Never had a successful SATA build

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

Through 3 systems, 3 separate motherboards, I have not yet been able to get SATA to work. I would hit F6 during Windows installation and load the SATA drivers, but after the installation phase before Windows itself loads for the first time, it BSODs on me with a non-page error (I don't recall the exact error message). I must be doing something wrong. I am using a 40GB SATA drive and 2 40GB ATA drives and have tried unplugging the ATA drives during installation and all that, but nothing that I've tried seems to work. Do I have to set up RAID for the SATA to work? I am using a different SATA hard drive this time and I'm getting the same problem, so it's not that it's a bad hard drive, it must be a setting that I'm missing.

Also, is there any system performance increase with using SATA vs ATA? I am planning on getting a SATA DVD-RW drive, so it would be cool to use a SATA hard drive as well so I can load and install games faster.

 

[babaghan]

Normally, SATA HDDs work without RAID. In fact, that's the way many people use them. I suppose there's some increase in transfer speed, but depending on the HDD. I like SATA mainly because of the cabling - much neater than ATA ribbon cables.

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[sausagemandan]

cant get mine working either install goes fine untill first boot then i get error
loading os message.

 

[tomwaddle]

Through 3 systems, 3 separate motherboards, I have not yet been able to get SATA to work. I would hit F6 during Windows installation and load the SATA drivers, but after the installation phase before Windows itself loads for the first time, it BSODs on me with a non-page error (I don't recall the exact error message). I must be doing something wrong. I am using a 40GB SATA drive and 2 40GB ATA drives and have tried unplugging the ATA drives during installation and all that, but nothing that I've tried seems to work. Do I have to set up RAID for the SATA to work? I am using a different SATA hard drive this time and I'm getting the same problem, so it's not that it's a bad hard drive, it must be a setting that I'm missing.

Also, is there any system performance increase with using SATA vs ATA? I am planning on getting a SATA DVD-RW drive, so it would be cool to use a SATA hard drive as well so I can load and install games faster.

You either have the worst luck buying mobos or your hard drives are shot. Load windows on your ATA drive and test your SATA drives to see if they are ok. Also check for new SATA on your new mobo. And no, SATA drives do not need to be in a Raid to work. RAIDS to the general public are overrated and left to the hard core PC enthusiast. Expect some increases in load times and transferring files but don't expect it to be a night and day difference.

 

[tomwaddle]

cant get mine working either install goes fine untill first boot then i get error
loading os message.

if you can be more specific with your error message, that might help getting an answer. Also posting your mobo model might help too in case another person has run into the same problem. The same goes to the OP.

 

[TMSter]

First thing to be asked is what motherboard you have then find a driver that windows can use for your motherboard, put that on a floppy so when you hit f6 you have it to install, then windows should just install it after you get to the screen that you will be asked to hit the s key. Or you could set them up as EIDE so you don't need the floppy drive, i personally go the first way.

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

Trust me, it's not a driver problem or a hardware failure problem because I can get a SATA drive to work as a storage drive but I can't boot from one. Ever. Drivers are installed, cables are fine, power is fine, trust me, over the past 2 years I have been unable to get Windows to boot from a SATA drive, and have used 3 different drives and 3 different motherboards.

Is there some kind of trick to getting Windows to boot from a SATA drive?

 

[tomwaddle]

No trick to it. Put the drivers on the floppy. Hit F6 when prompted to load the necessary SATA drivers and you should be rockin.
If they can be used for storage then there's no reason Windows can't boot to em.


Any chance you have been using the same case for all your troubled mobos?

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

I've done that. Still won't work.

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

Any chance you have been using the same case for all your troubled mobos?

2 separate cases. In fact my current one is an awesome Antec P180 sound-dampening case. It's amazing. My last case was a Platinum Systems Luna case with a side window, but that case was sorta crappy (every bit of sound came through. You could hear a fat baby walking on cotton in that case).

 

[tomwaddle]

how about your install CDs? Are they scratched up? Are they legit CDs and not something that was purchased for $5 off ebay?

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

Like I said, everything is fine with everything, that's why I don't understand why Windows won't boot from SATA.

