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This machine has an 80GB SATA drive which I have successfully formatted to FAT32. But it doesn't show up in BIOS' "Standard CMOS Features" but does show as a RAID device as: Serial_CH0MASTER ST380817AS. When I try to install XP it loads all the preliminary setup files but then stops and says it can't find any hard drive. How do I get it to recognize the SATA drive?
You may need to provide SATA controller drivers when first prompted by WinXP, or reset the BIOS settings to IDE compatibility mode.
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"reset the BIOS settings to IDE compatibility mode."
That's the easiest way - XP Setup will then see your SATA drive, as an IDE compatible drive.
If you want to enable the faster max data transfer speeds SATA or SATA-II provides for (150 or 300mbps) you can load the SATA drivers after Setup has completed, and change the bios settings to SATA (a.k.a. ACHI) or RAID SATA modes (a.k.a. RAID AHCI).
There is no point in you using RAID mode if there is only one hard drive on a controller that supports RAID.
If the drive is SATA, not SATA-II, you won't notice much if any difference between IDE compatible mode (max speed 133mbps) and SATA mode (150mbps).
.....Another thing you may run into.
You said you were fiddling with older mboards, older computer components.
Some older mboards have SATA support (max speed 150 mbps) but not SATA-II support (max speed 300 mbps).
SATA-II support is backwards compatible with SATA drives, but ......
If the drive is SATA-II, some mboard chipsets with only SATA support will see a SATA-II drive anyway, but as a SATA drive (max speed 150mbps). However, some mboards
with chipsets with only SATA support will NOT see a SATA-II drive at all, unless the drive has pins on it on which you can install a jumper to force the drive into SATA mode - some SATA-II drives have that (e.g. some Samsung models), some SATA-II drives do not (at least some Maxtor models).If the SATA-II drive does not have the ability to be forced into SATA mode, on mboards that do not recognize the drive, the only way you can get the drive to be recognized is to install a PCI SATA-II controller card and connect the drive to that, or by using a SATA to IDE adapter that has circuits that allow the drive to be connected and recognized as an IDE drive.
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After further research I found that I have to download the SATA driver from the mobo manu. and install it after selecting F6 during setup. Sound familiar? Will post back if this don't work. Thanx all:>)
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"After further research I found that I have to download the SATA driver"
You have the two choices in response 1, not just one.
As I said, the second choice is easier, especially if you don't have a floppy drive on this computer.
If you go for loading the SATA drivers choice
- you MUST have a floppy drive connected - Windows Setup will NOT look anywhere for the SATA drivers except on a floppy in a floppy drive
- Setup will only recognize a handful of USB connected floppy drive models, most of which haven't been made for a long time. I have a short list of one maker's models that work for this purpose, but if you don't have one of those and can't borrow one, a USB connected floppy drive costs $40 and up
- if you don't have a regular floppy drive, you could borrow one, or a new regular floppy drive is usually less that $15, and almost all mboards have a floppy data header.OR - if you don't have a floppy drive connected, you must make a slipstreamed CD with the contents of the Windows CD on it with the SATA drivers integrated into it
- if the mboard has SATA RAID capabilty, if both SATA and SATA RAID drivers are listed after you insert the floppy, and later point Setup to the files on the floppy, usually the plain SATA drivers will not work - you choose the RAID SATA drivers, which also support non-RAID use. You do not need to use RAID if you don't want to, and if you have only one drive connected to the RAID controller, you can't set up RAID array anyway.
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Tubes - This machine doesn't have a floppy drive but I do have an external USB drive. Will attempt to use it this afternoon. The manual for this board says " the board contains SATA Raid driver(s)" for whatever that gets me. Also, I downloaded the (floppy) raid driver but I don't see any file listing for SATA vs SATA Raid driver. But maybe after I get into setup and open the floppy it will give me the options you refer to.
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You're NOT "getting" it - Setup WILL NOT read from a USB drive at that point in Setup!
Please read response 6 more carefully!Setup at that point will NOT look on a USB drive, or a CD drive, or a hard drive, or anywhere else other than a floppy drive for the SATA drivers!
If you don't want to fiddle with connecting a floppy drive, which you could probably borrow from anothert computer you have, and if you don't want to have to make a slipstreamed CD, then do the procedure in response 2!!
"" the board contains SATA Raid driver(s)" for whatever that gets me."
You may not see what drivers are on the floppy until you actually run Setup and you point it to the drivers on the floppy.
You may see only one choice, or both SATA and SATA RAID choices, and you may also see two listings of each for more than one chipset model number.
Read the manual for the mboard, or look at the specs for your specific mboard model. If it supports SATA RAID, if there is more than one choice, since your mboard supports SATA RAID, choose the RAID one. If there is more than one chipset choice, find which chipset model your mboard has in the mboard manual or by reading the model numbers on the chips on the mbooard.
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Success! I downloaded the SATA (floppy) driver from MSI, copied it to floppy, hit F6 at setup, then "S". It told me to insert the floppy, which I did, then selected the appropriate SATA XP HDD. Everything seems to be working OK (it's going thru the NTFS format routine as we speak.) One thing, however. I didn't format the floppy first before copying the SATA driver to it, so I kept getting an error message that it couldn't read the textsetup.oem file which I knew was on the floppy. So I finally followed MSI's instructions and it worked! This was my first experience with SATA HDD and it showed. Thanx again:>)
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Sounds like it's going okay so far.
"...I kept getting an error message that it couldn't read the textsetup.oem file ..."
You should do this anytime you have any important files you want to put on a floppy - especially for a floppy you want to use for flashing the bios.
I recommend you use Windows to check your floppy using FULL format. FULL format is slower, but will find and exclude from use any previously undetected bad sectors on a floppy, a common problem these days.
In XP, RIGHT click on A: to find Format, DO NOT use the Quick format switch, format the floppy. After the format has finished, RIGHT click on A:, choose Properties - Free Space should be 1,457,664 bytes for an error free floppy. If it is less than that and the floppy is less than about 8 years old, I recommend you don't use it - it will probably get worse. Format another floppy instead, and look at it's Properties.
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