winXP SP3 doesn't see sata ii hdd

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stu

I had a similar problem a week ago in that the ...\DEFAULT file was
corrupted. It was fixed and all was well. This time there is no indication
of the problem except that it doesn't recognize the SATA II 500 GB WD hdd.
The HDD is fixed with a controller card that has Sil Graphics drivers for it.
The mobo is ASUS A7V8X which is 6-weeks newly installed (I had it sitting in
it's shipping box since 2003).

The WinXP install CD has the drivers integrated into it and it has worked
well previously. The BIOS recognizes the HDD. Fortunately, there is a
second 40 GB IDE HDD that is used as a backup drive for the SATA drive. The
SATA drive is not recognized anywhere in the Windows environment. I hate to
have to reformat the darn thing as there is about 38GB of backup to replace.
It seems like there should be a way to get it to be recognized, but I sure
can't figure it out.
 
Rich, the analyzer didn't recognize the hard drive since it was in the
Windows environment. I think I am going to have to try to format it and if
that doesn't take, I'll have to go for a RMA since it was purchased in
September.
 
stu said:
Rich, the analyzer didn't recognize the hard drive since it was in the
Windows environment. I think I am going to have to try to format it and if
that doesn't take, I'll have to go for a RMA since it was purchased in
September.
Click to expand...

The solution is simple :-) No reason to panic just yet.

It turns out, that VIA Southbridges are not compatible with SATA 300MB/sec
disk interfaces. If the new disk has a "Force 150" jumper position,
insert a jumper in that position and try again. Your VIA chipset will
then see the disk and you'll be able to enjoy its 500GB of goodness :-)

As proof, see PDF page 11. There is a picture of a drive having a four
pin jumper area, and two of those pins are "Force 150". Find the
jumper info for your drive, and find the equivalent set of pins,
where ever they are located.

"PDF page 11 - VIA chipset problem with SATA II"
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/...uides/dm_11_sata300_installation_guide_en.pdf

Now, there is one VIA chipset, where VIA fixed this problem.
The VT8237S on my motherboard, is fully compatible with SATA II
(300MB/sec) operation, and it runs my drives whether the drive
is jumpered Force150 or not. So right now, there is exactly
one version of VIA chip that works. For all the rest, see PDF
page 11 of that Seagate document. The VT8237 would be broken,
while the VT8237S is fixed with respect to this bug.

If you own a Hitachi brand hard drive, they don't put a jumper
block on their drive. Hitachi provide a software tool, the
drive feature tool, which can set the preference inside the
drive to 150MB/sec or 300MB/sec. But if you have a VIA motherboard,
you have to find some other brand of motherboard, to reprogram
the Hitachi drive. Other brands make this a lot easier, and
all you need for those is a jumper.

Jumpering via "Force150" does not appreciably affect the
real-world performance of the drive. On my drives, I don't
care whether that jumper is inserted or not.

HTH,
Paul
 
320 /bps speed has no bearing on the subject,the controllers top rate
speed works with any of the hds,it just transfers data slower.SATA 1,2,or
3 hd store data to the drive in the same matter.Youre problem(s) lie probably
in the BIOS settings.By default the SATA controller is not operatable till
the user
enables it,plus,the BIOS needs to be set to run with IDE & SATA hds.....
 
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