Not sure why it wouldn't let you boot to the hdd. FYI, my method (usually) works for transferring a Windows installation from one PC to another PC if you have a mass storage controller like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...-_-Product The steps would be the same except you'd be installing drivers for the controller card in the old machine and then installing both the controller card and the hdd to the new machine.

wow.. you can do that to transfer win xp install from one pc to another? i thought when transferring a win xp installation u wud have to run the repair option under win xp install since the basic system have changed. is it not the case?

the issue that i have is very weird. i am pretty much sure what ever different methods i tried all resulted in putting the right drivers into the system, but some how it just refuses to boot to intel ahci.

Quote from bil : You can try this utility http://www.911cd.net/forums//inde...22523&st=0 It should be easier since you already have the drivers installed. It basically changes the critical device record in registry for you. Before that, to accomplish the same ask I remember I had to boot in Bart and edit the registry manually. This program makes it much easier.

i will save this for my warchest.. it will definitely come in handy when my OS installation have any problems.. :-)

for the current issue i believe i am able to get the right intel drivers into the system thru many different ways, but some how the bios or MB itself is refusing to boot thru intel sata port for win xp in ahci mode. and i don't want to return this board and wait for a replacement just for this issue. for now i decided to use the marvell sata port for my primary disk. i was able to get win xp running fine in AHCI mode thru that port and the intel ports are also working fine in AHCI mode with this setup.. only issue is my win xp disk cannot be connected to the intel SATA ports..

Quote from mail2vrp : wow.. you can do that to transfer win xp install from one pc to another? i thought when transferring a win xp installation u wud have to run the repair option under win xp install since the basic system have changed. is it not the case? the issue that i have is very weird. i am pretty much sure what ever different methods i tried all resulted in putting the right drivers into the system, but some how it just refuses to boot to intel ahci.

You'll still run into the Windows activation issue, but otherwise, it should work. The reason that Windows won't boot when you move the HDD to a new computer is because it can't load mass storage drivers for the new motherboard prior to the GUI which is bluescreen 0x0000007B [microsoft.com]. When you run a repair, you'll need to load drivers in text mode. Once it's loaded, Windows setup can access the hdd.
I would use this method to transfer people's OS installation to a new PC. Once Windows boots on the new PC, Windows will install additional drivers such as usb, generic vga, processor drivers, etc.

I'm not sure why it doesn't work in your situation, but XP64 support sucks. You might want to try an older/newer driver.