Techy SATA question

JoshK · « **on:** 18 Aug 2006, 01:57 am »

For the life of me I couldn't get WinXP to recognize my SATA drive on install. I updated my bios (EZ Flash rocks!) so that my MB recognized and detected the drive but when I boot off the *legit* WinXP sp2 disc to install it says it can't recognize any HDs (no others hooked up atm). I tried the F6 thing, it says it detected something that it didn't recognize. I can't believe wxpsp2 still doesn't have the ability to recognize a growing industry standard. Its a run of the mill nvidia chip too. Am I missing something obvious?

Levi · « **Reply #1 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 03:40 am »

If F6 didn't work then you need to find the correct driver for your system board or controller manufacturer.
Assuming that e.g. bios are configured properly. I need more info.

JoshK · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 03:53 am »

The SATA controller is the one built into my Asus Mobo (A7V600). I used the EZ flash to install the latest bios and when I went into bios setup it looked good to go. The bootup recognized the disk, just not the windows install. When I tried F6, I didn't get any options like you show. I don't have a disc to install the driver, I guess I could make one, but it is kinda a PITA since I only have one floppy drive so I have to rip it out of this PC, put it in my working one, make disc and then put it back into the PC I am trying to build.

Levi · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 04:36 am »

Yes. It is P.I.T.A.

shokunin · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 05:37 am »

the nvidia SATA drivers are definitely NOT on WinXP install discs. You have to slipstream the drivers for best results. Even if you do have the floppy the chances of blue-screening after the 1st reboot are high.

You can slipstream the drivers using nLite. nLite will take an image of your install disc, install the drivers or any drivers you want even automate things like network settings, license key, options, etc. etc. Do a google on slipstream and nvidia or slipstream drivers winxp and you'll get a number of sites outlining the process. You can also slipstrem the bazillion microsoft patches if you tend to re-install often.

Here's one..
http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=284&p=3

Download nlite..
http://www.nliteos.com/

Glenn

Levi · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 05:43 am »

Yes. I am familiar with slipstreaming. Excellent for building images for rollout.

Another PITA.

shokunin · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 05:58 am »

Josh,

Some mobos also have the option of emulating Flash USB drives as floppies, might also be worth a shot if you don't feel like making a whole new slipstreamed CD.

Levi · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 02:10 pm »

Windows setup looks for floppy or CD Rom devices.

JoshK · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 03:17 pm »

Thanks guys, I'll give it a shot tonight. I have had more problems with this PC build then any other I've built. It didn't help that I had two HD's die on me after I built it. I also only vaguely know what I am doing.

Thump553 · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Aug 2006, 11:09 pm »

EVery time I see a thread like this, the more I think my sister in law (a Mac diehard) may be right. It's ridiculous that you have to jump through such hopes to install mainstream technology.

brj · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 Aug 2006, 03:52 am »

I'll grant you that there are always specialized applications that will forever be limited to one particular platform, but with over 23,000 applications available for the Mac, it isn't hard to address the needs of almost everyone.

As for why companies stick with Microsoft despite the complexity and problems... innumerable reasons, of which bureaucratic inertia and inaccurate perception (rather than reality) play a surprisingly frequent role. Of course, dominance breeds familiarity, but they aren't quite as dominant as they used to be. While there are very good reasons to run Windows, lesser or unsupported reasons often seem to dominate. Have you ever heard the old quote "No one ever got fired for buying IBM"? Same mentality with Windows in many cases.

(As a point of reference, I use Linux, IRIX, Windows 2000, and Windows XP on a daily basis. I also once owned a Mac... and plan to again.)

Joshk, sorry for the side-track and my apologies for not having any useful advice in this situation, but I haven't done a Windows since owning a SATA drive. Of course that will change within the next month... I may be back to this thread for the lessons learned!

JohnR · « **Reply #11 on:** 19 Aug 2006, 04:23 am »

For home use, it's only a matter of whether the applications you want are available. I'm having a hard time thinking of software that I use that isn't on the Mac. And there's lots of good free stuff like Thunderbird and Firefox

FWIW I use Windows at work but Mac at home. OTOH I've never tried to install more drives in a Mac so for all I know it might as bad or worse.

Now, to return to your regularly scheduled SATA driver issues

Levi · « **Reply #12 on:** 19 Aug 2006, 04:30 am »

There is a technical bulletin in Seagate website about using jumpers. That is If you are using a Seagate I am guessing. It may even work with other newer HDDs.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/sata_lock.html

Quote

...
Some older 1.5Gbits/sec SATA cards do not support auto negotiation with newer 3.0Gbits/sec drives. Systems using older SATA host adapters may stop responding during boot or may respond with a “drive not detected” error. Seagate Barracuda 3.0Gbit/sec drives can be forced to 1.5Gbits/sec to allow support with these older SATA cards.

