Sata drive troubles

[Mary H]

Sorry this message will most likely be long, but I hope someone can help me.

I have just put this system together and would like to install Windows Media Center on a new 250 gb Maxtor SATA drive. I believe I have the bios settings right (have disabled raid, and have the on-board Sata set to the enhanced mode). The post bios shows my 2 optical drives as IDE channel 0 master and slave, and the hard drive as IDE channel 2 master. (I have the 2 optical drives linked together in the IDE 1 slot, and the SATA drive in the first SATA slot). However in the standard bios section when the hard drive is automatically detected all information (cylinders, etc.) all state 0. I tried to boot from the windows cd and enter the Sil sata drivers with F6 and as soon as the files all loaded and the system gets to the screen where it says it is starting windows...I get the blue stop screen with the error message "Stop: 0x0000007F(ox00000000, etc)".

Does anyone know what exactly I am doing wrong...I have had many sleepless nights working on this is driving me bonkers.

My Specs: Gigabyte GA-81915P duo rev 2
1 gb dual channel DDR2
Intel 3.2 gb
Nvidia Geforce 6600 512 MB DDR2
Maxtor Sata Ultra16 250 gb
Asus CD-RW
Sony DVD-RW
Trying to install Windows Media Center 2005

 

[Mary H]

This is in regards to my first post.

I am still playing around with it and I found out if I set the SATA drive to either IDE channel 2 or 3 slave, the setup goes a little bit further.
I can now press enter to set up windows, but then it comes back with a message that windows cannot find any hard drives on my system.

I was just hoping that this little bit of information
might be useful to someone trying to help me out.

Thanks so much..

 

[phreakwars]

My board has a BIOS that you enter into for the drives that you set up as normal or raid mode. In normal mode you can install the OS but if you want raid mode you need to use the floppy.

Also I have a question about which BRAND of SATA drive you are using. Some western digital drives need to have the jumper changed to work correctly on some boards, if that is what you are using, this could be the problem..

Also, if you are trying to install an OS on the SATA drives, just simply UNPLUG the IDE drives until you done.
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[Mary H]

Thank you for responding so quickly. My sata drive is Maxtor Sata Ultra16 250 gb. It is the only hard drive I am using, so I have raid disabled in the bios. I would like to install the OS on this drive. From what I understand the gigabyte motherboard considers the optical drives as IDE devices, so I think they need to be plugged into the IDE 1 slot on the motherboard.
I understand now that if I am not using raid, I don't need to use the floppy on F6, but still no luck on installing windows.

Thanks again....appreciate it.

 

[AWS]

Shutoff enhanced sata mode and if the bios has the option for setting sata to ide then use that option. Otherwise turn sata mode off all together. I have to do this on 2 Shuttle motherboards to install XP.
Do not load any drivers when you install unless you are using a raid config.

 

[Mary H]

First of all, I want to say thank you "Pheakwars" and "Bob" for trying to help me.
Pheakwars: I tried what you said with no luck, darn it anyways. In Intergrated Peripherals I don't have separate "sata mode" or "pata mode" that I can set to IDE and secondary. (unless I can't find it).
What I have is "On-board Sata", which I can set to either "disable" "auto" "combined" "Enhanced" or "sata only". I tried setting it as Combined, disconnected the slave CD rom so I only had one CD drive as the master. I had raid "disabled". I still got the no hard drive issue.

Bob: I tried about every scenario I could think of. Of course my brain is about burned from working on this. I tried the on board sata controller on "disabled" , "auto" and "combined". Raid "disabled". I tried each of these with the cd rom drive functioning as the master and slave drives.
When the on board sata is set to "auto", when loading windows, I get the blue error screen as mentioned in my first post. When I have it set to either "combined" or "disabled", I get the no hard drive statement.

I know you guys have done so much for me already, but could I please ask you if you have any more suggestions? It really has me baffled.
Thanks again...I really appreciate it.

 

[phreakwars]

I did a little research for you, what I discovered was alot of people have this same problem, it is solved by downloading the RAID drivers, and installing them with the f6 prompt.. Strange that you would HAVE to install the raid drivers even if not running in RAID, but, that's just the way it goes...

What I would do, is visit either Intel or Gigabytes website for the driver you need first, on Intel's site, just type in the chipset and that should bring it up, try it and get back to us on this.
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[hoffy628]

I ran into the same issue a few months ago with a asus motherboard and had to use the floppy provided with the sata drive to install the drivers at the f6 and it worked. No idea why, but what works works!

 

[Mary H]

Unforunately, I have been inserting the floppy at the F6 prompt. I tried the Raid drivers off the motherboard disk, also the downloaded version from the Gigabyte website, and also the Silicon Sata Controller drivers from the motherboard disk. I haven't had any luck so far. I also plugged the sata cable into each of the 4 slots I have thinking it wanted a certain one, but no luck. I am fresh out of ideas but would really appreciate any other ones you guys could think of.

