win xp pro setup not finding sata drives

[squishy]

Hey, finally getting around to setting up my system to how I want it.

I've got one SATA hd, and one on IDE, the IDE currently has xp on, but I'm installling xp to the sata, then formatting the ide.

I had to put my old cd-rw back in (my dvd-rw is sata) so that setup could boot from the cd, and doing this meant rearranging my hardware, including hard drives (so cables would reach) but I left my ide hard drive unplugged from ide and power, as the ide cable was putting a lot of force on my ram sticks. Once xp is installed to the sata drive I can take out the cd-rw, move the hard drives back and replug, so that's alright.

After insterting the cd, I did the whole 'press F6 to install 3rd party drivers' for my motherboard's latest sata drivers, yet, after the setup loaded all the drivers and stuff, it tells me that it couldn't find any hard drives to install to.

Any suggestions, help, insights on similar problems and solutions appreciated

[Skinleech]

Have you got the right drivers? My mobo has got 2 sata controllers on it, so its possible yours does too, and you've installed the drivers for the wrong one?

[squishy]

Think so, they're labeled as SATA drivers, where as the other drive related drivers are all RAID stuff, which isn't what I have set up. I've got an Asus AV8 Deluxe in case it helps anyone.

Cheers for the reply, I might test out the other drivers just in case

[sabot77]

Sorry for an obvious answer, but how do the jumpers look on the drive? With all the switcho rearrango, any other devices on the sata cable that might be conflicting?

[toolsong]

I had the same issue loading XP SP2 onto a DFI NF4 SLI-DR...turns out it didn't need the extra F6 drivers at all.

[Splash]

I might be wrong, but on my A7N8X-E to boot from a my SATA drives you need to tell it to boot from RAID (even though they're not RAIDed)

[squishy]

I might be wrong, but on my A7N8X-E to boot from a my SATA drives you need to tell it to boot from RAID (even though they're not RAIDed)

Possible, as I know a similar option is in the BIOS, and I also know it's currently disabled. Cheers, will check out

I had the same issue loading XP SP2 onto a DFI NF4 SLI-DR...turns out it didn't need the extra F6 drivers at all.

I tried without first, well, more like I missed the message to press F6

Sorry for an obvious answer, but how do the jumpers look on the drive? With all the switcho rearrango, any other devices on the sata cable that might be conflicting?

Changed the IDE jumper to slave, there's only one possible jumper on the SATA drive, but that's to force 1.5GB/s transfer speed instead of 3GB/s. And there's only one drive on the cable, but there's a DVD+/-RW on the second SATA port, but I know they both work together, from using Windows on the IDE.


Cheers for the replies guys

[squishy]

Ok, so, update is that I've tried both BIOS options which encounter booting from SATA and RAID, neither worked with or without the F6 of the SATA or RAID drivers, so bugger.

Any more suggestions?

[Ramedge]

Just to clarify,
you have been in to the bios and you have enabled the silicon image sata controller and you have also enabled the SATA port and the settings for those ports are all set on "Auto"?
You have checked you have plugged it into the Silcon image SATA controller and not the NV RAID controller (if you have that on your board) ?
Tried different cables?
Tried HDD in another SATA enabled Computer?
Also if your using a pci satacontroller have you checked there isnt a IRQ conflict?

[squishy]

Just to clarify,
you have been in to the bios and you have enabled the silicon image sata controller and you have also enabled the SATA port and the settings for those ports are all set on "Auto"?
You have checked you have plugged it into the Silcon image SATA controller and not the NV RAID controller (if you have that on your board) ?
Tried different cables?
Tried HDD in another SATA enabled Computer?
Also if your using a pci satacontroller have you checked there isnt a IRQ conflict?

Uhh... something like that,
I made that mistake before, it's in the SATA port,
I know the HD works, so no need for different cables or PCs,
Not a PCI based controller, inbuilt motherboard.

Cheers

[squishy]

Sorry to bump, but no more ideas? It's kinda important

Cheers all

[floppybootstomp]

Assuming you're doing a clean install of Win XP, unplug all other hard drives first.

Mostly what the other guys have said really, make a floppy disk from motherboard CD with RAID/SATA drivers on and hit F6 at the prompt.

Check out the bios settings.

And as far as I know, there are no jumper settings on SATA drives, except for some Western Digital drives.

But most of all, when installing XP, disconnect all other hard drives, this forces it to find SATA drive.

[Ramedge]

Right so does the BIOS see the SATA drive when its connected ? also as mentioned boot from windows xp cd and try and insall xp onto the HDD

[squishy]

Assuming you're doing a clean install of Win XP, unplug all other hard drives first.

Mostly what the other guys have said really, make a floppy disk from motherboard CD with RAID/SATA drivers on and hit F6 at the prompt.

Check out the bios settings.

And as far as I know, there are no jumper settings on SATA drives, except for some Western Digital drives.

But most of all, when installing XP, disconnect all other hard drives, this forces it to find SATA drive.

Clean install, and the SATA drive is the only one attached at the time of install.

Done F6ing with several BIOS options, with all the variants. It's a Samsung, heh, one jumper, but that's to do with transfer speed.

The BIOS sees the drive Ramedge, and I'm booting from the CD yeah

Cheers again guys