XP setup does not find SATA drive

[Guest]

I have a pre-service pack version of windows.
I have never installed windows on a system using a SATA drive before, but
have loaded successfully on many IDE HDD systems.

At the windows setup it only finds my CDROM drive and does not find any
additional storage.
The system bios finds the HDD and lists it as 'Third IDE Primary' and the
CDROM as '1st IDE Secondary'.

At the windows setup screen only 131MB of unpartitioned space on ATAPI Device.

I was wondering do I need a newer CD version of windows to install onto an
SATA drive? Or could there be some bios setup issue on my PC?

A8R32-MVP-Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200
WD SATAII 250G
ATI x1600 Radeon
Kingston pc3200 x400 512x2

Thanks for any help you can provide, I would hate to have to spend another
$150 to get a newer version of windows.

 

[Stefan Z Camilleri]

I have a pre-service pack version of windows.
I have never installed windows on a system using a SATA drive before, but
have loaded successfully on many IDE HDD systems.

At the windows setup it only finds my CDROM drive and does not find any
additional storage.
The system bios finds the HDD and lists it as 'Third IDE Primary' and the
CDROM as '1st IDE Secondary'.

At the windows setup screen only 131MB of unpartitioned space on ATAPI Device.

I was wondering do I need a newer CD version of windows to install onto an
SATA drive? Or could there be some bios setup issue on my PC?

A8R32-MVP-Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200
WD SATAII 250G
ATI x1600 Radeon
Kingston pc3200 x400 512x2

Thanks for any help you can provide, I would hate to have to spend another
$150 to get a newer version of windows.

Along with your drive you should have a drivers disk, alternatively you
can obtain one from your drive manufacturer's website (in your case,
western digital)

Basically, you need to obtain the drive descriptor files for your hard
drive and put them on a disc. When booting up, Windows prompts you
temporarily for any additional drivers (press F6 if you want to install
bla bla bla...)

Hit F6 accordingly, and supply the disc with the drivers. If the
drivers are found, you will be prompted to confirm.

From then on, everything should be normal.

I had managed this using the first run of Windows XP Pro.


Stefan Z Camilleri
------------------

 

[JS]

You need to create a CD of XP that has SP2 incorporated to solve the drive
size problem.
To do this use AutoStreamer, it easy and for the most part self explanatory

Download Site:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562

JS

 

[Bob Harris]

The drivers you need for SATA general come form the maker of the disk
controller, not the hard drive. In the case of on-board SATA controllers,
they come from the motherboard maker.

The XP installer does not support a "browse" feature for these drivers. It
expects to find these on a floppy, so be sure to have a floppy drive. If
the drivers come on a CD, you need to transfer them to a floppy. (One can
only hope that Vista is smarter.)

It is necessary to hit F6 very early in the XP installation to get the XP
installer to look for the drivers. If you missed the chance, you need to
start over and watch more carefully. You have about 10 seconds, maybe less,
to hit F6. Sometime later XP will ask about the drivers. The delay from F6
to XP asking can be minutes.

Before attempting to load XP, determine whether the SATA controller is also
a RAID controller. If is is, then you may need to make a "raid array"
before using the disk. This is a near BIOS-level function, and has nothing
to do with XP. If you only have a single SATA disk, the motherboard may
automatically make an array composed of that one disk. Some do, some don't.
With a singel SATA disk, the correct "array" option might called "Just a
bunch of disks, or JBOD"

You can test the existance of the SATA disk by watching the BIOS checks.
The disk must be listed there, or no operating system will see it. If
listed in the BIOS checks, then try booting from the CD that probablky came
with the SATA drive (before installing XP). Most disk makers provide a CD
with tools to "prepare" the disk. Those tools can see even un-partitioned
and un-formatted disks. If the tools can't see anything, then go back to
the BIOS, check setting, and watch for any options about some controller
after the majority of the BIOS checks are done. On my ASUS motherboard, the
raid controller is simply called "Fastrak". Reading the motherboard manual
sometimes helps.

While XP can "prepare" a disk, you might do better to manually do that
before installing XP. This is espeically true if you want large FAT32
partitions. XP refuses to make any greater than 32Gig, although it will
happily use them, if some other program makes them. If the PC is only going
to run XP, then NTFS partiions are probably the way to go. But, if a dual
boot with LINUX or older windows, then FAT32 is a good common denominator.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a pre-service pack version of windows.
I have never installed windows on a system using a SATA drive before, but
have loaded successfully on many IDE HDD systems.

At the windows setup it only finds my CDROM drive and does not find any
additional storage.
The system bios finds the HDD and lists it as 'Third IDE Primary' and the
CDROM as '1st IDE Secondary'.

At the windows setup screen only 131MB of unpartitioned space on ATAPI
Device.

I was wondering do I need a newer CD version of windows to install onto an
SATA drive? Or could there be some bios setup issue on my PC?

A8R32-MVP-Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200
WD SATAII 250G
ATI x1600 Radeon
Kingston pc3200 x400 512x2

Thanks for any help you can provide, I would hate to have to spend another
$150 to get a newer version of windows.

Aside from sometimes needing to install drivers, some motherboards have
special settings to allow recognition of both SATA and PATA (ide) drives.
My Asus board is like this, and if the setting isn't selected, SATA drives
are not detected. I don't need to install drivers.

HTH
-pk