DRIVER NEEDED: Hewlett Packard (HP) Compac nc4400 (Windows XP Professional)

[doc9872]

Sorry if this is a basic question - I'm new to this and have read as much as I can to get up to date. My wife has an HP Compac nc4400 laptop with Intel Centrino Duo which had been running Windows 2000 on it. The hard drive was corrupted and could not be salvaged. I purchased a replacement SATA drive (Western Digital Scorpio 160GB, 8 MB Cache) and would like to slipstream Windows XP Pro SP2 onto it. I have the Windows install disc and will get nLite, etc. I am trying to figure out what drivers I need. On the HP site I have an option to download the Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver (as well as a number of others). Is this what I am looking for? Is there something specific for the hard drive? Everything (the hard drive, the PC) is stamped saying XP compatible, but I can't load XP so I want to try this before giving up. Thanks.

Support Information:
Device Type: Hard Disk Controller
Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard (HP)
Model: Compac nc4400
Interface: Other
Operating System: Windows XP Professional
Age of Device: Not specified
FCCID:

Find it on DriverGuide | Find it with Google | Research manufacturer Hewlett Packard (HP)

[Jerry K]

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't start providing SATA drivers until SP3 came along. The technology didn't exist when the original Windows XP was born so no SATA support on the original disk. What SATA drivers your machine requires depends on what SATA controller it has. And unless your machine has a floppy drive, you cannot install a SATA driver using the F6 key so the only option is to integrate the SATA driver on the nLite created disk.... or to simply download a Windows XP version with SP3 already integrated. Legality might be an issue but if you already own a registered version, I doubt you'd come under much fire for downloading a copy.

These links are for hundreds of new universal drivers for Windows XP (including SATA drivers):

13 files @ 95.7 MB. & 1 file @ 50.4 MB.
http://rapidshare.com/files/135723733/Universal_Driver_Pack.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135726928/Universal_Driver_Pack.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135747261/Universal_Driver_Pack.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135751356/Universal_Driver_Pack.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135757516/Universal_Driver_Pack.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135835023/Universal_Driver_Pack.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135842818/Universal_Driver_Pack.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135851357/Universal_Driver_Pack.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135858369/Universal_Driver_Pack.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135872955/Universal_Driver_Pack.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135878023/Universal_Driver_Pack.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135882890/Universal_Driver_Pack.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135887586/Universal_Driver_Pack.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135892355/Universal_Driver_Pack.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135897223/Universal_Driver_Pack.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135902241/Universal_Driver_Pack.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/135902283/Universal_Driver_Pack.part17.rar
burning this to disk requires a dvd burner and blank dvd disk

and this link will get you to a site where you can find links for the OS with SP3 already integrated: (all you need to do is simply download, unrar, and burn the disk
from the resultant ISO file) look in the Windows OS forum for the December 2008 SP3 version. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes to complete.

www.thehotzone.org

nice clean site with no spyware or other nasties. SATA drivers are installed automatically during installation of the os... works nicely. You can even input your own cd key if you wish to.

[doc9872]

Thanks - that seems much easier than the slipstream option. I just have to find a computer with a DVD burner on it that I can use. Do I download all of the files from rapidshare? Thanks.

[Jerry K]

Only if you want the 25,000 drivers disk it offers. The other option is to visit the site I mentioned and simply download the OS with SP3 already integrated. Then burn it to disk and you won't have to integrate your own SATA drivers onto a disk.
You can download and create the universal driver disk and use it during XP installation. It will allow you to choose which SATA driver you want to installed but you must know which one is to be used.

[doc9872]

Downloaded XP with SP3, created the iso file and burned it using UltraISO at the lowest speed possible. Disc created successfully, but during windows setup I get a blue screen saying that no hard drive is installed. What did I do wrong?

[Jerry K]

Did you dl the one dated December 2008? If so, it should have had the SATA drivers on the disk. If it doesn't then you should try to figure out which SATA controller the system has and download the appropriate driver for it. Or dl the Universal driver disk from links and use it when SATA driver is required. You may even have to integrate the SATA driver onto your own custom disk created with nLite.

Note: I used that same XP SP3 on my Dell Dimension and it loaded the SATA driver just fine. Mine's Intel and uses iastor.sys driver from Intel. If you wish to try the same driver, you can use our advanced search feature and type iastor.sys and it will locate the thread where it's posted.

try these 2 threads:
http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=25681

http://forums.driverguide.com/showthread.php?t=40275