I'm a newbie using Nlite and the problem is that I can't install Windows XP on my laptop without the SATA drivers that Gateway provides. How do I integrate it with Nlite easily? Thanks.

Unless you have a RAID system, you don't need to integrate any special SATA drivers.
If you want to integrate third party S-ATA drivers, you can do it. Just integrate them as PnP driver witin the "Driver Integration" section of nLite.
For further help we need to know the kind of S-ATA controller of your mainboard.

I'm not sure what the SATA controller is in my laptop. All I know is that Gateway provides the driver and I need the driver or else Windows XP cannot be installed. My laptop is a Gateway NX100.

If you have the gateway drivers, it should be easy to find out the producer of the S-ATA chipset (look into one of the INF files).
Does the S-ATA driver package shipped with the laptop contain a file named TXTSETUP.OEM? If yes, try to integrate it as TEXTMODE driver by using nLite.
It is not easy to help you, if you even don't know the manufacturer of the hardware (S-ATA port chip). Ask the Gateway support, if you don't succeed by integrating the shipped Gateway driver.

i have a similar issue, but my laptop Acer Travelmate 4260, didn't come with any specific SATA drivers disc.
from device manager i can see it uses;
Intel 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial SATA Storage Controller - 27C4

I'd like to know it all builds correctly via vmware first before doing for real and this is first time i have come across SATA.

So i'm guessing it uses the ICH7 chipset drivers?

Afaik VMWare does not really support SATA disks, maybe this is the reason why your SATA drives are not detected by using VMWare.
On the other hand there is the "real" Windows XP SP2, which gives full support for SATA (non-RAID) connections. So you probably don't need to integrate any driver.

Fernando 1, your right it does work on it's own with no special requirements.
have looked at this;
http://www.msfn.org/board/Add-slipstream-SATA-drive-t77999.html
and it fails saying that i have virus which i know it doesn't, but hay ho

thanks

Um, I have no problems installing Windows XP Professional on my desktop using a SATA drive. It's just that my laptop requires the Gateway driver if I am to install Windows XP. I don't know why, but there are threads around MSFN that talk about the same thing. I thought Nlite would make the process easier as I'm having issues getting it to work.

If your Gateway laptop needs the driver, then you should integrate it by using nLite.
It is very easy to do: Open the section "Driver Integration" and point to any INF file of your Gateway driver folder (maybe the driver has to be unzipped).
If you see a file named TXTSETUP.OEM within the driver folder, you should integrate the driver as TEXTMODE driver (otherwise as PnP driver).

So you're sure Nlite will do everything that is in this thread?

http://www.msfn.org/board/Add-slipstream-SATA-drive-t77999.html

The reason why I ask is because the process to slipstream the SATA drivers requires the modification of some files and I'm not sure if Nlite will do that.

The answer is within the thread you posted (the nLite compression of the driver files is nothing to warry about):