Help with SATA setup

[MSG]

Have an Asus A8V Deluxe MB, have connected a single SATA drive to one of the
SATA connectors and tried to load windows on with the F6 driver thing. The
drive is recognised in the BIOS but when i press enter to intall XP it says
no drive is there to install OS on.

So, I added a single IDE drive and installed XP on this, i then booted up
and added the raid drivers from the motherboard CD, i then used Partition
Magic to copy the XP install from the IDE drive to the single SATA drive,
now when i boot up it gives me the option of starting XP from the IDE drive
or the SATA drive, however when i remove the IDE it says no boot device can
be found, how can i make it boot from the SATA without having the IDE drive
connected??

cheers for any help

 

[John Weiss]

Have an Asus A8V Deluxe MB, have connected a single SATA drive to one of the
SATA connectors and tried to load windows on with the F6 driver thing. The
drive is recognised in the BIOS but when i press enter to intall XP it says no
drive is there to install OS on.

So, I added a single IDE drive and installed XP on this, i then booted up and
added the raid drivers from the motherboard CD, i then used Partition Magic to
copy the XP install from the IDE drive to the single SATA drive, now when i
boot up it gives me the option of starting XP from the IDE drive or the SATA
drive, however when i remove the IDE it says no boot device can be found, how
can i make it boot from the SATA without having the IDE drive connected??

Did you load all the SATA and RAID drivers from floppy at the F6 prompt? Did
you set up the SATA/RAID BIOS for your intended configuration? Some RAID
controllers (e.g., my Promise) requires the RAID drivers and the RAID BIOS setup
even if you don't actually use RAID.

You may have to boot from CD and re-install XP with only the SATA drive
connected, using the appropriate drivers.

Also, make sure that boot from SATA is higher in priority in your BIOS than IDE
boot.

 

[itemyar]

I'm no expert, not even close, but I'm about to build a PC with a single
SATA drive too, so I might be faced with the same problem.

I've been told that by default, Windows will look for an IDE drive to load
itself on and unless you make the changes in your BIOS (boot order/drive
designation) the OS will get installed on the IDE drive. I have an older
Dell with a SCSI drive for my 'C' drive, plus an IDE drive (D), and a couple
of times in the past I've had to reinstall Windows; well I always forget and
Windows gets installed on my 'D' drive. For me, I learned to just unplug my
IDE and then Windows installs on my SCSI okay, but I have to make sure that
the BIOS settings are correct as it relates to which drive is my 'C' drive.
Obviously my system is different from yours, but maybe this will give you a
clue as to what might be happening.

Good luck,
Ray

 

[MSG]

Did you load all the SATA and RAID drivers from floppy at the F6 prompt?
Did you set up the SATA/RAID BIOS for your intended configuration? Some
RAID controllers (e.g., my Promise) requires the RAID drivers and the RAID
BIOS setup even if you don't actually use RAID.

You may have to boot from CD and re-install XP with only the SATA drive
connected, using the appropriate drivers.

Also, make sure that boot from SATA is higher in priority in your BIOS
than IDE boot.

Hi John
Thanks for the reply, the reason i loaded windows onto the IDE and then
cloned it to the SATA drive is because when i did the F6 thing with the SATA
drive on its own it looked on the floppy for the drivers and loaded them but
still didnt recognise the drive being there at all. i dont want the IDE
drive in there just the SATA, ive ensured that the raid settings are set in
the BIOS and the boot from SATA is enabled, just wont seam to recognise it
though, but the drives fine as partiiotn magic sees it and has cloned the
the IDE drive to it
cheers for any more help

 

[John Weiss]

Thanks for the reply, the reason i loaded windows onto the IDE and then cloned
it to the SATA drive is because when i did the F6 thing with the SATA drive on
its own it looked on the floppy for the drivers and loaded them but still
didnt recognise the drive being there at all. i dont want the IDE drive in
there just the SATA, ive ensured that the raid settings are set in the BIOS
and the boot from SATA is enabled, just wont seam to recognise it though, but
the drives fine as partiiotn magic sees it and has cloned the the IDE drive to
it

All I can think of then is to recheck the RAID BIOS setup for proper
single-drive operation (recheck the controller docs), and make sure ALL
applicable RAID and SATA drivers are on the floppy, even if you don't think they
are applicable.

Next, delete the current partition on the SATA drive (even if you have to boot
from the IDE drive to do it), and repartition it during the XP setup. If you
have it configured as an extended partition instead of a Primary partition, it
will not be bootable in DOS/Win. If you have a large drive, I recommend a
relatively small Primary partition for the OS (and apps if you like), and an
extended partition for data, archive, etc. Actual size of the Primary partition
depends on the total drive size and your personal preferences.

 

[Michael Hawes]

All I can think of then is to recheck the RAID BIOS setup for proper
single-drive operation (recheck the controller docs), and make sure ALL
applicable RAID and SATA drivers are on the floppy, even if you don't
think they are applicable.

Next, delete the current partition on the SATA drive (even if you have to
boot from the IDE drive to do it), and repartition it during the XP setup.
If you have it configured as an extended partition instead of a Primary
partition, it will not be bootable in DOS/Win. If you have a large drive,
I recommend a relatively small Primary partition for the OS (and apps if
you like), and an extended partition for data, archive, etc. Actual size
of the Primary partition depends on the total drive size and your personal
preferences.

Check BIOS settings for SATA. Most newer motherboards give option for
SATA to emulate PATA, so windows thinks it is installing on PATA,
Mike.