A8n-Sli w/ Hitachi SATA BIOS question

[peckalo]

Hey all,

Just got the final parts (namely the A8n finally arrived) for my new rig yesterday so I started putting everything together. It was my first personal build, I used to work in a factory assembling servers.

Anyways to the point, in my BIOS my Hitachi 80gb SATA hard drive shows up at only haveing a 6mb capacity. I have it hooked up through the Nvidia SATA controller. I don't have Windows up and running yet so I am wondering if Windows will recognize the proper size of the drive when installing or is there something else I need to do?

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Have you tried updating to the latest BIOS yet? Not that I specifically know that the latest BIOS for that board fixes your issue, but this is something you should do first....

Is the drive older or brand new?

 

[peckalo]

Its a brand new drive. Just got it at the same time as the motherboard. I have heard that updating the motherboard bios before getting a stable OS running can be risky. I guess i'm really just hoping that installing windows will ignore the bios readings.

BTW the hard drive is:
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250-80 : 80GB SATA 7200-RPM 8MB 3.5" Desktop

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Hi peckalo:

Well, what you heard is wrong regarding the BIOS update. That is the first thing that should be on your mind. The BIOS update will resolve issues that might PREVENT you from installing the OS. I have had that happen many times in the past. Definitely update the BIOS first. Use a bootable CD, as a floppy can be a bit risky. However, if the floppy is your only choice, then you have a good chance of success. I have also used bootable ZIP disks and USB flash drives as well to update the BIOS.

After updating the BIOS, load optimized defaults save it and then reboot again. Then enter the BIOS again and see what is up.

Other things to try are a new SATA data cable. Is the cable bent at 90 degrees at any point along it's length? That will cause issues. If this does not get it, then go ahead and try loading the OS and see if the same issue translates over. Another option is to try another HDD if you have a spare laying around. There is the chance it is a bad HDD.

 

[peckalo]

Well, after trying every port on both the nVidia and SI controllers no luck. I flashed 1003 bios, no luck. Tried a windows 98 fdisk to format, no luck. Lastly tried the Hitachi drive utility and again no luck. Time to RMA. I just hope its only my hard drive and not my mobo. I put in an old IDE drive just to get everything up and running and its doing great.

Oh well. I should be able to the RMA without any trouble, its only been a few days.