A few easy SATA questions for you guys...

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: Spikesoldier
go into disk manager and you should probably have the extra space 'seen' as unallocated space.

just make that unallocated space a new partition, have a 130 and a 60, dont put all your eggs in one basket, believe me partitioning is better than having one large chunk.

i personally have a 80gb hard drive that i started out with, installed windows on it. i then added a 160gb hard drive nearly a year later, when i started to back up DVD's and ran out of space on my old drive.

C and D are on the 80, E and F are on the 160.

C: 15gb (windows + desktop + documents, etc)
D: 60gb (program installations)
E: 50gb (blank right now, important backups)
F: 100gb (dvd/video editing swap)

edit: needless to say, if my windows installation just said FU, or its time to reformat or switch to a different OS, i wouldnt be hurting nearly as bad, since i can back up the little data i have on C: to D:, or onto my other disk before wiping the C: drive, this is the beauty of partitioning.

The value of partioning is strictly a matter of personal taste...there is no benefit to either way. It could be helpful if you only have one HD and one computer I suppose, but I just offload my stuff to a storage drive on a networked system. Personally, I prefer one big partion...ever hear of folders?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I just took a look at your motherboard manual to see if I could help you with BIOS settings to get your drive recognized.

I'm unable to get the full manual. I get only 44 pages and the index shows there to be 71.

Poke around in the boot order and see if there is an option for SATA of Serial ATA. You may even have to choose SCSI although newer boards should have one of the first two available.

Be aware that even with the BIOS set correctly and the SATA drive recognized by the BIOS, the introduction to the system of another HD with as OS on it, may result in booting off of that drive.

I've done installs of XP on drives with 98 on them where I have set the boot order such that there is no HD option in the boot order and had them boot into 98.

As was mentioned above, this is NOT a bios issue. His board sees the drive fine...he installed windows on it. It's a matter of using a XP install that is not up to date with 48-bit LBA adressing enabled.

 

[fuzzynavel]

sulaco said

In fact, I don't see it listed anywhere, and the BIOS "auto detect" doesn't find anything

this is from his post at the top of the second page in this thread.....so it does appear to be a Bios issue or am I reading it wrong???

Are there any bios flash updates available for your board??

try using Fdisk in Dos...download a win 98 bootdisk and play around....Fdisk may be able to find the unallocated space....

hope this helps


there is a bios dated 21 sept 04 in this thread on first post here!!

 

[Insane3D]

It's not the bios....people! LOL@ you guys.

You can't install an OS on a drive the bios doesn't see. It's emmulating it as the primary master, so he thinks it's not being seen right.

 

[fuzzynavel]

it may be my unfamiliarity with SATA (seeing as my machine is 2.5 years old) but shouldn't even SATA drives be seen in the bios...that is why I drew that conclusion??

Teach me oh great one...

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: fuzzynavel
it may be my unfamiliarity with SATA (seeing as my machine is 2.5 years old) but shouldn't even SATA drives be seen in the bios...that is why I drew that conclusion??

Teach me oh great one...

I'm not great...I've just said many times in this thread it's not the bios. If the bios doesn't see a drive, you can't install an OS on it. He installed Windows on it....it's a matter of his out of date OS not seeing the whole space of the drive do to the 48 bit LBA adressing not being enabled.

On a board where the SATA is native via the chipset, it emmulates it as a IDE drive on the primary master so you don't need the F6 procedure.

Now everything seems to refer to "Primary IDE boot device" and what not, so I'm thinking does that have something to do with it? Obviously it's not an "IDE" drive.

And he's also saying it's not listed in the boot order, but the board will search for other boot options if the first three are not available...

 

[boomerang]

I understand he has already installed windows on this drive.

He says if he installs his IDE drive it will boot off that first.

If he can get the boot order correct in the BIOS he will be one step further in getting his IDE drive into the system.

I made no mention of drive size limitations. My post was not in regards to that.

From his posts thus far, I do not believe he has ever entered the BIOS to look at boot options. He has only looked at what the BIOS is reporting on bootup.

I do understand some boards will not report a SATA drive differently than an IDE drive. I have no personal knowledge if this is one of those.

 

[Insane3D]

I do understand some boards will not report a SATA drive differently than an IDE drive. I have no personal knowledge if this is one of those.

Yes, it is. A native SATA solution, like the NF3-250 chipset on that Chaintech board, will emmulate a SATA drive as an IDE drive...usually the Primary IDE. I think his confusion is he is looking for a SATA option in the boot order, and he doesn't really need to.

It's all irrelevant anyhow, the board is booting into windows....the problem is all the space is not getting recognized...

 

[xsilver]

A little OT but I discovered a great program called partiition magic., which can create a boot disk that has great functions and does everything ultra fast.... I used to format crap in dos and it took forever, now its just as fast as windows but is a dos boot disk, you can partiition unallocated space which as insane3d mentions is the problem here, NOT bios error

 

[William23]

His best bet right now would be to download SP2 and burn it to a cd for installing XP and slipstream the service pack 2 .Then download the seagate formating utility,put it on a floppy,then reformat the drive.then do a clean install of XPSP2. Then download the Seagate utility to enable large HDD's.

I've reading about his Mobo and theres no way he could have installed XP without his BIOS seeing the drive,So its just seeing the drive as an IDE drive(doesn't matter).

He said earlier that when he connected his old drive (IDE) that it booted to that drive first. Maybe he should move the old drive to a different computer and format the drive, the install on his pc(I'm guessing he didn't format that drive with windows still on it so thats why it booted to that drive first))

But I think he just needs to go into BIOS and reset his boot order for the new drive first, then It should be smooth sailing.......that all sounds logical......But I don't know!!If i was there I could have that thing running in no time.It"s hard to trouble shoot without actually being there

William