New Build - Mobo Doesn't Recognize SATA Drives

[DonC]

We shall see. Haven't been stumped yet : )

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are crap;
and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS options one
more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume ASUS's manuals
are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION SETUP
(8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same for 3&4).
Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE FUNCTIONS?
I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent Drive
Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost universally
refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?) stuck 'em there
rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS" as a separate
submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

 

[Bob M]

We shall see. Haven't been stumped yet : )

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are crap;
and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS options one
more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume ASUS's manuals
are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION SETUP
(8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same for 3&4).
Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE FUNCTIONS?
I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent Drive
Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost universally
refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?) stuck 'em there
rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS" as a separate
submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

Thanks for reporting back. Most people wouldn't have admitted they
made a mistake. I figured it had to be a BIOS setting. It always pays to
read the manual. <G> I'm glad you got it up and running.

Bob

 

[DonC]

The likelihood that the all the drives and

MBs
are defective is extremely remote.
As HAL might say, PEBKAC.

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are
crap; and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS
options one more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume
ASUS's manuals are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION
SETUP (8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same
for 3&4). Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE
FUNCTIONS? I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent
Drive Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost
universally refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?)
stuck 'em there rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS"
as a separate submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

Thanks for reporting back. Most people wouldn't have admitted they made a
mistake. I figured it had to be a BIOS setting. It always pays to read the
manual. <G> I'm glad you got it up and running.

Bob

Bob,

I wouldn't say I caught it via the manual. ASUS manuals aren't that easy to
navigate short of reading every single page with a magnifying glass and
then employing advanced language translation skills : ) All ASUS cared to
tell one about SATA was all the RAID configurations : (

Actually I just decided to go through every single menu/submenu to ferret
out any settings that might have been poorly placed or overlooked.

Great thing about this hobby is that you tend to learn a lot of new stuff
every time you venture forward!

Thanks,

Don

 

[Michael Cecil]

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are crap;
and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS options one
more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume ASUS's manuals
are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION SETUP
(8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same for 3&4).
Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE FUNCTIONS?
I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent Drive
Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost universally
refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?) stuck 'em there
rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS" as a separate
submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

Welcome. Glad I could nudge you in the right direction.

 

[farno]

I have three bad hard drives, as improbable as that sounds.

Last night I was on the phone with Gigabyte support for 1/2 hour
trying absolutely everything without success, at which point the tech
gave up and said that his opinion was that the drives were bad. He
said it's not uncommon for an entire lot to be bad.

So tonight I went to Best Buy and bought a new WD SATA hard drive,
went home, and plugged it in, in the place of one of my lemons. I
booted up and the PC recognized it immediately.

So tomorrow I'll get an RMA number from newegg, return them, and get
three WD drives in their place.

Thanks to all for your help and concern.

farno

 

[Jan Alter]

I have three bad hard drives, as improbable as that sounds.

Last night I was on the phone with Gigabyte support for 1/2 hour
trying absolutely everything without success, at which point the tech
gave up and said that his opinion was that the drives were bad. He
said it's not uncommon for an entire lot to be bad.

So tonight I went to Best Buy and bought a new WD SATA hard drive,
went home, and plugged it in, in the place of one of my lemons. I
booted up and the PC recognized it immediately.

So tomorrow I'll get an RMA number from newegg, return them, and get
three WD drives in their place.

Thanks to all for your help and concern.

farno

MEDIA (my eyelid dropped in amazement)

Maybe Newegg will pay the shipping back since the problem was with 3 drives
and not just one.

 

[DonC]

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are
crap;
and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS options
one
more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume ASUS's
manuals
are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION SETUP
(8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same for 3&4).
Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE
FUNCTIONS?
I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent Drive
Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost universally
refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?) stuck 'em there
rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS" as a separate
submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

Welcome. Glad I could nudge you in the right direction.

Now if you could shed some light on XXCOPY's ability to clone an XP drive, I
appreciate it. I swear I did it once several years ago but maybe it was Win
98 or ME. I remember having to do multiple session to get the last files
copied and then needing to run a program to build the boot sector.

 

[harikeo]

MEDIA (my eyelid dropped in amazement)

Maybe Newegg will pay the shipping back since the problem was with 3 drives
and not just one.

You mean in US there isn't a law forcing companies to refund postage
costs on broken products?

 

[DevilsPGD]

You mean in US there isn't a law forcing companies to refund postage
costs on broken products?

In general, no. However, if it's DOA, you can force the issue through
your credit card company.

 

[harikeo]

In general, no. However, if it's DOA, you can force the issue through
your credit card company.

That's not good and having to phone the CC company is just extra hassle.

I recently had 3 bad new drives in a row and that would have cost me
quite a bit if I had to send them back recorded and insured.

 

[Michael Cecil]

<BEGIN EATING CROW>

Given: 1) my initial thought that the SW to recognize SATA drives had to
reside in BIOS; 2) my past (and present) opinion that ASUS manuals are
crap;
and 3) Michael's "PEBKAC" final push, I gave the manual and BIOS options
one
more scrutiny coming from the prospective that I can't assume ASUS's
manuals
are logical. AND then I found the solution!

