Installing on a SATA drive

[Guest]

I am trying to do a clean install of Vista Ultimate on a new Seagate 320GB
drive. I have an Intel D875PBZ MB with a 8280ER ICH5R SATA controller. The
upgrade advisor says that this config is okay and the installation can see
the drive and even deleted a partition and formated the drive. I have tried
it with both the SATA RAID enabled and disabled thru the BIOS. I have the
latest BIOS (P34) on the MB. I have loaded the last ICH5R drivers that INTEL
had available on it's website (a floppy install 5.1 although the direct
install goes up to 5.5). No matter what I try the installation tells me that
there is "No suitable volume available". How do I get this to work?

Thanks

 

[Richard Urban]

When I do a fresh install on my personal computer I have to load the SATA
drivers twice. Once at the initial setup screen (to enable the setup program
to initially access the drive) and again after the first reboot (I guess
this actually installs them on the hard drive). You may have to do the same
also.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Guest]

Thanks, but I never get past the initial setup screen, never get to re-boot.

 

[Richard Urban]

You have to browse to where you have the SATA drivers stored (floppy, CD or
USB Thumb drive). They must also be Vista compatible drivers. Make
absolutely you have the correct drivers "extracted" to the device you want
to use to install them. If the drivers are in a compressed format (.zip or
an executable form) you can't install them. You need the individual group of
files.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Guest]

Thanks again, but I've covered all that stuff. If someone could tell me a
"work around" or where to get updated drivers I'd appreciate it. Also, if
someone could answer why the upgrade advisor told me that my hardware was up
to Vista specs, I'd really appreciate that!

 

[Richard Urban]

The update advisor is not an end all program. It will tell you that you M/B
is OK - assuming you have the correct drivers. Try the M/B manufacturers web
site of the site of the computer manufacturer.

All else fails - call them!

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Guest]

I've been to their website many times and the latest drivers do not work.
They no longer support the board and will not do phone support for it.

 

[Vic Baron]

PMFJI but when you initially start the setup process you should get a prompt
to hit F6( I believe it's F6) if you want to install any 3rd party drivers -
this is where you should install the SATA drivers the *first* time. After
that, as someone said, you might need to repeat that at reboot.

If you ARE installing the drivers at that point and Vista still doesn't see
the volume, there are 3 choices - get a new motherboard, locate new drivers
for the onboard controller or buy an add on controller card.

HTH,

Vic

 

[Guest]

Where do you see an F6 prompt? After I put in the product key a screen comes
up showing the drives; there is a install drivers option which you click on.
I'm Vista not XP.

 

[Richard Urban]

Vista install does NOT provide the usual F6 prompt. The installer brings you
to a screen where you should see the installed drives. If the drives are not
visible there is a radio button to install drivers.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Seth]

Where do you see an F6 prompt? After I put in the product key a screen
comes
up showing the drives; there is a install drivers option which you click
on.
I'm Vista not XP.

F6 to install drivers is an XP (and earlier) method.

In Vista, when you get to the drive screen there is a button that says "Load
Drivers". Hit that and follow the prompts.

 

[Vic Baron]

Oops! I've done more XP installs than Vista - memory lapse. But the basic
idea was there.

 

[Guest]

I'm having a similar problem. I'm trying to install Vista Home Premium 64bit
onto a 500GB Maxtor SATA drive hosted by an EVGA nVidia 680i Sli MB with an
Intel 6400 dual-core cpu, but the drive is not listed for selection as the
install drive. What's more, I can hit Shift-F10 to get a command prompt at
the drive select screen and use the DISKPART utility to show and format the
drive that isn't being listed. I can even change to the C: drive and run
CHKDSK which returns no errors.

I have a CD that contains the most up to date, WHQL certified MB drivers
from nVidia for Vista 64 and the Vista install confirms that the sata_ide
driver is the correct one for this install, yet with all of this I still
cannot install onto this hard drive. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Doug