xp w/ 500gb hd install issues

I'm putting together a new computer and I've got a seagate barracude 7200.11 500gb hd, which according to the diagnostics i've been able to run is working fine and being detected. At the moment I have it set up as a 50gb C: for my OS and such for quick and easy formatting, and a 450gb D: for my data.

I've been trying to install a copy of windows XP (w/ SP2), and it keeps giving me the 0x0000007b stop and shutting down. From what I've read I probably need to supply the windows setup program with the SATA/RAID drivers, which I have downloaded.

Problem is that I don't have a floppy drive, so I have no way of using them. I can't put them on a CD or DVD, or another drive partition - it just requests a floppy disk and then dies when it realizes I have no floppy drive installed. It's absolutely infuriating.

Does anybody have a suggestion here, short of going out and trying to buy a floppy drive (if i can even find one), because I'm almost ready to say fuck it and try to get Vista on instead. And I really don't want to use Vista, nor do I know if it will even install either.

there's a way to modify your windows install cd to include the drivers on there. it requires copying all of the CD onto your computer, inserting the drivers into the installation, and then reburning the CD (you have to make it bootable also) back onto a CDR, and then booting off that.

i've never done it before though because i've always had a floppy drive for all my computers.

It's called Slipstreaming. And you'll need a program like nLite (http://icrontic.com/articles/slipstreaming_windows_eas y) to do it.

It looks complicated, it's really not, and you really only need to do it once, make a copy or two of your new OS disc and never look back.

Thanks, I ended up taking the lazy/time saving route and tossing Vista on for a week or two so I can make sure all my hardware is working, but I'm going to set up an XP disk for sure with that when I have some free time.

That's actually amazingly helpful, thanks again both of you.

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