VISTA Premium 64-bit OEM will not find my Western Digital SATA HD

[Bilbo333]

I have been trying for 2 weeks now to install Vista on my new build. My BIOS
finds the HD fine. XP will find the HD fine in my build VISTA continues to
not find it so I can do a clean install.

I have tried every suggestion I have seen or have been given in forums and
with contact from my MB company. Here are the things I have tried:

Only 1 2gig stick of ram.
Changed BIOS settings, turned on AHCI, Turned off AHCI
Turned on SATA Port 0-1 Native Turned off
I pulled the HD and tested it and formatted it in another system and it is
fine.
I put a full copy of XP in my system and it found the drive.
MY board is a non raid board but I tried feeding intel chipset drivers with
no luck.
My MB BIOS version is current.
I changed the SATA cables.
I tried all 4 ports on my MB.
I only have 1 HD and 1 IDE DVD Drive
I tried the default BIOS settings.

Here is my build:

CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3L version 2.0
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KSRTL 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
RAM:CORSAIR 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
Kit
PS: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C
Power Supply
GC: VGA XFX PVT84JYAJG 8600GT 512M RT
CASE: RAIDMAX|ATX-612WB BK RT


If anyone has any ideas to try besides buying XP and forgetting VISTA 64
please post.

Thank you

 

[Mick Murphy]

Normally where it can't find the HD, at F6 you have to install the SATA
drivers for it.
That is the advice being given here!

 

[Bilbo333]

Thank you for the repsonses but I have been down that road already with no
luck. Well at least I have tried. I downloaded the INTEL chipset raid/sata
drivers for my MB chipset and hit f6 to browse for them from my flash drive.
VISTA was set to only list compatible drivers for my system. I chose the
sata drivers 1 at a time with no chnage. The HD still not found. I also
went to Gigabyte's webpage, found the overview page for my MB and downloaded
the most current chipset drivers with no luck and the same result.

Its clear that VISta is not communicating with the HD but both the MB
company and the HD company claim VISTA should have the driver for my HD and
setup to work.

I am still just at a loss and getting very frustrated at this hassle just
trying to do an install.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have been trying for 2 weeks now to install Vista on my new build. My
BIOS
finds the HD fine. XP will find the HD fine in my build VISTA continues to
not find it so I can do a clean install.

I have tried every suggestion I have seen or have been given in forums and
with contact from my MB company. Here are the things I have tried:

Only 1 2gig stick of ram.
Changed BIOS settings, turned on AHCI, Turned off AHCI
Turned on SATA Port 0-1 Native Turned off
I pulled the HD and tested it and formatted it in another system and it is
fine.
I put a full copy of XP in my system and it found the drive.
MY board is a non raid board but I tried feeding intel chipset drivers
with
no luck.
My MB BIOS version is current.
I changed the SATA cables.
I tried all 4 ports on my MB.
I only have 1 HD and 1 IDE DVD Drive
I tried the default BIOS settings.

Here is my build:

CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3L version 2.0
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KSRTL 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
RAM:CORSAIR 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual
Channel
Kit
PS: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C
Power Supply
GC: VGA XFX PVT84JYAJG 8600GT 512M RT
CASE: RAIDMAX|ATX-612WB BK RT


If anyone has any ideas to try besides buying XP and forgetting VISTA 64
please post.

Download the manufacturer's utility and format or zero track zero. Sometimes
the manufacturer calls this a low level format. This will clear the drive of
all information.

 

[John Barnes]

Vista has a problem installing with 4gig memory, so first remove 2. There
is a hotfix for this after the install. Retry installing the drivers which
match your BIOS settings when you get to the screen where you select your
drive. Use the Load Driver button

 

[Bob F.]

Please include enough of the previous message(s) so that others trying to
follow this thread know what you are talking about. Also please try to
"edit out" the non relevant portions. It helps everyone. Go to:
Tools > Options > Send > check - "Include message in reply"

 

[Bilbo333]

I had the same problem with almost identical hardware. The bios would
find the harddrive but Vista 64Bit home premium was unable to find drive
on install. The bios could find the drive and I could also boot off a
CD containing Western Digital's data life gaurd hard drive system test
software. The drive checked out perfectly but vista still would not
recognize the drive on install. I eventually had to:

1) turn off ACHI
2) turn on SATA Port 0-1 Native ON.

Vista appeared to like this combination.

Here is my build:

CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core 2.4
MB: Gigabyte GA-P35 DS3L version 2.0
HD: Western Digital Caviar 320GB

Well, I am happy to say I finally got this issue solved.

I had to take the HD out of my build, connect to a second computer with a
sata/usb adapter, run western digital tools to create a new partition that I
formated and then VISTA finally found the drive in my new build. I don't
know why I needed to do that. I did at one time test XP in the build to see
if there was a problem with the sata ports or the HD so maybe the xp was
interfering I am not sure. After 3 weeks the issue is solved.

All along I have had the bios settings correct and had only 2 gigs of ram
installed with no luck until creating a bootable formatted partition.