SATA - PATA Hard drive issues

[Adam Albright]

One other note I failed to give you,

I also contacted ASUS (motherboard manufacturer) and they informed me that
the motherboard fully supports SATA and that the problem is not the
motherboard, but the problem is in VISTA....

The back and forth finger pointing between Microsoft and vendors is a
dance that's been going on ever since there was a thing called
Windows.

I haven't had time to do any serious checking, but just a casual check
using Google will point you to all kinds of forums with people having
similar problems, so it seems wide spread and also suggests it got to
be more than just drivers. You may get lucky doing a Google search
refined to sata problems including you particular motherboard model. I
found all kinds of articles on my GB 965P-DQ6 from Gigabyte but there
doesn't seem to be much agreement as to what exactly is wrong or any
rock solid fix. I suspect that the real vilian in Vista since that's
the only universial factor.

One forum I haven't visited in awhile seems quite good at solving all
kinds of issues. Its called Extreme Systems Forum and while it is more
geared towards game players, they seem to have a lot of resident
members that seem to know their stuff. One downside is it took them
days to acknowledge and approve my membership, probably due to volume,
it is a busy place.


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/

 

[BSchnur]

I'll bet if you called MS, they'd say it was a problem with the hardware

manufacturer.

And they would both tell you it was Bill Clinton's fault <g>

 

[Adam Albright]

And they would both tell you it was Bill Clinton's fault <g>

Yea, no kidding. Good one!

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:38:05 -0800, retired fire

I will try to give you a brief history of the Issue:
Thanks!

Brand new Vista Premium built computer. Asus M2NPV-VM (on board SATA
controller, 1 gig memory, 256 meg graphics, etc.....)

OK...

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=0&model=1138&modelmenu=1

....odd to see the words "flagship" and "micro-ATX" in the same
sentence, heh heh! GeForce 6150 + nForce 430 chipset, S-ATA with
RAID. Are you Vista-32 or Vista-64?

This looks nasty...

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M2NPV-VM

....the device tree loses several nodes when I choose OS = Vista-32,
including the S-ATA. Either that means no extra drivers are required
because Vista includes them, or Asus/nVidia have some work to do.

Installed new Seagate 160 gig SATAII for Vista system drive.

Installed new Seagate 120 gig PATA for second hard drive. (backup purposes).

OK. At this point I'd want to know which S-ATA and IDE channels and
(IDE) master/slave relationships apply. Depending on BIOS, you could
end up with an identity collision between S-ATA and IDE devices.

Installed clean full version of Vista Business...(only OS ever installed on
new computer).

Vista installed without any issue (no SATA driver needed). (both drives
recognized in the BIOS and in Vista....

Rebooted Vista with install disk still in DVD drive, and booted just fine...

Removed DVD install disk and rebooted, would not boot at all..

Ah, OK. This is a common failure pattern

With the DVD in place, you bypass:
- selection of HD as boot device by BIOS
- MBR code in whatever HD the BIOS would have booted
- possibly, the PBR in the partition being booted
- possibly, the boot configuration file (no longer Boot.ini)

So that's where to dig. Most likely the MBR isn't on the HD you
thought it would be, and that has to cross-boot to the Vista HD.

Normally I avoid these sort of hassles by having only the one HD and
the installation optical drive hooked up at the time the OS is
installed. Even USB sticks left in place can mess things up.

Placed DVD install disk back in DVD drive and rebooted, booted just fine..

Removed second hard drive (PATA), and completely reinstalled Vista to the
only drive in the computer (SATA), and all went without issue again, but this
time I could boot without having the install disk in the DVD drive....

OK, that's good...

Reinstalled second hard drive (PATA).... it was immediately recognized by
the BIOS and Vista.... was able to copy files to and from this drive.....

I think at this point, I'd have wanted that PATA (IDE) HD
freshly-wiped, in case there was confusing stuff left on it.

Then I went to make a Complete PC Backup of Vista to the PATA
drive.....Complete PC Backup went without a hitch..... It backed up to the
PATA drive.....

Now how did that backup get made? If you did a full byte dump from
the one HD to the other so that the IDE HD would be bootable, then I
can see a mad boon risin', as CCR woudl say.

Then I went to Restore the Complete PC Backup of Vista back to the SATA
system drive, and quess what..... It did not find the SATA system driive......
Ew!

Contacted Microsoft and have an open case # on this issue....

OK... let us know how it goes...

Microsoft had me remove the PATA drive and try to do a Complete PC Backup to
an external PATA drive (via USB)... Backup again went without a hitch....
and it ALSO restored back to the SATA system hard drive......

OK; does the S-ATA now work, after that restore?

I further wanted to test this, so I again put the internal PATA drive in the
computer, and tried to restore from the external PATA drive via USB to the
SATA system hard drive, and guess what, it could not find the SATA hard drive
again.....

My guess is an identity overlay. Try avoiding that by avoiding these
matches: S-ATA 0 + Primary Master, S-ATA 1 + Primary Slave, S-ATA 2 +
Secondary Master and S-ATA 3 + Secondary Slave.

Note also that some IDE devices have different jumpers for Master with
Slave and Single HD, that you should use an 80-pin IDE cable, and that
it matters which connectors you use on the cable (the end is the
Master, the middle is the Slave) even if you aren't using Cable Select
jumpering. Don't mix Cable Select with explicit Master / Slave
jumpering on the same IDE channel.

Sorry if this is well familiar to you, but we gotta get it out the way

NOTE: Latest version of BIOS and lates version of Nvidia drivers are
installed on the system..... Boot order in BIOS is SATA first, PATA second.
All drives formated NTFS, and have not created any additional partitions....

OK. No two NTFS volumes share the same serial number, i.e. one not
cloned from the other?

Boot order looks fine, but the order in which HDs are discovered and
presented by BIOS to OS may differ, and the difference may matter.

What are the Master/Slave and S-ATA identities?

Thanks for a very succinct problem summary, BTW

--------------- ---- --- -- - - - -

Saws are too hard to use.
Be easier to use!

 

[Rickhal]

I too am having a problem wherein Vista "loses" my D drive. I can only
resolve this by rebooting the O/S. I have checked with Asus and there is no
fix from them as they no of no problem with the P5W DH Deluxe MB I have.
Also, there was no such problem when this very same hardware was on XP Pro.
So please don't blame this situation on the hardware vendor(s). This a Vista
issue and MS should figure out what is going on and post a fix by 1. Hotfix
or 2. SP1 or both. Please don't insult our intelligence by saying that this
many people with varying hardware supplied by various vendors are ALL having
hardware related issues.

 

[Glen Martin]

I do not think this is a Vista problem, how ever i do think that it is a
problem. I have worked with Asus and Gigabite Mb's and some times it works
and again it doesn't and this is with XP and Vista. Most of the time it Me
not knowing how to install the software that came with the MB, Each board
has it's own set of drivers for SATA not the OS, yes it has to recognize the
driver, and it does if there compable, and this is where the problem lies.
Check your work, and then check it again to make sure that your drivers are
installed the right way and if there are any update's to your Mb (BIOS)
don't just put the CD that came with your Mb and expect it to work..........