Windows XP floppy drive problems

Windows XP floppy drive problems

If the system is in ATA-compatible mode the SATA controller and disk look like regular IDE disks to the BIOS and to Windows. There are no problems with this.

However, to make use of features like Native Command Queueing, the new Advanced Controller Host Interface (AHCI) mode is required. If this mode is enabled, Windows needs a driver in order to be able to read the disk. (This is also true of SCSI disks and controllers, RAID controllers and any additional IDE controllers that aren't at the standard locations.) Also, if booting from that disk, it requires a copy of the driver named ntbootdd.sys in the same location as ntldr and boot.ini (typically the root of drive C). If the right driver to access the hard disk isn't available and the built-in support doesn't work, Windows will blue-screen with an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE code.

Windows 2000 and XP require a floppy disk to be made available at setup time to provide additional storage drivers. You have to press a key when prompted (F6, from memory) to tell Setup that you want to load additional drivers. Some new systems – which generally don't come with floppy drives – can pretend that a USB memory key is a floppy drive for this purpose.

I'd stick with ATA-compatible mode unless you have good reason to select AHCI mode. AHCI may not even be an option in your BIOS setup – my Dell system doesn't allow it to be selected.