First, this is solved and I just wanted to write it down for people who are stuck and go to google or something for finding help. So, if you have a laptop (for workstations this works as well, prob.) which has some SATA interface and stuff, it might not be able to get Windows XP installed if the setup disk is not of that laptops manufacturer (ie OEM). The setup would just stop and say that it couldn't detect any HDDs and kindly ask you to press F3 to reboot. The thing to do is to go into the BIOS settings and DISABLE all SATA-releated stuff; say, for the Compaw presario V5000 it was "Sata Native support". And done.
Or slipstream the sata/raid drivers into the install cd - keeps the enhanced controllers working this way.
Yeah, if any ATA controller (serial or parallel) is set to a RAID mode, you'll need drivers. When in a regular everyday ATA mode, you don't. ...And, this isn't limited to XP. Any OS that doesn't have the native drivers for the RAID mode (including Linux, BSD, etc.) will need to have those particular drivers installed during setup.
