Adding SATA drive to computer

[Mark H]

I have a 200GB SATA drive (western digital) and would like to add it to my
A7N8X Deluxe based computer for video editing. I have an existing 80GB EIDE
drive I am using now. I could not find anything in the motherboard manual
to help me with this endeavor. Do I need to change the jumper setting on
the existing EIDE drive? I installed the SATA drive last night, but the
BIOS did not see it (or I don't know where to look in the BIOS for a SATA
device), nor did windows XP. Help please.

Mark

 

[Ben Pope]

I have a 200GB SATA drive (western digital) and would like to add it to my
A7N8X Deluxe based computer for video editing. I have an existing 80GB
EIDE drive I am using now. I could not find anything in the motherboard
manual to help me with this endeavor. Do I need to change the jumper
setting on the existing EIDE drive? I installed the SATA drive last
night, but the BIOS did not see it (or I don't know where to look in the
BIOS for a SATA device), nor did windows XP. Help please.

You need to enable the SATA Jumper.

Then you will get the SATA BIOS load just after POST where the drive will be
recognised.

If you simply want to add the drive and leave the other drive to boot from:

Leave your other drives as they are, this is a completely seperate
controller.
Enable SATA with the Jumper
Install the .32 RAID driver from SiI
Partition and format the drive.

Driver is linked from my web page:
www.ben.pope.name/a7n8x_faq.html#Drivers

Ben

 

[Mark H.]

Ben,

Thanks for your help. I had already enabled SATA with the jumper. I
updated the driver based on the info you gave me. I'll give it a shot again
& post the results.

 

[Mark H.]

Unfortunately, I could not get the drive to be recognized by XP. When I
installed it, the hard drive spins up for a few seconds then slows down &
repeats this for about 5 cycles or so. Then it shuts down and I get the
windows XP home startup screen and it seems to sit there in an infinite
loop. I cut power after about 15 minutes or so. Also, the SATA drive
sounds like a buzz saw. I can hear it upstairs in my house. I've never
heard anything that loud, so I'm thinking it is something with the drive.
It's odd that I cant boot up OK even with a bad drive since that is not my
boot drive...help!

Ben,

Thanks for your help. I had already enabled SATA with the jumper. I
updated the driver based on the info you gave me. I'll give it a shot again
& post the results.


to

my

You need to enable the SATA Jumper.

Then you will get the SATA BIOS load just after POST where the drive

will

 

[Ben Pope]

Unfortunately, I could not get the drive to be recognized by XP. When I
installed it, the hard drive spins up for a few seconds then slows down &
repeats this for about 5 cycles or so. Then it shuts down and I get the
windows XP home startup screen and it seems to sit there in an infinite
loop. I cut power after about 15 minutes or so. Also, the SATA drive
sounds like a buzz saw. I can hear it upstairs in my house. I've never
heard anything that loud, so I'm thinking it is something with the drive.
It's odd that I cant boot up OK even with a bad drive since that is not my
boot drive...help!

Thats pretty odd... I take it you've installed the SATA RAID driver?

It certainly could be a dodgy drive... I've seen Windows wait for a CD drive
to access a CD before... I guess it could be something similar, and that
fact that it is so loud does lead to bad hard drive.

http://support.wdc.com/download/

See if you can get the diagnostics utility to shed some light.

Ben

 

[Mark H.]

Yup. Installed the drivers per your link, thanks. I can't even get the
computer to boot if the drive is installed & active (jumper not in the
standby power position) so I think I'll be asking newegg for a RMA #.
Thanks for your help Ben.

Mark

 

[Ben Pope]

Yup. Installed the drivers per your link, thanks. I can't even get the
computer to boot if the drive is installed & active (jumper not in the
standby power position) so I think I'll be asking newegg for a RMA #.
Thanks for your help Ben.

I wanted you to use the diagnostics utility, not drivers. I was expecting
the diagnostics utility to be dos based, it depends how far through the boot
process you don't get. With Hard Drives, you usually have to RMA to the
manufacturer and they will ask you to run their diagnositcs utility... I was
giving you a head start

Ben

 

[Mark H.]

I downloaded and ran the diagnostics utilities from WDC. The drive is seen
as a WD2500, no serial number, C H S: 0 16 63, capacity 0.00MB. I do notice
this "WD2500 0MB" when I try to boot up to winXP (unsuccessfully so
far). I tried to test the drive but got a response of "Unknown error!"
blinking on the screen, and an Error status code of 0101. Attached is the
diagnostics file. Anybody seen this before?? I need to RMA the drive by
halloween, so please respond if you can before then.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Ben Pope]

I downloaded and ran the diagnostics utilities from WDC. The drive
is seen as a WD2500, no serial number, C H S: 0 16 63, capacity
0.00MB. I do notice this "WD2500 0MB" when I try to boot up to
winXP (unsuccessfully so far). I tried to test the drive but got a
response of "Unknown error!" blinking on the screen, and an Error
status code of 0101. Attached is the diagnostics file. Anybody seen
this before?? I need to RMA the drive by halloween, so please
respond if you can before then.

0 Cylinders, eh? Well sounds like the seek could be dead then. (moving the
head in and out)

Get it RMA'd, lkely that WD deal with their own RMA issues.

Ben

 

[Mark H.]

OK, will do. Perhaps that is why it is sounds like an amplified dentists
drill ;-)

Mark