New build without floppy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Justin
  • Start date Start date
J

Justin

I'm about to embark on a Shuttle HTPC build. I wasn't intending to include a
floppy drive. Is this possible or do I need one for the initial boot up to
get the cd drivers etc onto the machine?
 
I'm about to embark on a Shuttle HTPC build. I wasn't intending to include a
floppy drive. Is this possible or do I need one for the initial boot up to
get the cd drivers etc onto the machine?
Click to expand...

No need for a floppy if you dont want one, Win 2000 and XP (poss ME) are
bootable from the CD. They include partitioning and formatting options on
them.

Or go to http://www.bootdisk.com/ there are instructions on burning a
bootable floppy onto a CD and retaining the bootable bit.

Adam S
 
Justin said:
I'm about to embark on a Shuttle HTPC build. I wasn't intending to include a
floppy drive. Is this possible or do I need one for the initial boot up to
get the cd drivers etc onto the machine?
Click to expand...

You need a floppy in order to boot Win2K onto a SATA drive. The boot
process requires that your drivers come from A:.

Also, I believe the Repair Disk writing and reading need a floppy.
 
William W. Plummer said:
You need a floppy in order to boot Win2K onto a SATA drive. The boot
process requires that your drivers come from A:.
Click to expand...

Same for winXP, it doesn't let you change the path from A:
 
Justin said:
I'm about to embark on a Shuttle HTPC build. I wasn't intending to include a
floppy drive. Is this possible or do I need one for the initial boot up to
get the cd drivers etc onto the machine?
Click to expand...

Besides saving 10 bucks whats the advantage of not having one?

Hank
 
Apollo said:
Same for winXP, it doesn't let you change the path from A:
Click to expand...

Thats always puzzled me... if you have two optical drives... why can't you
load your SCSI/Raid drivers from the other one.. or better yet have ability
to eject XP cd, load drivers from SCSI/Raid CD, then reload winXP cd. In an
era where floppys are rarely used, the only thing that really HAS to have
them in a way that a lot of people will encounter is in this particular
scenario of installing winXP onto a SCSI/Raid setup.

But an option to consider is to yank a floppy from another system, plug it
in just long enough to install XP, then take it out, if youve already built
the system it shouldn't take that much longer to do...
 
| Thats always puzzled me... if you have two optical drives... why can't you
| load your SCSI/Raid drivers from the other one.. or better yet have ability
| to eject XP cd, load drivers from SCSI/Raid CD, then reload winXP cd. In an
| era where floppys are rarely used, the only thing that really HAS to have
| them in a way that a lot of people will encounter is in this particular
| scenario of installing winXP onto a SCSI/Raid setup.
|
| But an option to consider is to yank a floppy from another system, plug it
| in just long enough to install XP, then take it out, if youve already built
| the system it shouldn't take that much longer to do...

That's a lot of work just to save a few miserable dollars!

Larc



§§§ - Please change planet to earth to reply by e-mail - §§§
 
Besides saving 10 bucks whats the advantage of not having one?

Hank
Click to expand...

Its not the money, its more to do with aethetics since this is going to be a
HTPC, and plus it will not get used again, so don't see the point of putting
one in if its not needed.
You'll load the OS from the XP CD so you don't necessarily need the
floppy.

DaveW
Click to expand...

I know the os is on cd, but without the floppy how do you get the cd drivers
on the machine to load from the cd in the first place?
 
Justin said:
Its not the money, its more to do with aethetics since this is going to be a
HTPC, and plus it will not get used again, so don't see the point of putting
one in if its not needed.


I know the os is on cd, but without the floppy how do you get the cd drivers
on the machine to load from the cd in the first place?
Click to expand...

plus the Shuttle ST61G4 doesn't have a spare bay, its taken up by the 6 in 1
card reader
 
Justin said:
Its not the money, its more to do with aethetics since this is going to be a
HTPC, and plus it will not get used again, so don't see the point of putting
one in if its not needed.


I know the os is on cd, but without the floppy how do you get the cd drivers
on the machine to load from the cd in the first place?
Click to expand...

You don't need to load drivers for cd drives, the bios has enough control to
enable a boot from the cd.
The only time you will need one is for installing the os onto sata/scsi
drives that do need a driver, stick with ide hard drives and you won't need
a floppy.
 
Apollo said:
Same for winXP, it doesn't let you change the path from A:
Click to expand...

Many responders don't understand the problem. There are devices that
required drivers supplied by the manufacturer and are not present on the
Windows CD-ROM. Case in point: The Seagate SATA hard disk drivers. Now,
you have to see this coming and know to copy them from the Seagate CD-ROM to
a floppy before you attempt installing Windows to the new SATA drive.
 
Apollo said:
be

You don't need to load drivers for cd drives, the bios has enough control to
enable a boot from the cd.
The only time you will need one is for installing the os onto sata/scsi
drives that do need a driver, stick with ide hard drives and you won't need
a floppy.
Click to expand...

Funny, I just installed XP onto my newly-build Shuttle SB65G2 without ever
once resorting to a floppy and yes the HD is a SATA. I guess that if I had
needed drivers from floppy (I haven't seen any new equipment coming with
software/drivers on floppies recently, only CDs) I could have either copied
the driver(s) to CD on another system or plugged a floppy in temporarily. I
decided against a floppy drive for carefully considered reasons: 1. I had
one suitable opening in the case. 2. I have not used a floppy for over two
years. 3. I wanted to install a flash reader.

Eventually, you just have to move on and from what I can see the little
floppy is now as reduntant as its 5-1/4" and 8" predecessors unless you have
some special need that the majority of users don't have.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com
 
Justin said:
Its not the money, its more to do with aethetics since this is going to be a
HTPC, and plus it will not get used again, so don't see the point of putting
one in if its not needed.




I know the os is on cd, but without the floppy how do you get the cd drivers
on the machine to load from the cd in the first place?
Click to expand...

I didn't need the SATA driver when I installed XP on a new SATA drive.
You only need it when installing RAID on the SATA ports.
 
I didn't need the SATA driver when I installed XP on a new SATA drive.
You only need it when installing RAID on the SATA ports.
Click to expand...


It is not dependant on the drive (which normally requires no special
drivers) but the controller. Controllers built into the chipset normally
require no drivers. Those on add on cards (or added to the motherboard not
part of the standard chipset) will normally require driver, even if not
RAID.

MS will have to solve this requirement for a floppy drive if it truly
wants to support "legacy free" pc's with bleeding edge hardware.

JT
 
MS will have to solve this requirement for a floppy drive if it truly
wants to support "legacy free" pc's with bleeding edge hardware.
Click to expand...

Right. All MS has to do is allow every program, specifically the Win2K
installation program, to specify the drive letter where drivers are located.
Insisting on A: can't persist.
 
Apollo said:
Same for winXP, it doesn't let you change the path from A:
Click to expand...

I agree. The same holds true for a SCSI or Ultra ATA 66/100/133 card. Win XP
*demands* that you stick a disk into Drive A so that it cna load the drivers
for that controller, and you can't change that path. For 10 lousy dollars,
just go ahead and install the floppy. :-) Just when you think you won't
ever need to access any file son a floppy disk... you'll need to do
precisely that.
 
Back
Top