Can't install WinXP on Toshiba laptop with SATA disk

This laptop came with a 80GB SATA Toshiba hard disk and it failed recently. I have successfully attached a brand new 160GB SATA Seagate disk and could install Linux in one shot, no problems. Now I want to install WinXP Pro instead of Linux. However when I start installation it boots and reads from CD and goes as far as 'Starting Windows' blue window and freezes when it is time to read/write to disk. I think I need to load a SATA driver by pressing F6. I did this F6 thing once when I was installing XP on a box with RAID controller but that server had a floppy drive. Now for this laptop I can't find any SATA drivers on Seagate or Microsoft site and the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. My question is how to get past the SATA hurdle?
Thanks

config:
Intel® Pentium® M Centrino Processor 740
(1.73GHz, 533MHz FSB, L1 Cache 32KB/32KB, L2 Cache 2MB)
512MB memory
160 GB HDD
DVD Super-Multi Double Layer +-R
15.4" XGA TFT
Intel Wireless LAN (802.11ag)
BIOS: APM Support, ACPI support, PnP support, VESA support,
DPMS support, DDC Support, SM BIOS support, PCI BIOS

 

Hi PeteC,

Thanks for your suggestions.. I have spent almost all my weekend to wrestle down this issue. First of all when I look at Toshiba Satellite M70 manual, under chipset heading I see;

ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M +ATI IXP450

Mobile Intel® 915PM Express Chipset for external graphics controller

Mobile Intel® 915GM Express Chipset for integrated graphics controller
(Chipset depends on the model you purchased)

ATI Mobility® Radeon® X600SE

etc, etc.

bit confusing no ?

I concluded my chipset is Mobile Intel® 915PM Express. So I downloaded the SATA drivers from Intel site, got the nLite application, embedded SATA drivers into WinXP, but no luck. Repeated 3x with 3 images as my bootable WinXP CD, still no luck.

Luckily I had SP2 for WinXP downloaded. What saved the day was hoping if I create an XP SP2 CD that should include necessary SATA drivers, as I read in one of the forums or Microsoft site. I created one, booted with it, it recognized my SATA hdd and as I write this I am installing WinXP Pro SP2 on my Toshiba Satellite M70 (keeping my fingers crossed).

I also found this solution which is along same lines to your suggestion: http://www.msfn.org/board/enable-AHCI-Intel-ICH9-XP-t109450.html

Thanks for your help..