cloning (reverse?) my IDE/PATA XP installation to SATA machine

[palaeo7]

Hi All -- I have posted here previously about my terrible experience using a Crucual SATA SSD on my IDE VGN-FJ1S. Whilst crucial assured me of compatibility, that compatibility is only mechanical and electrical -- the SATA disc fits the slot and works electrically, but performance is truly appalling -- minutes to open dialogue boxes, show file properties etc. The PATA architecture of my Sony laptop seems to be the problem, so I am now looking to drop my SATA SSD into a replacement SATA-equipped Vaio (e.g., a VGN-SZn, which is SATA mbrd but still has legacy drivers available for XP).

Here's the potential problem: as soon as I put that drive in the replacement laptop, the OS will expect to find a PATA controller in the hardware and will find a SATA one, and will BSOD (I had a similar experience when I tried to update my disk controller driver from PATA to SATA on the FJ1S, thinking that I had a SATA machine and simply lacked the drivers -- result: BSOD).

So: is there anyway to get a SATA controller into my XP installtion, either now on the FJ1S or during cloning to a new SSD in a SZn? I have heard on the Acronis forum that 'reverse cloning' may be the way to go, but I'd like to know for sure before I shell out on a replacement laptop. Suffice to say that OS reinstallation isn't an option -- period (else I wouldn't be cloning my discs [too much legacy software]), and neither is 'upgrading' to Win 7 (or indeed 😎

There's the old 'F6' option for updating controller drivers during OS insrtallation -- an option that also appears during the clone process, by the way -- but I don't have a floppy drive to take advantage of this, and am unclear whether a SATA driver can be plonked on some other boot media as usb drivers are not available at this point (I believe) and the optical drive will have the cloning software disc in it.

Any HDD/cloning/controller gurus able to chime in here?

cheers,

Palaeo