Windows 7: What are RAID setup and SATA drive?

Friends i have bought a Dell laptop about a month ago with windows 7 home basic 64 bit OS,320 GB hard disc and i3 processor. I want to install xp-home-32-bit as second OS.My problem is :
1)
What are RAID setup and SATA drive?
2)
Where to get drivers for xp 32 bit. Searching on Dell site i found out they have drivers for windows 7 and vista 64 bits only for my model.
I am all ready for installation of xp except above issues. (i.e. i have all necessary softwares like nLite,EasyBCD,netframework etc.)

1)RAID is two or more drives synced in an array. There are different types of arrays like Raid 0, 1 Raid 5, 10 as well as spanning a single volume across several drives

Sata is Serial ATA over the ide type drives being Pata or Parallel ATA being the more commonly used type in use. Sata I drives are still found in limited systems while Sata II is very much the standard people have been running with for several years now. Sata III drives with a faster speed rating are more recent and now are seeing new boards that only see Sata III ports.

2) Unfortunately you are out of luck as far as XP if that model series never saw any XP drivers written to start with. With premade laptops and desktops and the fast chahge over to newer model lines the present version(s) are those that see support until a new line for the next comes out. The manufacturer of the laptop(Dell) or the board manufacturer if you find that out "may"? while not usually have XP drivers while boards for laptops and premade desktops are generally custom ordered specific for one brand.

In other words.... Pot Luck on finding any! Upgrading out of Basic into one of the more full featured editions of 7 would provide more options for you rather then trying to stay with an OS companies have pretty much dropped entirely. January makes XP 10yrs. old! That's ancient history for hardware manufacturers!

You can install Oracle VirtualBox then install XP as a client. That will allow you to use XP pretty much as if it were installed alongside Win 7 without any concern for SATA drivers. The advantage being you can run it in a window from Win 7. The disadvantage is it runs a bit slower though not enough so to prevent you from using it.

If you had purchased a better level of Win 7, like Pro or Ultimate, you could have run XP Mode, but it doesn't work with Home Basie or Home Premium (or at least I don't think it does).

Edit: Just had a thought. You might be able to find the SATA driver for XP by looking at the web site for the motherboard manufacturer.

Thanx NightHawk and Ztruker for extensive info (which is hard to find even in professionals i know among my online mates) which shed a dazzling light on the subject which unfortunately shows a bottom line underlined in red-"No luck buddy." But, on the other hand i just found out a way around it. Actually there are some games which my 10 yr. old (especially GTA vice city and san andreas) likes very much, were not running on my lappy. So i thought installing xp might help.But after changing compatibility settings (which i tried after posting my problem yesterday) they are running smooth. So i think i'll wait some more for world to turn its attention to develope 64 bit softwares as I don't want to upgrade to pro or ultimate right now.
Again thanx a lot for your perfect response on the matter (i've been searching the net regarding this but nobody had the exact answer to my query ) ! So many questions are clarified at a time. I'll use your recommended apps if required.

I see you've kind-of settled but if you had a desire you could see if adding SATA drivers to the XP installer would help, have a look at this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD

Hi there BFK ! Yeah i've gone through that tut many times and i have everything to make disk with drivers. I've settled on not doing it because less time i can spare for it nowadays and most important reason is a brand new gizmo can be dead cold due to my little mistake. Actually, i was all set to do it except the drivers problem. I'll go and search for them again on intel and other sites but i don't know where to look for make and version of them on my computer. In fact i went through all system info but couldn't decide which is which (being a noob is a drawback, having a pro at help is a blessing !) I think I can poke more with your guidance. Can you tell me exactly which drivers are needed ? And where the make and version of each can be found on my laptop(Dell Inspiron 15R (N5010) ) ? I'll give you feedback after that.
Edit : Oh and just another noob question- won't my win 7 64 bit drivers work on xp 32 bit ?

Hello again.



My apologies but I'm not much of a driver person but you should get some help if you start a new thread at the driver forum, click the link below.


New Thread

Unfortunately what you are forgetting about there is no XP drivers for anything. That model is too new seeing the OS options as 7 Basic or 7 HP both 64bit. Inspiron 15R Laptop Details | Dell India

There is however an option to see the XP Mode run on those editions or on older hardwares that lack support for virtualization. Besides VirtualBox the VM Lite Workstation's VMLite XP Mode will automatically download and setup the XP Mode if not already present on the drive. The advantage over VBox however is still seeing the integrated components supported.

As far as the 64bit drivers working on the 32bit Windows? The answer on that is no! On occasion however some 32bit drivers will work out well on the 64bit however. This is due to the 32bit emulation support seen for them.

You can install and run XP on most newer boards to start with without a driver disk due to the upgrades seen a few years back allowing the XP installer to see Sata drives. But you would have to run XP without the remaining drivers for video, sound, and anything else since none were writtern as I suspected right off. That model series never saw any written to start with being too new.

The best advice is get what you are able to running on the 64bit The alternative is the 32bit 7 which surprizingly has quite more a bit backward compatibility even for many XP drivers then was seen with Vista. VBox or VM Lite would see XP running on a virtual machine(VM) there but not help you with the gaming at all.

Well ! Thanx again nighthawk and BFK . Thanx BFK for your advice to start new thread for this ! I've got some links there. Will search and try when time permits. I'll post results after that.

Hello again mate.



Yes do remember to post back here so I'll know how it sorts; post a link to your other thread here also, I've lost track of it.