How do you set up Vista on a SATA drive?

M

M Skabialka

Decided I needed a new PC, so bought and assembled all new components and
started to install Vista Business. The HDD is a 500GB SATA drive, the
DVD/RW is SATA. 8 GB RAM, but took that down to 4 GB since it isn't Vista
64bit edition..

Anyway, Vista started to install but got a BSOD within a minute. Checked
all hardware settings and tried again, and again. Every time it gets a
different STOP error. So used an XP CD to format the drive figuring that
was the problem. It finished formatting then said it couldn't copy a file
kodak??.??? Tried Vista again - BSOD.

Tried booting to the motherboard driver CD to find SATA drives but my only
options on boot up was to set up a RAID array. I'm happy with just a normal
non-RAID setup. There is no floppy drive. The Maxtor CD would not boot at
all.



So, how do you set up Vista on a new SATA drive? Is there a set of steps to
take that isn't listed in the drive or motherboard installation booklets?
 
J

Joe cann

you need to load the sata drivers perhaps while vista is in the first stages
of its install
 
M

M Skabialka

It doesn't get to that point - I get the BSOD almost as soon as Vista starts
to install. There is a white progress bar across the bottom, then sometimes
it gets as far as the screen with a flag and a small progress bar (like when
you boot your PC) and once I even got as far as the blue and green picture
used as the default desktop background, but never got to any point where I
am asked to install drivers or answer any prompts at all.

So how else do you install SATA drivers?
 
D

DP

How do you know the problem is with the SATA drive?
You said you're getting a variety of stop-errors. So why or how did you
pinpoint SATA drive as the problem? Could be anything, couldn't it?
 
M

Malke

M said:
It doesn't get to that point - I get the BSOD almost as soon as Vista starts
to install. There is a white progress bar across the bottom, then sometimes
it gets as far as the screen with a flag and a small progress bar (like when
you boot your PC) and once I even got as far as the blue and green picture
used as the default desktop background, but never got to any point where I
am asked to install drivers or answer any prompts at all.
Click to expand...

Since you don't get to the point where you'd provide the controller
drivers for your SATA hard drive, some other piece of hardware is
failing or is not Vista-compliant. Since you built the machine yourself,
you're the tech support so start troubleshooting all your hardware.
Before you even do that, if you already didn't do this go to each
hardware component mftr.'s website and a) make sure it is
Vista-compatible; b) get the drivers for it.

Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps. After you do them
(and replace anything that has failed, like the RAM), install with a
stripped down machine: 2GB of RAM only, 1 hard drive, 1 DVD drive, 1
video card. If you have a high-end video card, install using a
plain-vanilla one and put the fancy one in after the OS has installed
correctly.


Malke
 
C

Carlos

Hi,
Install Vista with only 2 GB RAM present.
Those BSOD's are a known issue with Vista installs on > 2 GB RAM.
After you are done with the installation you can safely place the
substracted 2 GB's in order to get your 4 GB back.
Carlos
 
S

Synapse Syndrome

M Skabialka said:
So, how do you set up Vista on a new SATA drive? Is there a set of steps
to take that isn't listed in the drive or motherboard installation
booklets?
Click to expand...


Try turning the SATA ports to IDE Legacy mode in the BIOS, and then install
Vista. After that, be sure to turn the SATA ports back to AHCI mode if you
have an Intel chipset, or Enhanced SATA or whatever its called in nVidia or
VIA chipsets.

ss.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

Carlos, I suspect he is using 2x2GB dimms because he had 8GB and reduced it
to four. If so that should not be any problem at all.

The problem with "4GB" doesn't exist. It's urban legend. It just so
happens that most people are using 1x1GB dimms and that fills the fourth
dimm slot. It is the fourth dimm slot, not the amount of ram, which is an
issue if the ram is pc6400 with many mobos. But since the user had a
problem with "4GB" and isn't thinking "4 dimms" the urban legend grows.
Mobos with nVidia chipsets appear to be especially prone to this. It isn't
the amount of ram but the number of dimms in these machines. I call it the
fourth d*mn dimm effect.

I have installed Vista x86 and x64 on my AMD64 Athlon x2 system from day one
of the beta without issues using 4x1GB pc6400 dimms but was never able to do
so on another box running a Core 2 Duo. One obvious difference is that AMD
puts the memory contoller on the chip and Intel on the board.

Clearly it depends on specific hardware and I suspect that it comes down to
memory controllers that do 32bit dma. Pc5300 or pc6400 run at 667 seems to
be a key resolution. In any case, there is no hard and fast rule about
Vista not installing on ram greater than any particular amount. In fact I
installed Vista Ultimate x64 on this box with 6GB installed (I too have one
of those fourth d*mn dimm mobos and haven't bothered clocking back the dram
speed).

If the OP is only using 2 dimm slots then you may safely rule out the amount
of ram as the issue. A bad stick is still possible but he has probably done
some swapping already and ruled that out.

His issue is some other hardware issue perhaps, but nothing to do with the
amount of ram.

Just a thought.
 
A

alexB

I have a very narrow competence in your issue but let me throw in something
perhaps stupid but perhaps relevant. Make sure your high speed connection is
unplugged during the install until Vista starts asking for it.
 
C

Colin Barnhorst

With all due respect, Vista will install no matter the previous NTFS
formatting (or none). It does a quick format if it needs to. In any case
the symptom is occuring far too early for it to be anything to do with disk
formatting. At the point the BSOD is occuring WinPE is running in ram
anyway.
 
M

Malke

alexB said:
In addition to what Mary said, make sure NTFS is involved and 4096 block
size.
Click to expand...

This won't matter because he doesn't even get to the point where he'd
format the drive(s). In any case, IIRC Vista won't install on FAT32 so
NTFS is a given and not the cause of the OP's problems.


Malke
 
C

Carlos

Wow!
I certainly did like your comprehensive explanation!
I all makes sense now.
I am running "just" 2 gigs (2 x 1 GB) DDR2 800 MHz on the 3rd and 4th slots.
Slot #1 was, sort of, mechanically damaged when I was placing the memory
sticks (Yeah, blame me!) and is not working.
Next week, or when the memory arrives by truck to this forgotten southern
island, I will be trying 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 MHz sticks on the 3rd and 4th slots.
Will my MSI K9N Neo-F board will "see" that much RAM in that fancy
configuration?

Carlos
 
A

Alias

Carlos said:
Slot #1 was, sort of, mechanically damaged when I was placing the memory
sticks (Yeah, blame me!) and is not working.
Click to expand...

Oops. That might be your problem. I hope the motherboard wasn't too
expensive.

Alias
 
C

Carlos

Alias,
Not a problem.
My mobo is running perfectly with 2 x 1GB on slots #3 and #4 in dual channel
mode.
I can live without slots 1 and 2.
:)
Carlos
 
F

Frank

Carlos said:
Alias,
Not a problem.
My mobo is running perfectly with 2 x 1GB on slots #3 and #4 in dual channel
mode.
I can live without slots 1 and 2.
:)
Carlos

:
Click to expand...
I think if you look at your owners manual you'll see that in order to
have true "dual channel" you need to use either slots 1 & 3, or 2 & 4.
If slot 1 is damaged then use slots 2 & 4. I believe that they are color
coded which means that to get true "dual channel" you must be fill the
same colored slots.
HTH,
Frank
 
R

R. C. White

Hi, Carlos.

I somehow damaged my previous mobo (with Athlon 64 3200) and burned out Slot
1. So I moved the DIMMs to #3 and 4 and it ran fine for another year or two
until I got my new AMD X2 rig last year and handed that one down to my
grandson (4 years old). He's happy with it. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 

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