Thanks!
Mary

Pheakwars, Bob, and Hoffy628... you have been very considerate and kind and you deserve a pat on the back!....Thank you so much for your suggestions!

 

[phreakwars]

I know you may have switched things around here and there trying different things, but just try this.. simply reset the BIOS back to it's original factory setting, and start over by just trying the XP install with the f6 prompt and make no other BIOS changes, see if this works..

If not, a sledge hammer works quite well too.
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[Mary H]

The sledgehammer worked wonders....just kidding.... am seriously thinking about it though.

Tried what you said, still nothing.

Just to clarify a few things....to make sure...
When the first bios screen shows up it lists the Maxtor harddrive on channel 0. On the "standard bios screen" it shows the harddrive Maxtor Sabre (which I am not sure what that stands for...mine is a diamondmax). When I open that up, the cylinders, etc...all say "o" like it is not there...probably as it is not installed. Now my question...is that normal for a sata drive to look like that....it won't let me install it anywhere, anyhow. I personally would think that the bios should show the specs of my harddrive before it should let me install windows. I am new to this sata thing..hope if I ever get it going, it will be worth all the trouble.

I might bow my head down and take it to the computer shop to see if they have any luck with it.

Thanks Pheakwars....sorry for taking up so much of your time, you went over and above...

Sincerely,
Mary
maryhuggard@sbcglobal.net

 

[AWS]

Just a shot in the dark here. Have you tried formating the drive in the sata bios or with Maxtor tools?
At one time you couldn't use a drive unless you first formatted it using the manufacturer tools. This doesn't happen today since new bios and operating systems can do this for you. It probably will not help, but, it is a shot anyway.
Also, there is a possibility that the drive or motherboard is bad. Have you tried using another drive? Maybe try using an IDE drive? The sata channel might be dead.
At this point I would start looking at the hardware to see if it is defective.

 

[Mary H]

Hey thanks Bob..I tried using the Maxtor disk with the CD and also the startup maxtor disk you can create. When it get to the part where it is trying to get a response from the drive...(something about 13..can't remember exactly what it said) it says "no response and also invalid response". The disk creator will take me to a Vdisk c:\, and also I can get into a:\. I don't really know what you mean or how to do it with the sata bios, I have however tried with the maxtor disks.
I have another drive in a emachines computer with is IDE that I could try, but won't I lose all the information on the disk when windows trys to install?
Originally before I bought the sata drive, I tried the other IDE drive in this computer but I got an blue screen error message that went by so fast that I couldn't read it and the computer auto restarted. I just thought it was because it had the Emachines imbedded Windows on it. I guess I could try a fresh install of windows on it to see what it does. I guess what do I have to lose?
Thanks alot and I will let you know what I come up with,
Mary

P.S. Both the motherboard and the Sata drive are brand new....I realize you can get defective parts, but I just find it hard to give in as the motherboard seems to pick up and handle everything else fine.

 

[Mary H]

Hey Bob and Pheakwars...
Gigabyte finally answered my letter to them. I basically copied my first post to them that I also wrote here.
This is their reply.....

"Hi,

Please make sure that all hdd are on IDE 2 and 3 and optical drives are on IDE 1. From there you will need to prepare the driver onto the floppy disk from the motherboard utility CD. Please copy the VIA 6410 directory onto a blank floppy diskett. From there you will need to set your cdrom drive as the first boot device and during the installation of the OS on the very first blue screen press F6 to install 3rd party or scsi driver. From there it'll prompt you to insert the floppy disk by pressing " S" to specify driver.

Thank you"

Do you think you could help me with this to make sure I have everything right? Do either of you have a gigabyte motherboard so our bios settings would be similar? I am on the other computer currently, but if I remember right....Good gosh, I have seen it so many times I can't believe this is so hard to remember....
I get back to you on exactly what my bios says. BRB.

Mary

 

[Mary H]

okay...
My bios screens say:

When computer first starts up the screen says:

IDE Channel 0 Master: Maxtor Sabre BANC2F9Z
IDE Channel 0 Slave: None
IDE Channel 1 Master: Asus CRW
IDE Channel 1 Slave: Sony DVDRW

then:
Primary Master disk: none
Primary Slave disk: none
Secondary Master Disk:Asus CRW
Secondary Slave Disk: Sony DVDRW

IDE Channel 0. Master Disk


Standard Cmos:
IDE Channel 0 Master (Maxtor Sabre)
IDE Channel 0 Slave (None)
IDE Channel 1 Master Asus CRW
IDE Channel 1 Slave Sony DVDRW

When I enter on Maxtor:
IDE HDD Auto Detection (enter)
IDE Channel 0 Master (auto)
Access Mode (Auto)

capacity, cylinders, etc. are all 0's and are grayed out.

