Making a SATA drive the boot drive

B

BobV

I have a new ASUS A7N8X-E with a SATA controller on board, and a new WD SATA
drive, and am finding it impossible to make it the boot disk.

XP SP2 will recognize the disk as long as I have a IDE disk installed, and
the SATA disk is usable, but I am unable to use it as the boot drive. If I
try to reinstall XP without the IDE drive then the install won't run because
it says that there are no drives at all.

I can use XP's disk management to partition and format the SATA drive but
this doesn't help.

Any answers, thanks, Bob
 
V

_Vanguard_

BobV said:
I have a new ASUS A7N8X-E with a SATA controller on board, and a new WD
SATA drive, and am finding it impossible to make it the boot disk.

XP SP2 will recognize the disk as long as I have a IDE disk installed,
and the SATA disk is usable, but I am unable to use it as the boot
drive. If I try to reinstall XP without the IDE drive then the
install won't run because it says that there are no drives at all.

I can use XP's disk management to partition and format the SATA drive
but this doesn't help.

Any answers, thanks, Bob

Did you configure the boot drive sequence in BIOS to actually use the
SATA ports to find a bootable hard drive? Is the SATA controller
enabled in BIOS? Did you install the SATA BIOS (it has its own BIOS
that loads after the system BIOS although it might share EEPROM space),
usually as part of the chipset driver package for your motherboard?
 
T

The Undertaker

Did you actually set the new drive as master drive and the new one as slave,
and configure it correctly?
 
G

Guest

1st format the drive with a primary partition in xp,then shutdown computer,
remove the plugs for the IDE drives,start computer,configure the sata drive
in the bios,enable the boot menu,etc.,install xp cd,boot to xp cd,then
press F6
for sata/raid configuration,if non-raid,press the apropriate text,w/o raid
a floppy
isnt needed,F6 will let xp detect the sata drive,exit when thru,then
select,install
xp.
 
R

Rick

BobV said:
I have a new ASUS A7N8X-E with a SATA controller on board, and a new WD SATA
drive, and am finding it impossible to make it the boot disk.

XP SP2 will recognize the disk as long as I have a IDE disk installed, and
the SATA disk is usable, but I am unable to use it as the boot drive. If I
try to reinstall XP without the IDE drive then the install won't run because
it says that there are no drives at all.

I can use XP's disk management to partition and format the SATA drive but
this doesn't help.

Any answers, thanks, Bob
you need to have two HDs to set up SATA Read the manual that came
with your MOBO. It should give you all the information that you need.
I have SATA setup on an Asus A8V MOBO.

Rick
 
G

GF

I htave the same board.

1) to install Windows on SATA, I have to
disconnect the IDE drive
Press F6 when asked to, and a diskette
with the necessary drivers (found on
the installation CD) in the floppy drive.

2) Make sure SCSI is set as the first boot
drive in the BIOS.

- But I think that in the SATA
BIOS one has to activate the HD for the
above to work. Read item 5.5.1 in
your manual.
 
V

_Vanguard_

The Undertaker said:
Did you actually set the new drive as master drive and the new one as
slave,
and configure it correctly?

SATA drives can be configured as master or slave? Hmm, on the mobos
that I've used which include an onboard SATA controller (and of the few
SATA controller cards that I've seen), there is no master/slave
selection. The hard drive connects to only one SATA port which is *not*
shared between two drives. You cannot connect 2 drives to one SATA
port. One SATA drive to one SATA controller via one SATA port. So
where would master/slave be effected when using SATA?

If you are using the SATA-PATA adapter to connect an IDE drive to a SATA
port, you'll need to configure the hard drive however it gets jumpered
as a single drive on an IDE port (i.e., as a single drive or as a master
drive, depending on what the hard drive maker requires for their drive).
 
V

_Vanguard_

Rick said:
you need to have two HDs to set up SATA Read the manual that came
with your MOBO. It should give you all the information that you need.
I have SATA setup on an Asus A8V MOBO.

Rick


Must be unique to Asus then. I have an Abit NF7-S v2 mobo with an
onboard SATA controller chip and BIOS. I only had one drive which was
connected to a SATA port on the mobo. I booted using the Windows XP
installation CD, hit F6 (to later load the SATA driver), it ran through
part of its install (including loading all the drivers to detect what
hardware might respond), and then stopped to ask me to insert the SCSI
driver floppy since no mass storage devices were detected. Inserted the
driver floppy and completed the Windows install. You have to do the
same thing if you want to use SCSI drives as your only drives or as your
boot drive.7
 
B

BR549

Why would you need 2 drives?

BobV said:
I have a new ASUS A7N8X-E with a SATA controller on board, and a new WD
SATA
drive, and am finding it impossible to make it the boot disk.

XP SP2 will recognize the disk as long as I have a IDE disk installed, and
the SATA disk is usable, but I am unable to use it as the boot drive. If
I
try to reinstall XP without the IDE drive then the install won't run
because
it says that there are no drives at all.

I can use XP's disk management to partition and format the SATA drive but
this doesn't help.

