Thank you guys for your assistance.
Yeah, that Catalyst splash screen really scared me a little bit, but I did try going further by way of 'custom install' as advised and it showed this:
AMD USB Filter Driver 1.0.15.99
Current Version not Installed
Filter driver for USB 1.0/1.1 Audio device
North Bridge Filter Driver 1.3.1.49
Current Version not Installed
Filter Driver for ATI NorthBridge Device
At this point, I'd hate to pull the trigger, not knowing what's gonna happen next.
Care to explain what a filter driver is? Can it speed up my 7200 rpm sata2 hard drive? I already enabled write caching under 'properties' and it's still very slow -- CrystalDiskMark : 50-ish.
This is currently what is showing under Device Manager on my machine:
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
ATA Channel 1
Standard
Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Standard
Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Config'n 1) Hard drive connected to SATA3_0 and DVD burner to GSATA_6: CrystalDiskMark = 50+.
Config'n 2) Hard drive connected to SATA3_0 and DVD burner to SATA3_1: CrystalDiskMark = 40+.
As you can see, it's not even close to Absic's 100+ mark.