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I have been going crazy with (what I assume is) the SATA/XP problem.

I have a Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L and I am trying to do a clean install of XP Pro SP2 onto an IDE drive (install would reboot suddenly when trying to install onto a SATA hd). Gigabyte does NOT have the SATA/RAID drivers available for this particular board (can I use drivers from another board?).

SATA controller setting in BIOS is set to "Combined" as I cannot disable the SATA controller entirely because my CDROM is SATA (there is only one IDE connection on this board).  With this setting, I am now able to AT LEAST get through a complete installation and load the rest of my applications.

However, when I leave the computer running for a while (like when Carbonite is busy restoring my files) the computer will suddenly reboot and NONE of the options on the Safe Mode screen will get me back into Windows.  On occasion, the CHKDSK screen will appear before trying to boot into windows.

*** 

Because I have wasted soooo much time with this problem to no avail, I am now seriously considering switching to Vista to bypass the SATA driver issue.

Will installing Vista Business instead of XP help me avoid this problem? 

I was also thinking of disabling the SATA controller and installing XP from an external USB CDROM...which would be a cheaper solution...will this work?

yes, to install vista will avoid this problem. if you don't like vista, maybe you can download sata driver in intel.com(i guess) or HDD manufacturere and obtain the drivers. 

i don't think it is a good idea to disable sata controller.

I can use an Intel driver?  I don't have to use a Gigabyte driver? 

Gigabyte offers SATA/RAID drivers for some of their other mobo's, but for some reason they do not have them available for download for my mobo (GA-G31M-S2L).

 If anybody happens to know of a SATA/RAID driver that will work, please post a link. Thanks!

In the meantime, I will go pickup a copy of Vista Business just in case...

Some ideas if you want to play around with it:  (Pg. 42 of your manual)  You could change "Combined" to "non-Combined" (disabling the IDE controller), and you could probably get the OS installed to the SATA drive.  (is that what you'd prefer, or are you wanting it on the IDE drive?)  The only thing I wonder about this is what would happen after the install and you change the setting back to "Combined"...it might still go wonky.  There are some of us who have had problems with using SATA and IDE HDDs at the same time (mine on an Asus board).

If you're wanting the OS on the IDE drive, have you tried unplugging the SATA drive during the install?  Same caveat though, don't know what will happen after...

I honestly don't know if it will help, but the driver you're looking for can be found here.  Your Southbridge is ICH7.  Here is the Chipset ID tool if you need it.  This driver will enable the "Enhanced" option in the settings above.  If you go this route, read the common problems here so you do it right the first time.  =]

Edit - Maybe another thing.  When set to "Combined," pay attn to the settings below that and make whichever drive you want to boot / install to as Channel 0 Master/Slave.  And, just making sure here, see page 39 for your HDD boot priority setting.  Hope something works for you.

Yes, if you just install vista instead of xp, there will be no problem about the sata device. But personal idea, you do not need to disable the sata controller and install your os from usb cd-rom. The latest XP installation CD has been included the sata drivers. You will have no sata drivers problem if you install os with it.