I wonder why you think that third party SATA drivers will be required to install
XP.

My experience with SATA drives is that you ONLY need a third-party driver if you
plan on using RAID.  Installing them will not improve disk access, anyway.

I've never been required to install such a third-party SATA drive, since I do
not use RAID, having only a single internal HD.  I really doubt that you will
ever need to use RAID on your laptop.  Consider: Creating a RAID array on a
single drive is kind of redundant, don't you think?  

After all, the purpose of such arrays is to be able to COMBINE them into a
SINGLE LARGER LOGICAL volume, which you would already have anyway, if you only
have a single HD with a single partition in your laptop.  Dividing a HD into 2
or more logical volumes will only take away from the total free space,since
there is an additional overhead for each volume added.  It is only wise to use a
SATA driver IF you have MORE than a single physical volume, and you plan on
creating a RAID array for them.  

Currently, XP SP3 Release Candidate 2 does not require a floppy(or any need to
install a RAID driver) for installation, since it is installed via Windows
Update.  I am sure there will eventually be a link to a standalone version of
the Service Pack, in which case, a third-party RAID driver on a floppy (or
CD/DVD, or USB Flash drive, if your motherboard supports it, or an external USB
or Firewire drive) will ONLY be necessary if you plan on using RAID on your
laptop.

For your general information, Windows no longer requires a floppy for
installation in any case, since USB, CD/DVD, or other block devices work just as
well.

If you must have a RAID driver, put it on a CD, and have it in the drive when
you start the installation.  However, I've never had to install a HD driver when
applying a Service Pack, so your perceived problem is a new one for me.
NOrmally, Service Packs are applied to installations of Windows which already
have such necessary drivers installed, since they are usually installed, if
needed, when Windows is initially installed.

Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread.
======================================

SP3 is still in test. I wouldn't install it til it's an official non-test release.
Use SP2.
Mike

I'm hoping this is on a non-critical PC....

Check with the newsgroups of the notebook's manufacturer. You can bypass
this issue temporarily with some manufacturers [Dell & HP at least] by going
into the BIOS and making a change in some type of emulation [may not be the
right word] for some laptops.

Note that if you slipstreamed SP3 RC2 into the install, you can't remove SP3
RC2. When SP3 goes RTM you may not be able to install SP3.

You are better off installing Win XP with SP2 slipstreamed and then install
SP3 RC2 after. From here, you can remove SP3 RC2.