To force the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 drive to 1.5Gbits/sec mode, apply a jumper to the outer most pins of the jumper block. See Figure below.

This jumper block uses a 2mm jumper. This is the smaller of the standard jumper sizes.

JoshK · « **Reply #13 on:** 20 Aug 2006, 09:25 pm »

Well I got the PC up and running.

After d/l'ing the drivers and using the F6 choice it worked. It wasn't really that hard to do, but I just thought I wouldn't have to go to the trouble. I was wrong.

On another note, I just bought a Raid 5 card and 4 250gigers, so the PC will be built into a dedicated music server. I ran out of room on my main rig with only 2 120gig drivers in Raid 1. I am glad I configured it for Raid 1 cause I already had one major fault, which it was able to fix.

JoshK · « **Reply #14 on:** 26 Aug 2006, 02:04 am »

Yet more problems with this blankety-blank system....

Can you have an IRQ conflict with SATA? Shouldn't the system automatically sort out IRQ's?

I had Windows up and going on my first SATA drive [attached directly to sata controller on mobo, driver installed] and then I added in my highpoint 1820a rocketraid SATA controller and 4 Samsung 250gig drives [call this the array of drives for clarity]. Booted up, used CD rom that came with card to install drivers, rebooted and it took me into rocketraid's bios where I saw 3 disks, not 4. [by the way, I RTFM, it is no help] I did as the manual said and checked that all my power connectors were plugged in correctly and my SATA connectors were in....roger.

I proceeded anyway with just the 3, but computer won't boot to windows now. Checked bios, rebooted, now it won't recognize my first disk nor the first disk of the array. I unplugged the main OS disc to see if it would then see all 4 discs on raidcard....nada. I swapped power connections around....nada. I haven't yet tried unplugging array to see if I can get main disc back online, as I am growing weary.

I am a bit stumped. Any advice is appreciated.

zybar · « **Reply #15 on:** 26 Aug 2006, 02:13 am »

Buy a NAS box.

George

Levi · « **Reply #16 on:** 26 Aug 2006, 04:30 am »

I never heard of IRQ conflicts with SATA. What you have is a conflicting SATA controller dominating each other over boot priority. Let's start with basics:

1. Bring the computer back into original configuration. You want to bring it down to where windows used to boot up. Remove RAID card and disconnect HDDs. Once you are able to boot to Windows go to step 2.
2. Double check RAID card settings and jumpers.
3. Add RAID card. Check if bios detects it. Check if Windows XP detect it w/o problem. Once your system recognizes the RAID card.
4. Add one HDD at a time. Let bios and Windows XP detects it.
If you follow the steps above, you will find out which part failed. It is easy to troubleshoot that way. Since you are adding additional HDDs make sure you have at least 450watts of unadulterated power.

A simple solution you could have done is a USB external HDD. They are simply plug-n-play.

JoshK · « **Reply #17 on:** 26 Aug 2006, 05:17 am »

Thanks Levi,

Yeah, I usually fall back to the simple one step at a time, just like debugging a program. This time I was getting frustrated and had to put it down and do something else. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something trivial.

I have built many PC's over the years but I swear this file server project has been the damnedest. I could write a story about all the things that went wrong with it that shouldn't have. I can't blame it all on M$ because many of it has been bios related. ASUS and ABIT used to be names you could trust in mobos. My 5 year old ABIT KT7-raid board still gives me no problems even when shoe horning modern components inside. This ASUS has been nothing but trouble.

Levi · « **Reply #18 on:** 27 Aug 2006, 04:26 am »

I hope you have everything sorted out.

My current mobo is an ASUS P4C800-e Deluxe, and never had a problem since day one.

Just like yours, I too have an unconventional setup...I have Windows XP pro to boot using an adaptec 29160 Ultra160 SCSI card running with 15,000 rpm Ultra160 SCSI HDDs + several SATA HDDs to backup my data. I guess I am lucky.

JoshK · « **Reply #19 on:** 11 Nov 2006, 01:43 am »

OK, so I have update my PSU from a Thermaltake 420watter to a Hiper 580watter (baddass btw). That didn't solve anything. If I unconnect the SATA raid array I can boot to windows, if I connect it, my system won't see my primary sata drive and won't boot up windows. So I have some sort of IRQ'esque conflict but I don't know a damn thing about SATA mapping. Any clues?