Installing on a new HDD

[Denis Scadeng]

My computer has so much junk on it that I decided to do a clean install
of my XP Home. It seemed sensible to buy a new HDD and so I bought a 160
GB Hitachi SATA 2. My present HDD runs on IDE but I have two SATA 1
connections on the Mainboard. The shop told me that I would have no
trouble with a SATA 2 running on a SATA 1 socket. I have software from
Hitachi to reconfigure the HDD down to SATA 1 but, of course, I have to
get it installed and running first. Fortunately, I just disconnected the
old HDD and kept it in place in the computer - which is how I can send
this message, having reconnected it.

When I tried to install on the new disk, it went through the initial
setup, license agreement, etc. then it got to the partitioning
selection. The list stated
Unknown Disk
(There is no disk in this drive.)
repeated 4 times.

The up and down arrow keys did not select anything. I pressed C but
there was no response so it looks as if it did not detect the new HDD.

A dialogue came up saying
Caused by file setupdd.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Any suggestions?
Could it be a SATA 1 Mainboard not detecting a SATA 2 HDD?
I connected up using another SATA cable but that made no difference.

I may have to take the machine to the shop and ask them to install XP.
It then becomes their problem but I will have to pay them for the
privilege and I am reluctant if they gave me the wrong advice about
compatibility.

All advice welcomed.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My computer has so much junk on it that I decided to do a clean
install of my XP Home. It seemed sensible to buy a new HDD and so I
bought a 160 GB Hitachi SATA 2. My present HDD runs on IDE but I
have two SATA 1 connections on the Mainboard. The shop told me
that I would have no trouble with a SATA 2 running on a SATA 1
socket. I have software from Hitachi to reconfigure the HDD down to
SATA 1 but, of course, I have to get it installed and running
first. Fortunately, I just disconnected the old HDD and kept it in
place in the computer - which is how I can send this message,
having reconnected it.
When I tried to install on the new disk, it went through the initial
setup, license agreement, etc. then it got to the partitioning
selection. The list stated
Unknown Disk
(There is no disk in this drive.)
repeated 4 times.

The up and down arrow keys did not select anything. I pressed C but
there was no response so it looks as if it did not detect the new
HDD.
A dialogue came up saying
Caused by file setupdd.sys
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Any suggestions?
Could it be a SATA 1 Mainboard not detecting a SATA 2 HDD?
I connected up using another SATA cable but that made no difference.

I may have to take the machine to the shop and ask them to install
XP. It then becomes their problem but I will have to pay them for
the privilege and I am reluctant if they gave me the wrong advice
about compatibility.

Did you see the hard disk drive in the System BIOS? (Nothing to do with
Windows XP)

You may need the drivers for the SATA controller on a floppy diskette and
use the F6 method (Google for "F6 during Windows XP Installation") to add
those drivers during the clean install.

 

[Denis Scadeng]

Did you see the hard disk drive in the System BIOS? (Nothing to do with
Windows XP)

You may need the drivers for the SATA controller on a floppy diskette and
use the F6 method (Google for "F6 during Windows XP Installation") to add
those drivers during the clean install.

Thanks - this seems to be the problem. One difficulty - where do I find
the drivers? They are not on the Mainboard disk and I can't find them on
the Intel, MSI (Mainboard), or Hitachi sites. I don't know if there is a
generic driver or one specific to whatever bit needs it. I have just
spent about two hours of fruitless searching - perhaps I am looking in
the wrong place.

 

[Anna]

Did you see the hard disk drive in the System BIOS? (Nothing to do with
Windows XP)

You may need the drivers for the SATA controller on a floppy diskette and
use the F6 method (Google for "F6 during Windows XP Installation") to add
those drivers during the clean install.

Denis:
Just one suggestion before we get to the issue-at-large. When posing a
technical query to this newsgroup (or any similar type of newsgroup) such as
the type of query you're posing, it's a good idea to include in your posts
*all* the relevant info that has transpired during the thread - not merely
your latest message responding to someone's comment. It doesn't mean that
you have to include all the complete previous posts, but just the relevant
portions of prior posts bearing on the issue. So that *anyone* coming upon
your latest post will have sufficient background info to understand the
problem and thus be able to offer intelligent suggestions to help you solve
your problem.

Anyway, as to your problem...

It may very well be, as Shenan suggests, that your problem is one involving
the need to install auxiliary SATA controller drivers. But you've indicated
that when you went through the XP OS install process you were able to get
past the license agreement part and even get to the partitioning/formatting
portion of the XP install process before getting that "Unknown Disk" error
message.

This suggests that the SATA controller driver is not the issue here since in
every case that I've come across where there was a need to undertake the F6
process involving the installation of an auxiliary SATA controller driver
before the system would recognize the existence of a SATA HDD, the XP error
message indicating "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in
your computer...", would normally come up *immediately* in the setup process
before the user would be even able to get to the initial license agreement
portion of the setup process.

So what I would suggest is...
1. Review your MSI Users Guide/Manual to ensure that your BIOS settings are
correct insofar as they pertain to SATA HDDs.
2. Ensure that you've correctly connected the SATA HDD to the appropriate
SATA connector on your motherboard and that the connections (data & power)
are secure. If still no go, connect the SATA HDD to another SATA connector
on the motherboard.
3. Change the SATA data cable if you have another one.
4. I don't think the problem has anything to do with the SATA I or SATA II
issue. Actually, if memory serves me correctly your Hitachi SATA HDD does
not have any jumper configuration for SATA I.
5. Have you tried connecting the SATA HDD as a *secondary* HDD and booting
to your PATA (IDE) HDD? Making sure, of course, that the BIOS boot priority
order would show a first boot to the PATA (IDE) HDD.
Is the SATA HDD shown in Disk Management under those circumstances? If so,
and a drive letter has been assigned to it indicating the HDD has been
partitioned/formatted, delete the partition so that the disk shows only
"unallocated space". Then try the XP setup again, remembering to disconnect
your PATA HDD from the system.
5. You might want to download the Hitachi diagnostic utility program to
check out the HDD.
6. If still a problem, get in touch with MSI and see if they can shed any
light on this.
Anna