Advance Bios:
Hard Disk Boot Priority: 1.Ch 0 M. Maxtor 2. Bootable add-in cards
first boot: floppy
second boot: harddisk
third boot: CDRom
CPU Hyperthreading (enabled)
Limit CPUID Max to 3 (disabled)
No-Execute Memory Protect (enabled)
CPU Enhanced Halt (CIE) (enabled)
CPU EIST function (enabled)

Integrated Peripherals:

On Chip Primary PCI IDE (Enabled)
On Chip Secondary PCI IDE (enabled)
On Chip Sata Mode (Auto) (choices I have are disabled, auto, combined, enhanced, and Non-combined)
(grayed out)
X PATA IDE Set to Ch 1 Master/Slave
Sata port 0/2 set to ch 0 Master/Slave
Sata port 1/3 set to disabled

On Board H/W Raid (disabled)


Hopes this helps...
Mary

 

[phreakwars]

OK I see the problem, lets run through it slow here..

Please make sure that all hdd (HARD DRIVES) are on IDE 2 and 3 and optical (CD-ROM) drives are on IDE 1.

YOUR CONFIG:

Primary Master disk: none
Primary Slave disk: none
Secondary Master Disk:Asus CRW
Secondary Slave Disk: Sony DVDRW

You need to use IDE 0 for the CD-rom drives, and IDE 1 for the regular hard drive

It should read:

Primary Master disk: Asus CRW
Primary Slave disk: Sony DVDRW
Secondary Master Disk:Maxtor Sabre BANC2F9Z (which I assume is an IDE drive and NOT an SATA drive)
Secondary Slave Disk: none

All you need to do is switch the cables around on the CD-Rom and hard drives channels that are connected to the mother board....then..

From there you will need to prepare the driver onto the floppy disk from the motherboard utility CD. Please copy the VIA 6410 directory onto a blank floppy diskette. From there you will need to set your cdrom drive as the first boot device and during the installation of the OS on the very first blue screen press F6 to install 3rd party or scsi driver. From there it'll prompt you to insert the floppy disk by pressing " S" to specify driver.

Other things I have seen on the net include:

1) Go to the intel web site enter your chipset (example 915P)
2) Download the boot floopy.exe
3) open it create a boot disk
4) change your BIOS settings in intergrated peripherals to:
On Chip IDE (Enable)
SATA RAID (Disable)
On Chip SATA (Enhanced)
HW RAID (Enable)
5) Boot with your XP disk press F6 to load controlers (if you cant get your CD dive to work change your BIOS settings in Advanced BIOS Features, on the gigabyte MB the first option you see you press enter & move the card to first and SATA drive second, change this back after you've finished)
6) When you get to the part asking you to press "S" load your boot floopy in press "enter"

Hopefully this info helps.
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[Mary H]

Um....My sata drive is connected to the motherboard by a sata cable so it can't plug into an IDE slot such as IDE 1 or 2.
Am I totally missing something here?

I am so confused...
Mary

 

[phreakwars]

No, your just getting MIXED instructions.. tell you what, come over to WPYO following the link in my signature, and you can speak to me LIVE in chat, and I'll help you sort it out.. I know where your getting confused at.
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[Mary H]

Jimmany Crickets!!!

Thank you so much for all of your help and support! I sat back , gathered my thoughts, had a cup of STRONG joe.. and kept reading over and over what exactly you were saying, and guess what...I am typing this on my new awesome computer!!

Although I have to admit I feel like a bleeping idiot. I made the stupidest mistake. I kept looking at what your configurations said about the hard drive being recognized in the post bios and on my configuration it wasn't. Then I kept looking at that weird model number for my Maxtor in my bios, and thinking that wasn't right. Wouldn't you know, and we will have to remember this for any other goofy people like me that are out there, I pulled the hard drive out and there was a very well hidden tiny factory jumper that needed to be removed. I barely seen it as it blended in very well with the hard drive case. Well, of course, when I removed it, the bios recognized my hard drive along with using the Maxtor diskette I created, the hard drive registered with the correct model number. I then followed your instructions to a tee and wouldn't you know, everything installed absolutely perfectly, and I have to admit it was a cinch.

I don't know how to express how much gratitude I have for you and Bob, I sure couldn't have done it without you. I am very sorry that I put you through so much time and headaches for a stupid mistake on my part. I would really like to express my thanks, so would you and Bob please send me your mailing addresses and/or email addresses. I owe you so much for all of your help.

I am so glad I found this forum! You and Bob went way over and above things that you needed to do. You should be commended and also be so proud of how kind and considerate you are as a person. I know I have met two wonderful people and I just can't express enough how much I appeciate it.

Thanks you so much again....I won't forget the help you gave me.

Sincerely,
Mary
maryhuggard@sbcglobal.net

 

[AWS]

Thank you for the kind words Mary. Sometimes it's the little things that we miss. I was scratching my head for a few hours with a similiar problem and it turned out I didn't have the cable on a floppy in all the way causing an invalid boot device error.