PLEASE HELP! A8V doesn't detect SATA?

[Donald Wilkinson]

I just built a new Athalon 64 system using an A8V Deluxe motherboard and a
brand new Western Digital 200 GB SATA Hard drive.
On boot, the BIOS doesn't seem to find it. It is definitely powered up and
I've changed the cables a couple of times.

I want it to be my primary drive.

What am I doing wrong?

Any help/advice with new SATA configs on a A8V would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks

DonW

 

[KC Computers]

I just built a new Athalon 64 system using an A8V Deluxe motherboard and a
brand new Western Digital 200 GB SATA Hard drive.
On boot, the BIOS doesn't seem to find it. It is definitely powered up and
I've changed the cables a couple of times.
I want it to be my primary drive.> What am I doing wrong?
appreciated.

How exactly are you connecting it? Did you try all 4 SATA connections?
Are there any IDE ATA drives attached as well?

 

[Peter van der Goes]

I just built a new Athalon 64 system using an A8V Deluxe motherboard and a
brand new Western Digital 200 GB SATA Hard drive.
On boot, the BIOS doesn't seem to find it. It is definitely powered up and
I've changed the cables a couple of times.

I want it to be my primary drive.

What am I doing wrong?

Any help/advice with new SATA configs on a A8V would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks

DonW

Which SATA controller are you trying to use, VIA or Promise?
On mine, the drivers had to be loaded before anything was seen on the
Promise (red connectors on the motherboard). Try connecting the drive to the
VIA controller SATA1. Black SATA connectors. SATA1 is the further from your
memory slots.

 

[Donald Wilkinson]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I tried all 4 connectors ( after turning off the RAID option for the BIOS on
the Promise connectors)
The only other drive on the system is an
IDE CD-ROM drive that I was using to try to load the operating system
It is , of course, a parallel cable drive that I have on the second master.


DonW

 

[RonK]

If you have it connected to the Promise Sata Controller - Make sure it is
enabled in bios.

 

[Donald Wilkinson]

I've tried all SATA four connectors but
The Manual ( yes, I RTFM)

shows the black SATA1 and SATA2 connectors closest to the DIMMS. The Red
ones are closest to the edge and furthest away form the memory.

 

[RonK]

Forgot to finish :

In bios under BOOT make sure you have it configured correctly. Click on
Hard Drives in BOOT and make sure it is showing there.
In Boot Priority, set the cd as the first boot device and the Hard drive as
second.

 

[Donald Wilkinson]

Perhaps I'm doing something really stupid ( I'm very good at that)
I read an earlier post that required a makedisk.exe program and a floppy
disk.
I had assumed that if I boot from the CD-ROM it would find the Hard drive
( if the bios had found it)
and would offer to format it for me.

Do I , perhaps need to boot from a floppy and makedisk the thing into
existence?

DonW

 

[Donald Wilkinson]

O.K. I went back and checked all suggestions:

..1 The Promise chip is enabled and see the drive and loads its BIOS (when
it's plugged into one of the red connectors)
2. The boot sequence is: 1) CD-ROM 2) Hard drive 30 Floppy (non-existent)

The windows boot sequence gets going (from the CD) and then stops because it
can't find any hard drives on the system.( With the SATA drive plugged into
every one of the four SATA connectors)

DonW

 

[Galen Atkinson]

I had the exact same experience. Simply follow the directions buried at
the back of your motherboard manual. It's section 5.7 Creating a RAID
Driver Disk, and its on page 5-33. Your manual may vary of course.
Essentially you will need to put the motherboard CD in another computer
and make a floppy with the appropriate drivers on it. Then when you are
installing WIN XP and it tells you to hit F6 to install RAID / SCSI
drivers hit F6 and follow the instructions, which will include putting
the floppy disk into the drive.

 

[fasteddy]

O.K. I went back and checked all suggestions:

.1 The Promise chip is enabled and see the drive and loads its BIOS (when
it's plugged into one of the red connectors)
2. The boot sequence is: 1) CD-ROM 2) Hard drive 30 Floppy (non-existent)

The windows boot sequence gets going (from the CD) and then stops because
it can't find any hard drives on the system.( With the SATA drive plugged
into every one of the four SATA connectors)

DonW

Hi Don

Plug your drive back into no1 red sata port on the promise
Select IDE mode in the bios below where you enable the controller.
From a working computer navigate to... :\Drivers\Promise\378ATA\
MakeDisk.exe on the asus a8v cd.
Make the boot disk... you need a floppy disk!

Select the WD200 as the No1 hard drive... below the boot sequence
selector in the boot section of the bios.
Select the drive listed on the promise as the 2nd drive in the system
after your cd drive. In the boot section of the bios.

You may have to reboot before the drive is listed in the boot order!

Run XP setup from a bootable copy of XP and press F6 to load
the promise drivers when prompted. You have to read the text
like a hawk at the start of setup and have your finger poised over
the F6 key... you don't get much time!

You should then be able to install xp without a hitch...
Good luck
I have the same board & 2 of the same drives so I know it works!
hth
Eddy

 

[Donald Wilkinson]

Thanks!

That's what I needed to make this work
( That and, of course, not using the 64 bit version of windows I was trying
to load)

DonW

 

[Peter van der Goes]

I've tried all SATA four connectors but
The Manual ( yes, I RTFM)

shows the black SATA1 and SATA2 connectors closest to the DIMMS. The Red
ones are closest to the edge and furthest away form the memory.

Sorry for the confusion. I meant that of the two VIA SATA connectors, #1 is
further from the memory slots.