Hi Chortdakooba,

U said error during pushing F6 setup.....
Did u try using this step by step Intel SATA Driver from HP?
Did u press S to specify the required floppy disk?

Can u still login to Vista if set hd RAID?
What ctrl for hdd and optical under device manager-ide ata/atapi ctlr?

I am new to this SATA stuff but want to learn more.
Still trying to find what exactly the diff between RAID vs AHCI?

Eureka... I have XP installed. I changed the setting in the setup menu at reboot from RAID to IDE. I was then able to read the partitions when running the XP setup. From there I deleted the existing C partition with the Vista on it and then did a full format (not quick) and was able to install my XP Pro. There were a few problems, mainly missing some drivers: ethernet controller, PCI Device and SM Bus controller. I didn't have any internet for a bit. Luckily we have a 2nd computer in the house and I was able to find some kind of ethernet driver and made it work. The only yellow question mark I have in device manager right now is for the video adapter. The one installed now will run everything except any gaming. But to solve that issue I'll probably have to buy a seperate video card, probably something with Nvidia chipset.
All in all I accomplished what I wanted to do, which was have XP on the system and not Vista. It seems to be running really good, it even starts up faster than Vista did.
Thanks for the help I received and for the good posts I was able to read through this forum. This is a really good site for this sort of help.
If anyone thinks I may have some problems or issues with how I installed my XP which may have negative affects on how my computer may run please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks again.

HI Mintt,
I didn't try any of the stuff you listed. My goal was to have XP for an OS and not run both as a dual boot system.
I did do some checking on RAID and from what I can tell is mostly used when 2 or more HD's are used. It uses an array arrangement of saving data, which is supposed to be really useful for backing up data. From what I read, typically it is useful for businesses that require that kind of security. There are many forms of RAID, up to 10 I think (eg: RAID 0, RAID 1). Again, from what I read, it is popping up more on newer home computers because it does run faster and is advantageous for the higher demands of the media stuff run on new computers (like movies, music, photography etc). Again, this is just some general stuff I read about it, I'm sure there's alot more to it.

Chortdakooba wrote:

I changed the setting in the setup menu at reboot from RAID to IDE.

So right now ur hdd is running normal IDE/ATA and not SATA?
Or have u install the driver to enable the SATA? Where u got the driver from?

There is another member who using HP a1720n here
Not sure if the problem already resolved

Yeah, I believe I am running normal IDE. I may try that driver you listed before to see what that wil do. The driver I'm using now proabably came from my XP installation disk.

EDIT : whoops didn't see page 2 of the thread before posting a (belated) response

EDIT2 : glad you sorted it out