SOLUTION: New SATA hard drive, Asus mobo - not recognised...

[Cobra]

Hi guys,

I have just found a solution (I hope) that I wanted to share with everyone for future reference. I just got a new 250GB Seagate SATA drive (Barracuda 7200.8 ) that was recognised in BIOS and diagnosed fine with the Seagate utility but would not format correctly in either the Seagate setup boot disc or Windows XP setup. It could see it to begin with but couldn't access the drive.

I was plugging into the standard SATA_1 port (black) on the motherboard. I had the Promise SATA RAID (Promise) controller disabled in BIOS, and SATA BOOTROM enabled.

The solution was to reverse the BIOS setting so SATA BOOTROM is disabled and SATA RAID (Promise) controller enabled, and in IDE mode. You plug the drive into SATA_RAID_1 (red port) on the motherboard.

Now, put in Seagate DiscWizard and boot. The CD-ROM ISO is easier, available here:

http://www.seagate.com/support/index.html

You can now format the drive, with a 130-something limit on the partition. Don't worry about this, we'll nail it later. It will format in the blink of an eye, then instruct you to put Windows XP in and reboot. Do so.

You'll be needing a healthy PC for this part. Get a floppy disc and format it. Put your Asus CD in, and go to My Computer. Right-click the CD and select "Explore". Go Drivers --> Promise --> 378ATA. Double-click the "makedisk" application and make the floppy.

Upon booting Windows XP setup, look on the bottom of the screen and hit F6 when asked. If you've got a fancy keyboard, ensure function-lock is on! It will prompt you for a disc later, don't worry (it appears to have had no effect). Just drop the floppy in as instructed by Windows Setup.

Now you'll have to proceed to the part of installation where it asks you what partition you want to install onto. Delete the NTFS partition the Seagate utility put on for you, then hit Enter to install Windows onto the unpartitioned drive. Do a full NTFS format, and Bob's your mother's brother.

I was put on to this solution by this post:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70894

I hope this helps someone, sometime.

Cobra

[waheed]

Thanks for the input.

I did not have any problems with my SATA hard drive (seagate and western digital) and Asus MB.

I just simply created a new partition using fdisk on my new sata drive, proceeded with format and simply installed Winwows XP. Did not experience any problems at all.

I guess it all depends on the hardware configuration and setup.

[Cobra]

Maybe. What size was your drive?

I don't know why some suffer problems and others don't. I read about it on the Internet - a few fights broke out over it because you have a group of people saying that the problem exists between the keyboard and chair since they had no problems, and another group who have experienced genuine problems!

[waheed]

Mine is a Seagate 160GB Barracuda. My mate has also managed to format and install Win XP on his 200GB Seagate without any problems.

[virginva]

i never had a problem. just make sure the bios is enabled to recognize the right SATA controller as sometimes there are two. always have the floppy in while the windows install cd starts, and HIT F6!!!!! it always works.

[Cobra]

I tried all that. I went as per Seagate and Microsoft instructions, as well as my own knowledge and experience with new SATA drives. It just didn't work.

All I made the post for was to flag up on any searches on Google or something that this is a viable workaround for the problem.

I did - just out of curiosity - try unplugging the SATA cable from SATA_RAID_1 and putting it into SATA_1, then changing BIOS to enable SATA BOOTROM and disable IDE mode Promise RAID. Well, what a fright I got.

It rebooted and went a bit funky. Weird colours all over the place, flashing characters... The last time I saw that, I needed to re-flash my BIOS and almost didn't recover my motherboard - I'd been overclocking and pushed it a little too far.

So, if you are considering switching back then good luck, but I wouldn't try it. If it ain't broke...

[dcsos]

I'm sure this'll help others.
It seems like we're back to the days of WIN NT
when you hadda press f6
and interrupt the OS LOAD to load your SCSI driver , etc.
With WIN XP and SATA state of the art drives the MICROSOFT OS
is no longer the USER FRIENDLY XP experience that your chimp could load!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

I've been thinking about getting a SATA for storage -- NOT to use as my C: drive.
I also have an ASUS mobo, can you have IDE & SATA drives installed at the same time?
Or do you have to choose; one or the other?

[waheed]

Yes, you can have IDE and SATA installed at the same time.

[Cobra]

I can vouch for that - you can definitely run them together.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

Is there anything special you have to do?
BIOS settings or play with Device Manager? or is it simple plug & play like adding a new IDE drive?

[pfh]

There are some knowledgable people over at techimo.
Nice feeling you got it worked out heh?

[waheed]

Is there anything special you have to do?
BIOS settings or play with Device Manager? or is it simple plug & play like adding a new IDE drive?

I thinks its just simple plug and play. I used to have an IDE and SATA drive inside my PC. Initially it was IDE only, then i added a SATA drive and experienced no problems. My IDE was then replaced with another SATA.

You should have no problems with the setup.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

danka