 

[tomwaddle]

sorry man, I'm out of suggestions then. Unless you do another install and can get the BSOD error message, it's hard to suggest what else could be done.
What version are you using anyway for Windows?

I just had another thought on your hard drives. Have you ran any hard drive tests on the SATA drive? Perhaps during the windows install, it is coming across bad sectors that may not necessarily show up when it is setup as a storage drive.

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

I tried both quick format and regular format (regular format checks for bad sectors), and never had any problems there. Remember, they work fine as regular storage drives.

I would hate to give up altogether (again). Does Windows Vista handle SATA without needing 3rd-party drivers?

 

[tomwaddle]

you say you have used 3 different drives... are they all SATA?

 

[sgtdisturbed47sgtd]

... Yes.

 

[tomwaddle]

sorry man. I got nothin then.

 

[kukito]

I would hate to give up altogether (again). Does Windows Vista handle SATA without needing 3rd-party drivers?

Yes, but so does XP. You only need the floppy for RAID (AFAIK). What motherboard are you using? You can install Vista without a license on a trial basis so maybe you can "borrow" a copy to see if it works and then buy a license if it does.

To troubleshoot, make sure you have no other drives installed on your PC aside from the SATA drive and the optical. Set your BIOS to its default settings and try again.

 

[pat]

I tried both quick format and regular format (regular format checks for bad sectors), and never had any problems there. Remember, they work fine as regular storage drives.

I would hate to give up altogether (again). Does Windows Vista handle SATA without needing 3rd-party drivers?

First, what chipset does your motherboard has, and what is the model?

Second, Do you have any clue about RAID, how it work and what is the purpose?

Third, do you understand the different SATA things like SATA150, SATAII?

Fourth, do you know that the drivers are NOT for the drive itself, but for the controller?

An swering these question will help us to diagnose your problem faster.

 

[leo2kp]

Some motherboards require you to load more than one driver to get the drive to work. Try loading all drivers from the floppy if you have more than one choice (my last two boards came with 2 sets of drivers each, had to load them both. Intel and Gigabyte controllers for one board, Intel and NVidia for the other).

One thing I don't understand is why you're installing RAID controllers if you're using a single drive? Have you tried installing without hitting F6?

 

[martyjs]

I've never had a problem with Gigabyte Motherboards, Using one now, where I work our systems have been using SATA drives as the only drive in the system for over 2 years.

Just built this system I,m using 2 days ago and installed Vista on Seagate 160GB SATA II HDD, on a 2 year old Gigabyte MOBO. I installed it strait from the DVD and the main drive was unformatted and had no partition. Strait on with no special drivers.

What's with the 40GB SATA hard drive? 8O In Australia we can't even get them smaller than 80GB's

 

[leo2kp]

I never had a problem with Gigabyte either. Just sometimes you need to load more than one file to get the RAID controller to work.

BUT he's loading RAID drivers to install an OS on a single drive. AFAIK you won't need to load those for a single drive. Just proceed without hitting F6 IMO

 

[martyjs]

The other thing I do is to turn the RAID function off. The only time I've had trouble is with SATA drives is with a SATA II drive on SATA I controller. The way around that is to set the the jumpers on the SATA II drive to SATA I via the jumpers on the back of the drive.

 

[martyjs]

I have had a problem with an older board that automatically gives an IDE drive focus over a SATA drive, but that is only when both drives had a partition and both drives had the first partition set "active".

2 Possible work a rounds, First one is to delete the partition on the IDE drive until after the OS is installed on the SATA drive. The second is simple run a disk partitioning tool and make sure the SATA drive is set to "Active" and the IDE drive is set to "Inactive".
This is an unusual problem but it did happen to me once.
8O

 

[dietzjack]

CURRENT motherboard? BIOS revision? Try making a boot disk and updating your BIOS if you don't have the latest version. Make sure you have BIOS set to boot the SATA drive 1st and not try any devices after that.

SATA drive model?

During boot 2 things need to work together: The board and the boot device (Could be anything, but in this case it is the SATA drive). I just want to make sure your board maker doesn't know anything about booting from a SATA drive that you don't.

For a quick test you could copy an image of your current drive to the SATA drive if it's less than 40GB and then try booting.