Serial ATA woes--please help

[Han]

I just built a new rig and am attempting to install WinXP Pro SP1.

Hardware wise everything seems to be working. The BIOS sees everything
(except for the Serial ATA drive--read on.) On boot-up, the screen detects
my one Maxtor Serial ATA 80GB. I also have access to the Intel RAID setup
(not required here.) I used the Maxtor CD to partition/format the drive in
NTFS, and then created a driver disc.

I proceed to boot WinXP from CD-ROM. I hit F6 to install the driver. When
the screen appears, I hit S to select a drive. I use

WinXP Promise Ultra133 TX2 (tm) Controller

and hit return. Setup comes back and say that it has its own driver, but I
choose to use the newer one (I have tried the Windows' version and every
other driver on the floppy without success.) Setup proceeds to install other
system drives until it prompts for return to continue. At this point, the
installation fails because Windows cannot find any installed hard drives.
The only thing to do is hit F3 (again and again.)

My system config is

System Config:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8IK1100
Memory: Corsair 256MB x 2
Hard Drive: Maxtor SATA 80GB
BIOS: I875 vF6

My hunch is that I need a different controller driver, but I can't seem to
locate the right one. The Gigabyte and Maxtor sites were not helpful.

Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Han

 

[Han]

Just a quick follow-up to my original post.

The problem was the SATA controller driver included with my motherboard was
wrong. I fired off a message to tech support, which pointed me to the right
one (Intel ICH5R).

Bottom line: never rely on the drivers included with the hardware. They are
usually outdated or just plain wrong in my case. Always check the
manufacture's web site or ask their tech support.

This will save you time and frustration.