Use AsMedia ASM1061 or Marvell 88SE9128 SATA ports to install Windows XP on, data drive can be anywhere.

IF you want X79 SATA ports for Windows XP OS driver regardless of problems :
I recommend either different way of driver integration, different driver version, modified drivers (such SATA drivers can be found in winraid side of Level1 forum), or pre modified Windows XP with all drivers/patches already included.

https://alter.org.ua/en/soft/win/uni_ata/

Might help

Iirc xp requires additional drivers to be on a: so you might need a floppy if you do it that way.

Slipstreaming might be an option. It might be as simple as putting the files in the i386 directory.

Or, you might be able to install it from Windows in IDE mode and switch to ah I on reboot. Just make sure the service is set to "boot" not auto or anything or you'll get bsod 0x0000007b.

Hmm... Thank you both for the response.
Guess X79 wasn't the best choice for the XP build I guess. I guess I'll try with modified drivers once my ODD emulator arrives. Ran out of blank optical media in my attempts.

Looking around a bit, found https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/modded-inte … ly-signed/19691, guessing this is what you're referring to when talking about modified drivers?

myne wrote on 2024-08-25, 04:12:

https://alter.org.ua/en/soft/win/uni_ata/

Somehow missed that link. Guess that's what I get for checking in immediately after waking up, prior to the days first cup of coffee >P
I'll look into that one as well when the drive arrives 😀

Much appreciate the assistance

Again, try installing it during IDE mode, and rebooting to ahci

myne wrote on 2024-08-25, 12:23:

Again, try installing it during IDE mode, and rebooting to ahci

Tried that, but that just led to a BSOD unfortunately

0x0000007b?

Something like
"sc config uniata start=boot"
might fix it

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-ser … mands/sc-config

myne wrote on 2024-08-26, 17:03:

0x0000007b? […]
Show full quote

0x0000007b?

Something like
"sc config uniata start=boot"
might fix it

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-ser … mands/sc-config

That didn't help unfortunately.
Finally got my ODD emulator thingy though, and that allowed me to boot the XP install disk with AHCI enabled, so that more or less solved my problem.

Thank you both for the assistance.

For anyone arriving through google, as I initially did when looking for solutions:

Downloaded 'Generic 32bit Intel RST AHCI driver v11.2.0.1006 mod+signed by Fernando.rar' from https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/modded-inte … ly-signed/19691 and slipstreamed that into the XP disk using nLite. Dunno if I can post link here, but I'll try to slipstream in the rest of the Sabertooth X79 drivers and upload it to the Internet Archive. I'll inform here when I have uploaded if all goes well, so check there for it if you're having problems (meanwhile, can someone confirm if it's fine to post a link to it or no?). A bit of googling shows that I'm far from alone with fighting with getting XP installed with AHCI on this particular mobo, so may as well look to share it.

Drivers are fine afik
They're essentially "freeware" so I can't see an issue even if they're modded - also because copyright specifically allows hacking for compatibility.
There's a thread for driver uploads to the vogons driver library. Post it there and see