SATA HDD Install issue

[armstrong]

Hello!


I have a new build computer system and I done my best getting it to work and now finally it started up and I enter BIOS SETUP where I see my WD SATA "Caviar" disk is found as third master.

I use my win xp SP1 cd and boot and it start nice with install some drivers etc and then when i click F3 to install windows it says the HDD cant be found.

I heard you need win xp SP2 cd for sata hdds, my motherboard is Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe. If this is correct can i put the sata drivers on a disk and install them first then XP or can I change somehting in BIOS to make the window installtion CD recoqnize my new hdd?


Thanks alot for any kind of help I get please explain easy (My english isnt the best sorry)

 

[Pain]

You don't need sp2 to use sata drives. What you need is the SATA controller driver on a floppy disk, and when you first begin installing XP, press F6 to load the controller driver.

You could possiblly try moving the disk to the first controller....if you indeed have 4 SATA controllers. What I imagine is happening though is that the IDE controllers are 1 and 2, and the SATA controllers are 3 and 4, etc. If that is true, you need to load the driver as explained above.

 

[armstrong]

Thanks alot for reply Pain

I have now tried with a win XP SP2 cd and as you said it wouldnt work either.

I have one SATA hdd yes and its connected on motherboard to the slot called SATA1 or so, also in BIOS SETUP I have all SATA 1 and 2 and the SATA controllers enable but still nothing. I looked Western Digital homepage for drivers to my hdd and I put them on a disk and tried boot but it woudlnt install anything just said Select proper boot device.

Do you know where I can get these SATA controllers so I can put them on a disk and boot that disk and install them?


I dont understand how it can be so hard to get a totally new motherboard a totally new cpu and quite new hdd to work together, I paied 2100 US dollar for only processor, graphiccard, miditower, hdd, and motherboard and I need expert help to install WINDOWS, they claim its so easy with computers, I say sure it is UNTILL something goes wrong.


This far I tried:
Connect the hdd to different SATA slots on mb
Tried several different window versions, home edition, pro edition, SP1 and SP2. I tried boot with motherboard CD. With different win startup disks. And nothing.


Im sure its very easy probably just put some SATA drivers on a disk and boot, sorry for whining its my 39hour by PC trying to get it working.

 

[DragonDoc]

You don't need sp2 to use sata drives. What you need is the SATA controller driver on a floppy disk, and when you first begin installing XP, press F6 to load the controller driver.

Concur.
And people say they don't need floppy drives anymore 8O

 

[DragonDoc]

I have one SATA hdd yes and its connected on motherboard to the slot called SATA1 or so, also in BIOS SETUP I have all SATA 1 and 2 and the SATA controllers enable but still nothing. I looked Western Digital homepage for drivers to my hdd and I put them on a disk and tried boot but it woudlnt install anything just said Select proper boot device.

Is your drive SATA-II :?:
Does your motherboard support SATA-II :?:
:arrow: If you hard drive is SATA-II and your board does not support SATA-II then you will need to set jumpers to change from SATA-II (3gb) to SATA (1.5gb). This will make your drive operate as a SATA (Not SATA-II) drive.

Please note when I say SATA-II i'm not talking about the slot number on the board. SATA-II is new tech on SATA hard drives. Your board has to accept SATA-II.

What is your hard drive model number :?: I will check for you if you need some more help.

Hope this helps

 

[armstrong]

The motherboard is a Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe manual says 3132 Sata controllers supports:
1x Interial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)
1x exterial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)

Here is the hdd direct link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1344&p_created=1112716269


Its a WD "Caviar" 400gb SATA Raid edition.

Theres also a picture with the 3 different cables, although can you tell me where exactly to connect them? So i can check its correct?

Also on the homepage I looked for drivers wich I can download and put to a disk and then boot and install the drivers/controllers but I seem not to understand wich is correct for me.

 

[DragonDoc]

The motherboard is a Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe manual says 3132 Sata controllers supports:
1x Interial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)
1x exterial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)

Here is the hdd direct link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1344&p_created=1112716269


Its a WD "Caviar" 400gb SATA Raid edition.

