SATA Install

[Gimpy]

WOW! I been reading alot on the froums about SATA installs and the problems that people are having. SO now I'm worried about it when I get my new rig this week and wonder how much trouble I will have. So my question is there a guide for SATA install? Cuz I know nothing about this. Used to IDE plug it in and go...


Gimpy

 

[Gimpy]

Wusy you no like me.....

 

[RichPLS]

If you need a driver, hit F6 during install to insert SATA driver.
Lots of boards do not need this, mine does...
BTW, read your mobo manual, should clarify your particulars...

 

[Gimpy]

Thanks for the help.... Will do that when I get it!!!

 

[emogoch]

First off, it's F6, not F4.

Secondly, I can't remember what motherboard that you got, but with my DFI NF4, I didn't have to push any SATA drivers during the Windows install to have it kick in, it just booted recognized the machine and booted up right away.

The one catch that I did have was that I wanted my SATA drive to be my system disk, and my older IDEs to house my data. Trying to install windows with everything plugged in though lead to one small glitch, where by Windows wanted a readable partition on the first IDE drive (I'm guessing to save the boot.ini file). So I just unplugged my IDEs, did the install with just the SATA drive there, then plugged the IDEs back in once Windows was done installing and did some drive re-lettering.

 

[RichPLS]

Right, I was groggy when I wrote that... Screen prompts you anyway...

 

[pat]

It not more complicated to install a SATA drive than any other. Common mistake peoples do:

They don't read their manual FIRST.
They don't read their manual .

In the manual, there is hint and pictures/drawing that give a lot of info about their motherboard. So, even if you think you know what it is written in, read it anyway. You'll be surprised at what you will find.

Then, they think that SATA=RAID and they activate RAID all the way in their BIOS to have SATA working... SATA is only an interface between an IDE controller and and IDE drive. Just like the old ATA one.... But, there is some case with oolder third party controller where a 1 disk array is needed. If you get a new board with the latest chipset, then you wont need to do that.

Some motherboard has the chipset IDE controller with SATA and PATA interface and another third party controller, like Sil or Promise to add SATA ports. You have to know which connector are controlled by which interface, if you don't want to have problem. Because, if the third party is disabled in BIOS and you have the drive connected to, and you didnt care to read your manual to know which controler control what?, then you may come back here complaining because you cannot have your drive recognized... Then you will look stupid.

Or, if the controller is set to RAID, and you don't plan to have a RAID array, don't come back here complaining again.. RTFM.

SO, you want an exemple about how easy it is to connect a SATA HDD.. Ok. My Soltek nforce3 motherboard. You connect the SATA cable in the motherboard. you connect the SATA cable in the drive. you connect the power connector to the drive. Turn on the computer... The BIOS is not set to RAID, by default, so the drive is recognized right on, like any other drive. But I make sure that I knew what cocnnector were conrolled by the nvidia chipset, because this board has a Promise controller too, And I did not want to use it . A drawing in the manual showed me that information. My Gigabyte motherboard. Plug the SATA drive, SATA cable and power, turn on the computer, go in BIOS because by default, this motherboard has RAID enabled for SATA connector. Turn off RAID, save and exit, reboot, and the drive is there, as any other drive. A Chintec summit VIA kt800 chipset. Connect the drive, turn on computer. The drive show up right on. everything is OK in BIOS. A sis chipset, same thing.

My old nforce2 motherboard, with a Promise SATA/RAID controller. Plug the drive. set the jumper (manual) to enable it. The promise BIOS will show up with the drive telling you that no array is defined. You press control -F to define a one drive array. save the change, reboot, and press F6 to install third party drivers and your in..

To resume, if you get modern hardware, take the time to read the manual FULLY, you should have no problem to install.

If the controller that has the SATA connector is the same that has the PATA (nforce3/nforce4,read post SATA chipset motherboard) then it will be natively supported.

If your motherboard is an old nforce2/viakt400,...read pre SATA chipset, and it has SATA, then SATA is supplied by a third party controller, needing third party driver.

And there is no SATA drivers.. SATA don't need driver. The SATA controller do. So, it should be written like third party ide controller driver. Because even a third party controller with the old PATA interface would need drivers.. And RAID, no matter if it used wit PATA, SATA, SCSI,.. will need driver.. this is a special controller mode.. cannot use the standard ATA commands from microsoft drivers, if you install windows..

 

[Mavicator]

My problem was the user of course, but in my case the manual was of no help whatsoever, nor was the Asus site. It took digging around on the web, looking through threads on various forums where people had the same problem and finally I found a partial answer which led to me finally figuring out that I needed THREE freaking drivers for the install to work properly. I would have been able to just plug in and go if I wanted a single SATA drive, but with Raid a whole new world of pain was opened up to me. I eagerly await my next mobo which will be current enough (hopefully) to not need driver disks.