Not after reading the warning in the link please don't try this at home sic :)

Time for an update.

Tried everything a home user would have available and couldn't get the Dell windows XP disk that came with the computer to recognize any hardrive. Forget about creating a cobbled up disk by streaming in SATA drivers as that is way beyond a home user's knowledge.

Tried downloading Nvidia drivers (including SATA) on another computer and putting them on a flashdrive. The BIOS recognizes the flashdrive but the XP installation had no way of recognizing how to load them. Finally downloaded a clean Dell XP SP2 installation off the internet using Limewire and presto XP was installed.:ok:

Leftover problem was that the new windows system didn't have internet (wrong or missing drivers on the Dell driver disk) Used another computer to download the proper drivers and solved that problem. At least you can install needed drivers once you get Windows running.

I don't know what is wrong with the original Dell installation disk but I suspect that Dell may package these with different drivers for different Dell models and the one I initially tried using didn't turn on my SATA drives for loading (in spite of the fact that they show up in the BIOS)

You probably shouldn't advertise the fact you downloaded a crack XP copy :}

Naughty boy :=

:oh:

Just because it is beyond your knowledge doesn't mean it's beyond a "home user's" ability. Don't make such sweeping generalities based purely on your own inadequacies.

FBW

It's not a sweeping statement it's an expert opinion.

I'm an expert at being inadequate

I had this same problem a few years back with a new home build that did not recognize the hard drive.
What I did was download the driver that came with the motherboard on a flopy.
Had to put a flopy drive in the computer to do this.
You should be able to do the same with flash memory to install in the screen with the bios.

Been a while so anyone feel free to correct me.
On the start of installation of the operating system it will ask you to install sata drivers.
Once this is done your system will recognize the drive and things will progress normally.
This was with XP, not sure about vista as it may have this already in it.
I am not very computer smart but if I can do it anyone can.
But I will agree Vista should be left alone and trashed.
I bought WDTV from Best buy and the DVD converter has so many problems running Vista, on XP it runs perfect.
As many other items, when you call microsoft about this they blame the manufacturers for not keeping up with the new operating systems and you speak with someone from India with English that is almost impossible to understand.
Yet they think they can solve the problem, ha ha, which they dont have a clue, found most of my issues were solved by google search and people posting the way to correct it.

Agree, but since I have no floppy and only a flash drive and a CD drive access, the question was how do you tell the system setup to access the flash drive rather than drive "A" that it expects?

From what I could discern the computer at that point is entirely dependant on the command structure running via the setup disk which points only to the "A" drive as an alternate.

inadequate

Dual Boot
 

Just curious, is the Dell XP CD you received from ebay seller original?

How about just Dual Booting from Vista or XP. Just Enter vista normally and install your XP on your new Drive (1TB). Then throw vista harddisk after that.

What drive is your 'A'? It could be a flash drive also. Haven't heard of any newly shipped system at the moment that has still floppy drive.

A caution on C-N's suggestion - check with MS Knowledge base/Google, but I believe you MUST install Win OS's in 'chronological order', ie XP before Vista for multi-boot systems? Certainly applied with 95/98/2000/XP

May be the long way around this problem, but will work.
Find a old computer and remove the floppy drive and cable, a computer repair shop may even give you this at no charge.
Attach the cable and power supply to the mother board.
After you install the driver and operating system you can remove the floppy drive.
This provided your mother board supports a floppy drive, not sure if the new ones still has the socket.

Yes the E-bay seller's disk was still in the sealed Dell packet with all the logos on the disk

Dual booting was considered but I didn't want to have a single disk and then a crash, mostly because if I had to return the machine it would no longer be in original condition.

Yes I did consider ripping an "A" drive out of another computer but the kids were stating to get wise to this and wouldn't let me near their computers.

Then again it's the principal of the issue. Neither MS nor Dell should have been the root cause of the problem.

inadequate