Windows XP 2021 - system build for the modern PC

mikepedo said:

Hello everyone!
I would like to install windows xp on my new computer, to be able to use a 3dfx video card (Strange God PCI, aka new Voodoo5 6000).
My PC is:
Intel i5 13600KF
ASRock Z690 Pro RS
2x8gb Corsair
Intel ARC A770
Strange God PCI (with PCI-E to PCI adapter)
Intel SSD NVMe 1TB (Win 11)
Patriot NVMe 128gb (WinXP???)
I would like to install WinXP it in the 128 gb SSD, using exclusively the 3dfx video card.
I'm a bit rusty, how can I build myself a working version of WinXP? Thanks a lot to everyone!

Start with Post #1 in this thread. If you understand what the requirement are then go for it.

You said you have a PCIe to PCI card. If that card requires a driver how do expect to see any video on your video car before that is installed?

I don't understand why you would waste such a capable computer on Windows XP. You would be better off finding an old computer that actually has drivers for Windows XP. If you do a little research you can find motherboards about 15 years old that have drivers for Windows XP. Also check to make sure they have a PCI slot for your video card uses that.

With Windows XP 32-bit you only need about 500MB or 1GB RAM. You can use up to 4GB RAM if you think you need it.

Do you have a product key for Windows XP? Unless you activate it with a product key it will stop functioning after 30 days. There are workarounds for that so you have to find how to do it.

Important: Windows XP doesn't natively support SATA. Unless the computer has a floppy drive you will have to integrate the driver into the Windows XP CD before you start. Here is a reference that explains things.

Install Windows XP on a SATA hard disk
Install Windows XP on a SATA hard disk - Windows - Tutorials - InformatiWeb

I have two computers with Windows XP on them. They are both about 20 years old so have drivers for Windows XP. However, because of their age I have to use IDE hard drives with them. One of the computers has a SATA controller. So far I haven't been able to get it to work with a SATA drive.

MisterEd said:

One of the computers has a SATA controller. So far I haven't been able to get it to work with a SATA drive.

You may need a Bios Update from the computer/motherboard manufacturer's download site.

spunk said:

You may need a Bios Update from the computer/motherboard manufacturer's download site.

What good would that do? Back then there was nothing in the BIOS that would have made a difference. The ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard I have came out in 2003. Back then SATA was only available on a few motherboards that had a SATA controller chip on them. For example, here is the SATA controller chip on my motherboard. Someone told me one time that since it had the original SATA (1.5Gbps) then it might not even be compatible with newer SATA drives which are either SATA II (3Gbps) or SATA III (6Gbps). I haven't give up and might try again some time.



SATA hard drives only came out in 2003. Since they were very expensive then it was a few years before very many people could afford to buy them. It was like SSDs. They were also very expensive at launch.

BTW, SATA hard drives were so expensive at launch some people tried to pass off what I would call fake SATA hard drives. They would take an ordinary IDE (PATA) hard drive and incorporate a bridge chip in the design. The purpose of the bridge chip was to convert the internal IDE (PATA) interface to a SATA interface connector at the back of the drive. Note that IDE (PATA) had a speed of 100Mbps while SATA then had a speed of 150Mbps. Unsuspecting buyers might not even realize the difference. That is, their fake SATA hard drives would work at 100Mbps which was slower than a real SATA hard drive that would work at 150Mbps.

There is a SATA driver available on the motherboards download site TTNormsProNormal]Silicon Image Serial ATA driver version V1.0.0.50 WHQL & Serial ATA Utility V1.1.
There is no Bios update. My thought was that as SATA drives became more popular in a year or two after releasing the board, Asus Might release a Bios Update to support that, but it looks like they offered a Driver for XP instead. A7N8X-E Deluxe - Support

biofish said:

I have never had any issues with SATA ports. maybe it's the XP SP0 that doesn't support them

the only required driver is AHCI just in case you don't want to use the IDE mode.

That makes no sense. What does that have to do with the SATA controller?

When I started the Windows XP with SP1 setup it had no way to know anything about the SATA controller. For that reason it couldn't find any drive to install to. To get around that I inserted a floppy disk with the SATA driver and hit F6 when prompted. A few minutes later it loaded the driver. Only then could I select the SATA hard drive to install Windows XP.

Note that if Windows XP was on an IDE drive I could install the SATA driver manually once in Windows. That way I could use a SATA drive for data.

Since these drivers are not included with the Windows XP standard installation you have to install them manually. If you know how you can slipstream into the Windows XP CD media. When I get around to it I may do that along with SP3.

biofish said:

I have NEVER used SATA drivers for my SATA disks, they are recognized right away on the BIOS

You must have a much newer motherboard than I have. I bet SATA was common when that motherboard came out.

I have the newest BIOS for my motherboard. There is absolutely nothing in the BIOS to help me. The computer won't even see a SATA drive until the SATA driver is loaded manually. Since my BIOS doesn't know about SATA drives I didn't know what to set the first boot device to. By trial and error I found I had to set it to SCSI.

You need to understand that my ASUS A7N8X series motherboards were developed in 2002-2003. They were probably some of the first support to SATA drives. In fact back then nobody used SATA drives because they weren't for sale yet. SATA was probably an afterthought because it wasn't part of the chipset. It was supported by a Silicon Image SiI 3112 chip. Silicon Image provided a SATA RAID driver which is what I used. When Windows XP was released in 2001 they didn't include native SATA support because SATA did not exist then. I installed Windows XP with SP1. Note SP1 came out in Aug 30, 2002. SATA drives were not available until at least a year later. As far as I know not even Windows XP SP3 included SATA support.