Buried in ADVANCED (5 options) | ONBOARD DEVICES (15) | IDE FUNCTION SETUP
(8), I found an entry "SATA port 1&2 [Enable/Disable]" (+ same for 3&4).
Obviously they were all disabled.

Why I ask myself does ASUS stick 'em there? Are SATA ports IDE
FUNCTIONS?
I guess one could say that SATA drives employ "Intelligent Drive
Electronics" or "Integrated Drive Electronics" but IDE almost universally
refers to PATA drives. In all likelihood ASUS (Phoenix?) stuck 'em there
rather than go to the bother of adding "SATA FUNCTIONS" as a separate
submenu.

</END EATING CROW>

Thanks Michael! I know have a fully functional SATA up and running.

Welcome. Glad I could nudge you in the right direction.

Now if you could shed some light on XXCOPY's ability to clone an XP drive, I
appreciate it. I swear I did it once several years ago but maybe it was Win
98 or ME. I remember having to do multiple session to get the last files
copied and then needing to run a program to build the boot sector.

You're probably remembering 98 or ME. Even the authors of XXCopy have
said it's not really appropriate for NTFS drives and that's why they came
out with XXClone and even with it you need to run the /repair option so
the boot sector is copied to the target drive I believe.

You could just try booting with your XP disc to enter the recovery console
and use the fixboot and possibly the fixmbr commands to restore the boot
sector on your new drive, however. (Don't forget to remove or disconnect
the old boot drive during the first boot up with the new drive into XP.)

 

[DonC]

You mean in US there isn't a law forcing companies to refund postage costs
on broken products?

I had little trouble convincing newegg that it was in their best interest to
pay for the return of a single DOA arrival. I just mentioned that I would
contact my Credit Card company and also share my problem with every rating
service and user forum.

 

[DonC]

That's not good and having to phone the CC company is just extra hassle.

I recently had 3 bad new drives in a row and that would have cost me quite
a bit if I had to send them back recorded and insured.

Just the threat is usually enough to get them to do the right thing. You're
crazy if you don't try.

 

[DonC]

You're probably remembering 98 or ME. Even the authors of XXCopy have
said it's not really appropriate for NTFS drives and that's why they came
out with XXClone and even with it you need to run the /repair option so
the boot sector is copied to the target drive I believe.

You could just try booting with your XP disc to enter the recovery console
and use the fixboot and possibly the fixmbr commands to restore the boot
sector on your new drive, however. (Don't forget to remove or disconnect
the old boot drive during the first boot up with the new drive into XP.)

Interesting! That thought had run through my mind. Do the clone knowing it
would have problems. Then do a repair reinstall. Hopefully it would make it
bootable, repair any missing or defective components and retain my original
data and settings.

Think it would work?

I'm doing all my "new" MB, etc. installation on a test computer 'cuz I want
it all to work without messing up my main computer. So I have a great test
bed to try it. When I'm done the test computer less the new MB, SATA
drive, CPU, memory, etc. goes back to the parts bin : )

 

[Michael Cecil]

Interesting! That thought had run through my mind. Do the clone knowing it
would have problems. Then do a repair reinstall. Hopefully it would make it
bootable, repair any missing or defective components and retain my original
data and settings.

Think it would work?

Well, I don't think you need to do a full repair install. On the first
screen of the XP setup is a choice for repairing XP by using the console.
That's probably all you need to do.

I'm doing all my "new" MB, etc. installation on a test computer 'cuz I want
it all to work without messing up my main computer. So I have a great test
bed to try it. When I'm done the test computer less the new MB, SATA
drive, CPU, memory, etc. goes back to the parts bin : )

Oh, if you're going to change more than just the drive, then doing a full
repair install IS what you'd want to do. A clean install is preferable
for a permanent installation but if you're just testing a repair install
should be fine.

 

[DevilsPGD]

That's not good and having to phone the CC company is just extra hassle.

In my case, it's just an email to start the process; unless I am
claiming unauthorized-charges, no paperwork or phone calls are required.

My bank is good that way though, many are not.

I have rarely pushed a chargeback through, usually the company finds it
in their heart to offer some sort of compensation if I drop the
chargeback complaint (and if it's a company I deal with regularly, I'm
more then happy to accept free shipping on a future order, or whatnot)

Actually, in several cases I've managed to negotiate directly with the
company. I tend to be relatively loyal, and whether it's an electronics
supply company or a pizza place, I can usually print out a list showing
at least a dozen transactions, usually 4-6 digits worth of total dollars
spent there, they'll usually waive a $20 shipping charge to pacify me.

Just be polite but firm, ask but don't demand, compliment and thank when
appropriate, and above all, control your tone (verbal or written), don't
lose your temper and never swear.

Also be sure to follow-up with positive feedback afterward, it may make
future dealings go well (and in some cases, I've received additional
"thank-yous" from the company after the issue was resolved, in direct
response to my thank-you letter to the company)

It would be nice if it was formally written in law that a company must
pay return shipping charges for DOA, but it's not usually needed.