driver for primary ide channel

i'm new here and still a novice at computer tech.
i'm trying to install vista ultimate as a double boot on my windows xp
professional machine. early in the process i get an error message that says i
need a primary ide channel driver before this show can continue.
i've spent some time in google trying to figure out how to make that happen
and have come up empty. i've also contacted dell, which suggested i download
an upgrade to my bios. i did, and it turns out i already have the lastest
bios version. my machine is an optiplex gx 260.
i'd sincerely appreciate any help here.

Check your motherboard CD for Vista drivers. You install them at the
beginning of Vista. It will prompt you to add the IDE storage drivers
at the beginning of the install. In XP Pro its f6. Its not the same in
Vista.


--
SCSIraidGURU

Michael A. McKenney
'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)

Supermicro X7DWA-N server board
pair of Intel E5430 quad core 2.66 GHz Xeons
16GB DDR667
SAS RAID
eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB video card

For a start, you have to have two partitions created on your Hard Drive to
dual boot.
You don't say what you have!
Normally, you would have XP installed on a Partition which takes up most of
the hard drive, if not all of it.
And if XP was installed on a smaller partition, the rest of the space would
be unallocated, and unformatted.

More info required!

--
Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia


"fondwa" wrote:

> i'm new here and still a novice at computer tech.
> i'm trying to install vista ultimate as a double boot on my windows xp
> professional machine. early in the process i get an error message that says i
> need a primary ide channel driver before this show can continue.
> i've spent some time in google trying to figure out how to make that happen
> and have come up empty. i've also contacted dell, which suggested i download
> an upgrade to my bios. i did, and it turns out i already have the lastest
> bios version. my machine is an optiplex gx 260.
> i'd sincerely appreciate any help here.

this is a fairly up to date machine a friend gave. i have no motherboard cd.
sounds like i should go on line and download the drivers. thanks for this
help.

"SCSIraidGURU" wrote:

>
> Check your motherboard CD for Vista drivers. You install them at the
> beginning of Vista. It will prompt you to add the IDE storage drivers
> at the beginning of the install. In XP Pro its f6. Its not the same in
> Vista.
>
>
> --
> SCSIraidGURU
>
> Michael A. McKenney
> 'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)
>
> Supermicro X7DWA-N server board
> pair of Intel E5430 quad core 2.66 GHz Xeons
> 16GB DDR667
> SAS RAID
> eVGA 8800 GTS 640 MB video card
>

i have split my hard drive into a primary partition with my xp os and about
32 gb of unallocated space. that's where i expect to install vista.

"Mick Murphy" wrote:

> For a start, you have to have two partitions created on your Hard Drive to
> dual boot.
> You don't say what you have!
> Normally, you would have XP installed on a Partition which takes up most of
> the hard drive, if not all of it.
> And if XP was installed on a smaller partition, the rest of the space would
> be unallocated, and unformatted.
>
> More info required!
>
> --
> Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia
>
>
> "fondwa" wrote:
>
> > i'm new here and still a novice at computer tech.
> > i'm trying to install vista ultimate as a double boot on my windows xp
> > professional machine. early in the process i get an error message that says i
> > need a primary ide channel driver before this show can continue.
> > i've spent some time in google trying to figure out how to make that happen
> > and have come up empty. i've also contacted dell, which suggested i download
> > an upgrade to my bios. i did, and it turns out i already have the lastest
> > bios version. my machine is an optiplex gx 260.
> > i'd sincerely appreciate any help here.

with a friend's help, i found the answer to my primary ide channel driver
problem. the message seeking that driver showed up when i loaded the vista
install cd after booting to xp. so my friend suggested we boot to the install
cd and see if that worked. IT DID.
i'm now up and running. thanks to the two who responded, and thanks to my
friend.

"fondwa" wrote:

> i have split my hard drive into a primary partition with my xp os and about
> 32 gb of unallocated space. that's where i expect to install vista.
>
> "Mick Murphy" wrote:
>
> > For a start, you have to have two partitions created on your Hard Drive to
> > dual boot.
> > You don't say what you have!
> > Normally, you would have XP installed on a Partition which takes up most of
> > the hard drive, if not all of it.
> > And if XP was installed on a smaller partition, the rest of the space would
> > be unallocated, and unformatted.
> >
> > More info required!
> >
> > --
> > Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia
> >
> >
> > "fondwa" wrote:
> >
> > > i'm new here and still a novice at computer tech.
> > > i'm trying to install vista ultimate as a double boot on my windows xp
> > > professional machine. early in the process i get an error message that says i
> > > need a primary ide channel driver before this show can continue.
> > > i've spent some time in google trying to figure out how to make that happen
> > > and have come up empty. i've also contacted dell, which suggested i download
> > > an upgrade to my bios. i did, and it turns out i already have the lastest
> > > bios version. my machine is an optiplex gx 260.
> > > i'd sincerely appreciate any help here.