Any answers, thanks, Bob
you need to have two HDs to set up SATA Read the manual that came
with your MOBO. It should give you all the information that you need.
I have SATA setup on an Asus A8V MOBO.

Rick
 
M

Miss Perspicacia Tick

Rick said:
you need to have two HDs to set up SATA Read the manual that came
with your MOBO. It should give you all the information that you need.
I have SATA setup on an Asus A8V MOBO.

Rick


Do you check your drivel before posting?! SATA is *NOT* RAID. I have a
system here with an Asus board running a single SATA drive. You do *NOT* I
repeat do *NOT* require more than one drive for SATA any more than you did
for PATA.
 
G

Guest

One way to try:

Make sure your onboard controller is enabled by jumper(near battery) on your
motherbaord on the A7N8X Deluxe. Has to be in the 2-3 position I believe, you
can read the board near jumper, or look in the manual. When installing XP on
the drive, press F6 during setup and insert diskette with SATA drivers (You
may have to make one on another computer using the "makedisk" file in the
driver package available from ASUS website, or your CD), when prompted to do
so and follow onscreen instructions. Remove disk after it copies necessary
files, and continue Windows setup. You should have a clean install of XP with
your SATA drive (which should boot of course). Leave IDE drive out during
installation to make sure. I recommend to also install Nvidia Unified
Driver(5.10) package available at nvidia.com immediately after Windows
installation, as Windows will not have drivers for the board components. Good
Luck, I just put one very similar together and it works excellent!
 
B

Bob Harris

SATA is newer than XP, so it can not automatically detect these disks.

Instead, you need to press F6 early in the XP installation (watch the bottom
of the screen). Then, you need to have the SATA drivers on a floppy. They
must be on a floppy, not on a CD. The XP installer will take what it needs.
OR, it will present you with a choice, if there are multiple drivers (e.g.,
98, 2000, XP); choose XP.

But, before you even think about installing XP, you need to determine
whether the SATA controller is also a RAID contoller. My ASUS P4S8X has a
combined RAID/SATA controller. So, I first needed to make a "RAID array".
But, I did not want to link two disks, so I used the custom RAID options to
make an array of one disk. The ASUS manual helped, but only a little about
this important step.

An interseting aside: Until I made an array, even the Seagate disk prep
tools could not see the disk. However, in your case it sounds like your
motherboard is handling some of this for you, since you mention that XP can
see the disk, after XP is installed on an IDE disk. Or, it could be that it
knows that one one SATA disk must be in an array of its own, or maybe you do
not have a RAID contoller.

One other item I recall about the installation process: I needed to go into
the BIOS and set te boot options to include:

IDE hard drive = none
other boot device = SCSI/onboard ATA boot

and this option on the advanced tab:

onboard ATA device = enable
onboard ATA device first = yes




As for master and slave, the concepts do not apply to SATA disks, since they
are one disk per controller.
 
B

BobV

Bob Harris said:
SATA is newer than XP, so it can not automatically detect these disks.

Instead, you need to press F6 early in the XP installation (watch the
bottom of the screen). Then, you need to have the SATA drivers on a
floppy. They must be on a floppy, not on a CD. The XP installer will
take what it needs. OR, it will present you with a choice, if there are
multiple drivers (e.g., 98, 2000, XP); choose XP.

I am doing this
But, before you even think about installing XP, you need to determine
whether the SATA controller is also a RAID contoller. My ASUS P4S8X has a
combined RAID/SATA controller. So, I first needed to make a "RAID array".
But, I did not want to link two disks, so I used the custom RAID options
to make an array of one disk. The ASUS manual helped, but only a little
about this important step.

This is difficult to tell, but I think it is a combined RAID/SATA
controller. I see no way to make a RAID array with only one disk. There is
no option to make a custom RAID array. The ASUS manual is no help at all.
An interseting aside: Until I made an array, even the Seagate disk prep
tools could not see the disk. However, in your case it sounds like your
motherboard is handling some of this for you, since you mention that XP
can see the disk, after XP is installed on an IDE disk. Or, it could be
that it knows that one one SATA disk must be in an array of its own, or
maybe you do not have a RAID contoller.
Not sure
One other item I recall about the installation process: I needed to go
into the BIOS and set te boot options to include:

IDE hard drive = none
other boot device = SCSI/onboard ATA boot

and this option on the advanced tab:

onboard ATA device = enable
onboard ATA device first = yes

I have none of these options available in BIOS. I can set the first boot
device to SCSI, but then the system hangs when trying to boot.

Thanks, Bob
 
B

BobV

tcmiked said:
One way to try:

Make sure your onboard controller is enabled by jumper(near battery) on
your
motherbaord on the A7N8X Deluxe. Has to be in the 2-3 position I believe,
you
can read the board near jumper, or look in the manual. When installing XP
on
the drive, press F6 during setup and insert diskette with SATA drivers
(You
may have to make one on another computer using the "makedisk" file in the
driver package available from ASUS website, or your CD), when prompted to
do
so and follow onscreen instructions. Remove disk after it copies necessary
files, and continue Windows setup. You should have a clean install of XP
with
your SATA drive (which should boot of course). Leave IDE drive out during
installation to make sure. I recommend to also install Nvidia Unified
Driver(5.10) package available at nvidia.com immediately after Windows
installation, as Windows will not have drivers for the board components.
Good
Luck, I just put one very similar together and it works excellent!

