Windows XP does not recognize SATA Hard disk on install

[Falcon]

Have a new AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 processor on a ASUS SK8N
motherboard. Using a Seagate SATA hard drive with the on
board Promise 378 Fastrack Raid controller.
Trying to install Win XP Pro SR1a but no hard disk is
recognized. Any suggestions?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

You need to add the Promise driver during in installation. The Promise card
does not automatically get detected during the install.

Y.

 

[Alvin Brown]

Hello

Make sure you have that option enabled in the Bios
and during the start-up of XP it will say press F6
to install additional drivers (am guessing you have
done this.) Make sure that you have the current
drivers or go to www.asus.com ok


Alvin

 

[Pete Baker]

Falcon

You need to have the SATA drivers available on a floppy
disk ready for the install process - you'll find them on your mainboard CD
or manufacturers website.

When you start the install from the XP CD you will be prompted to 'Press F6
to specify
third-party RAID or SCSI drivers' - at this point you should press F6 and,
when asked, insert the floppy disk with the relevant drivers. Select the
appropriate driver when asked and continue with the setup. There may be
some delays during this process and the set-up may appear to be continuing
without recognising the key-press - so don't panic.

When successful you'll be able to select the HD to install on.
If you are not given the HD you have not completed the procedure
correctly. Check you are using the correct drivers, have any relevant BIOS
updates for your mainboard, and try again.

Hope that helps
Pete

 

[Bob Harris]

As other replies have said, you need to provide SATA drivers early in the XP
setup.

Note well that they must be on a floppy. If they come on a CD, you must
transfer them to a floppy. This is a limitation of the XP installer.

Also, you must copy the entire fasttrack directory, not just the driver and
INF files. Here is a DIR of the files on my ASUS floppy (for a P4S8X
motherboard). You need somehting similar. Caution, the file txtsetup.oem
is required! Be sure to get it form the CD or the download:

Volume in drive A has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 08B0-CC44

Directory of A:\

07/28/2002 09:36 PM 1,144 txtsetup.oem
08/03/2002 05:35 AM 1,535 README.TXT
07/09/2003 06:46 PM <DIR> 98-me
07/09/2003 06:46 PM <DIR> nt4
07/09/2003 06:47 PM <DIR> win2000
07/09/2003 06:47 PM <DIR> winxp
05/30/2002 10:49 PM 12 fasttx2k
3 File(s) 2,691 bytes
4 Dir(s) 745,472 bytes free

 

[alanrc54]

Bob, your answer was the most complete of all--thanks for taking the time.
However, I pretty much did all that, and it still didn't work. I've got a
home-built MSI KT6-Delta, with the Via chip instead of Promise, but I did
have the txtsetup.oem and the entire Via SATA/XP directory on the floppy,
but it still didn't recognize the HD. Currently, I'm using a conventional
ATA drive as my "C" drive, and Win XP can access my SATA drive just fine as
a "D" drive, just not during setup or bootup. Frustrating!

 

[Frank]

Just my opinion.
I don't think that SATA is ready just yet. I might consider upgrading
when I see a mainboard with just SATA ports and no PATA ports.
This sort of reminds me of the Highpoint chips that were installed on
a few boards for UDMA in addition to the regular ide ports.

 

[alanrc54]

Frank, I think you are right. I'm sure there are numerous people who will
say how they got XP to use their SATA drive as their boot drive, but I tried
repeatedly and didn't get there. Meanwhile, I had a "eureka" moment when
reading your opinion. It occurred to me that I could put my page file and
all my temp files on the SATA drive, as well as all my applications other
than Windows itself. I will benefit from the speed-up almost as much as if
it was my C drive. And in the next year or so, the patches will be released
where it will be a piece of cake to use SATA as your only drive.

Alan