Theres also a picture with the 3 different cables, although can you tell me where exactly to connect them? So i can check its correct?

Also on the homepage I looked for drivers wich I can download and put to a disk and then boot and install the drivers/controllers but I seem not to understand wich is correct for me.

OK

:arrow: Your Motherboard supports Serial ATA 3Gb/s (SATA-II)
The motherboard supports the next-generation hard drives based on the Serial ATA (SATA) 3Gb/s storage specification, delivering enhanced scalability and doubling the bus bandwidth for high-speed data retrieval and saves.

:arrow: Your Hard drive is a SATA (1.5Gb/s). I don't see anything on Asus' web site that says it will support the old SATA drives (backwords capable). This is what I beleive is your problem. You will still need SATA drivers which normally comes with the motherboard (Floppy Disk).

:arrow: You may need to ask someone else that has that board and see if it will handle SATA (1.5Gb/s) I do not use that board myself.

:idea: You may need to exchange your drive for a SATA-II drive.

Hope this helps

 

[RichPLS]

I may be wrong, but it was my understanding that SATAI and II drives are backward compatable by default.
Is this not so?

 

[Pain]

I think it is so, but I'm not 100% sure.

Most new motherboards automatically recognize the SATA controller as an IDE controller instead of a scsi controller. If that is a new board I'm rather surprised it doesn't. It's the MB that needs to recognize the controller as IDE, not windows XP that needs to recognize the disk. If the controller is recognized, then a floppy is not necessary as you can load XP without it. I'm still sort of shocked that requirement has remained a secret to many people...it seems like there should be better documention about it (or perhaps I just haven't RTFM?

 

[DragonDoc]

I may be wrong, but it was my understanding that SATAI and II drives are backward compatable by default.
Is this not so?

Me too but, Asus' sight does not say it is. It only refers to (3Gb/s) which is SATA-II.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=744&l1=3&l2=15&l3=226

I know Seagate SATA-II (3Gb/s) drives can be jumpered to run as SATA (1.5Gb/s) if your board does not support SATA-II. Also Windows will not recognize SATA-II if the board does not support SATA-II (Whitout changing the jumpers)

 

[armstrong]

Thanks for replys.

I think compability isnt the problem this guy has cloce to the same system and his runs look:

>>>Asus A8N32 SLI-Deluxe<<< (1103 Bios), Athlon X2 4400+, 2GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPro, (2) eVGA 7800GTX 256Mb in SLI, (2) >>>WD 320GB Caviar SE16 SATA (Raid 0)<<<<<, Lian Li PC-7B, FSP Group FX600-GLN (600W) PSU, ASUS DRW-1608P2S DVD

Only different in his HDD and mine is his is 320 and mine is 400gb.


Any other solutions guys?

 

[clue69less]

The motherboard is a Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe manual says 3132 Sata controllers supports:
1x Interial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)
1x exterial Serial Ata device (3gb/s)

Its a WD "Caviar" 400gb SATA Raid edition.

Theres also a picture with the 3 different cables, although can you tell me where exactly to connect them? So i can check its correct?

Also on the homepage I looked for drivers wich I can download and put to a disk and then boot and install the drivers/controllers but I seem not to understand wich is correct for me.

Earlier you asked where the drivers are. Don't look for them from WD, look on your mobo CD and find them by exploring the CD in the Silicon Image drivers section.

The internal 31/32 SATA controller connection is shown in the manual. It is near the rear I/O block. Look in the following photo for the red connector near the center top of the photo:

http://www.xpcgear.com/a8n32slidel.html

If you're talking about where to connect the data cable to the HD, look at the shape of the connector I mentioned above - it's like an "L" - the same connector is used on the HD. For power on the HD, you can use a standard 4-pin Molex or a SATA power cable, depending on what you have and/or prefer. Don't use both.

 

[Banusflakes]

I don't know specifically about Asus motherboards but in my experience the default setting in BIOS is to have RAID set to "enabled" in the SATA configuration. In order to use one drive you must disable this option, otherwise the drive will detect in BIOS but Windows will not recognize it. I just had this problem with a Gigabyte board and I did not need a floppy, just had to disable the RAID function.