I have done all of this with the exception of installing the NVIDIA Unified
driver(5.10) package with no luck at all. When I leave out the IDE drive,
XP install just says that it can find no hard drives and can not continue.
 
B

BobV

_Vanguard_ said:
Did you configure the boot drive sequence in BIOS to actually use the SATA
ports to find a bootable hard drive? Is the SATA controller enabled in
BIOS? Did you install the SATA BIOS (it has its own BIOS that loads after
the system BIOS although it might share EEPROM space), usually as part of
the chipset driver package for your motherboard?
I can find no way to configure the boot drive to use the SATA ports in BIOS,
I see no way to enable the SATA controller in BIOS.
No I did not install the SATA BIOS, as I am not sure what or where it is.
It certainly is not mentioned in the MOBO manual.
 
B

BobV

Andrew E. said:
1st format the drive with a primary partition in xp,then shutdown
computer,
remove the plugs for the IDE drives,start computer,configure the sata
drive
in the bios,enable the boot menu,etc.,install xp cd,boot to xp cd,then
press F6
for sata/raid configuration,if non-raid,press the apropriate text,w/o raid
a floppy
isnt needed,F6 will let xp detect the sata drive,exit when thru,then
select,install
xp.

I have done all of this, and the XP Install just stops and says that it can
find no hard drives and then quits.
 
B

BobV

GF said:
I have the same board.

1) to install Windows on SATA, I have to
disconnect the IDE drive
Press F6 when asked to, and a diskette
with the necessary drivers (found on
the installation CD) in the floppy drive.

I have done this.
2) Make sure SCSI is set as the first boot
drive in the BIOS.
I have done this.
- But I think that in the SATA
BIOS one has to activate the HD for the
above to work. Read item 5.5.1 in
your manual.

SATA BIOS??? Not sure where this is and how to activate the HD.
Item 5.5.1 in the manual just refers to physical installation, and RAID
sets.
 
C

cquirke (MVP Win9x)

Quick checklist:

1) Is there native S-ATA support?

Some chipsets natively support S-ATA, and in turn are natively
supported by XP. Others have additional controller chips added to
confer S-ATA support to a mobo chipset that otherwise lacks this.

The latter can be a problem if BIOS doesn't see the added controller
as bootable, and/or XP doesn't natively support it. It is in this
situation that you may also have to "enable the S-ATA BIOS".

Early in the XP installation process, there's a prompt to keypress if
you need "special" drivers for the controller of the HD that the OS is
to see at boot time. You are then expected to provide these drivers,
controversially on diskette. The installation process then renames
these to a generic OS-known name in C:\ so that they can be used early
in the boot process. Without this, ?no joy.

2) Is S-ATA enabled in CMOS?

3) What S-ATA vs. UIDE relationship is defined in CMOS?

Many motherboards with S-ATA will also have UIDE, and these can be set
to interact in various ways; usually...
- legacy mode; S-ATA overlay UIDE identities
- enhanced mode; can use all UIDE and all S-ATA
- RAID; both S-ATA used as a single RAID unit

Older OSs such as Win98 may require legacy mode, where you can use one
OR the other of S-ATA and corresponding UIDE "position". For example,
S-ATA 0 would overlay UIDE Primary Master, while S-ATA 1 may overlay
either UIDE Primary Slave or UIDE Secondary Master.

In this situation, if you had a UIDE primary Master and S-ATA 0 they
would clash, a S-ATA 0 would boot before UIDE Secondary Master, and a
UIDE Primary Master would boot before S-ATA 1.

If you're using enhanced mode, then you may be able to use all UIDE
and S-ATA identities for separate devices at the same time. In this
case, whether S-ATA or UIDE boots first would likely be an explicit
setting in CMOS, as would be the case for S-ATA RAID.

Enabling S-ATA RAID adds the requirements of RAID, and may also cause
a BIOS extension to become active during POST.

4) What is the boot device order?

5) Are your S-ATA cabled correctly?

Careful with power connections in particular. Many S-ATA HDs offer
both new S-ATA power and old legacy power connectors. Don't use both,
and don't use legacy if you plan on hot- or cool-swapping (assuming
those are supported at all, they will require S-ATA power connection).


--------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - -
Who is General Failure and
why is he reading my disk?
 
G

GF

I must disagree. A floppy definitely is required.
There are no drivers for that SATA controller on
the Windows install cd.
 
G

GF

After the computer boots but before Windows starts
a message will appear at bottom of screen
asking you to press Ctl+C.

Another point is you must make sure your
SATA drive is connected to SATA connector 1.
(not 2).
 

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