Help with SATA suddenly not working?

[Sulaco]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to help my brother resolve a problem with his PC. He's running:

Asus A8N-E (s939)
A64 X2 4400+
Windows Vista Home Premium 32
200Gb Seagate SATA

He's had no issues or problems with it of any kind since getting it.

...anyway, here's what happened:

He says he resumed his computer from sleep mode, and within a few seconds, everything froze, all the icons disappeared from the desktop, and an error message saying something about "logic drive" or "Logic driver" not being found or not working properly. He shut the computer down shortly since everything was locked up.
Upon starting it up again, Windows fails to load. He gets a "No system disk or disk error, etc" message in BIOS.
Upon entering BIOS, the IDE optical drives are detected, but the SATA drive fails to show up in any of the boot.

I swapped in an old IDE HDD he had lying around with Windows XP installed, and it was recognized in BIOS and loaded up just fine.

I then took the problem drive, the one BIOS refused to recognize, and tested it on another machine to see if I could retrieve his data. Sure enough, as soon as I plugged it in, the other computer detected it in BIOS and I was able to salvage his important data.
But unfortunately, his computer still fails to detect the SATA HDD.

So far, I've:

--Swapped SATA cables
--Plugged the SATA drive into every available SATA port on the motherboard (4)
--Inserted the Vista DVD and tried a Startup Repair option (no go, didn't see the drive or partition)


He claims not to have plugged in any foreign USB devices recently, as I figured that might be the issue.
Tomorrow I plan on unplugging all USB devices and resetting CMOS before trying again.

But does anyone have any idea what this could be? The HDD works fine in other computers, and it runs/detects IDE HDDs just fine. But for some reason, SATA seems to have just vaporized.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like your mobo's SATA controller got turned off of went South. Check your BIOS to make sure it is enabled.

If it is enabled, then you may have to add a SATA controller card and use it instead of the mobo SATA ports.

I had to do that with an ASUS board - the on-board SATA ports got damaged by plugging and unplugging - they were very flimsy.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply!

I've done everything I can think of to this point.

-Reset CMOS
-Used different cables
-tested the HDD in other computers
-tried IDE HDD in the problem computer (works fine)
-tried different SATA ports on the motherboard
-Checked BIOS to make sure SATA was on 'Auto' and all settings looked good



...still nothing.

I guess the most likely culprit is the motherboard SATA controller crapping out. I don't know what else it could be.
I've told my brother to invest in a PCI SATA controller card.

Would something like this work:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...oduct&id=1188562133392

He doesn't need or care for RAID...will this just work for recognizing and booting from a single SATA drive?

 

[Lemon law]

I am not expert on this point, but its windows that provides full support for Sata. There should be a Sata startup disk to go with your mother board that helps the board see the Sata drive before installing windows, and it looks like bit rot of something else has killed that bit of Sata support. Reinstalling your mobo drivers may cure your problem. Look and see on the asus website for the right Sata driver for your board, its often small enough to work from a floppy.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply!

But pardon my ignorance, but how exactly would I go about reinstalling motherboard drivers or SATA drivers for Windows if I can't boot from or load the problem drive?

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: Sulaco
Thanks for the reply!

But pardon my ignorance, but how exactly would I go about reinstalling motherboard drivers or SATA drivers for Windows if I can't boot from or load the problem drive?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That is why mobo manufactures make it possible from a bootable floppy in terms of Sata drive support. A bootable CD would also possibly work. Once the bios sees the Sata drive, all is fixed.

But the corkyg point still remains, if the Sata in the bios is hardware fried, software may not fix it.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply.

I've been looking at the Asus website, but see nothing about SATA drivers or bootable floppies/CDs on their site for this motherboard.
I'll go back and look again, but do you think a BIOS update would help?

 

[Sulaco]

I went ahead and flashed the BIOS to the latest version (1013), and still nothing.

I'm all out of ideas now. I'm assuming its a bad/fried SATA controller on the motherboard, and all I can think to do now is buy a PCI SATA controller card and hope for the best.

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: Sulaco
I went ahead and flashed the BIOS to the latest version (1013), and still nothing.

I'm all out of ideas now. I'm assuming its a bad/fried SATA controller on the motherboard, and all I can think to do now is buy a PCI SATA controller card and hope for the best.

Given all the troubleshooting you've already done, this is the next logical step.

Remember that your BIOS will recognize the SATA card as a SCSI controller in the boot order.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the tip!

Anything else I should be aware of? I've never used a PCI SATA controller card before. Will it boot right up and recognize my brother's HDD? Or are there some basic steps I need to take first?

Thanks again.

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: Sulaco
Thanks for the tip!

Anything else I should be aware of? I've never used a PCI SATA controller card before. Will it boot right up and recognize my brother's HDD? Or are there some basic steps I need to take first?

Thanks again.

You might have a problem that Windows doesn't have the drivers installed for the new card.

You may have to do a repair install and furnish the drivers via F6 during the process.

 

[Sulaco]

Thanks for the reply.

I bought the controller card today, and it immediately picks up the HDD (186Gb Seagate, it says).

However, it will not boot Windows. I get the message that I need to insert the Windows Vista Install DVD and run a repair install.

I put the DVD, and run the repair, and the Windows recovery DVD does not see the Vista partition! It doesn't show anything. So I am unable to run a repair install.

When you say "furnish the drivers", which drivers are you referring to?

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: Sulaco
Thanks for the reply.

I bought the controller card today, and it immediately picks up the HDD (186Gb Seagate, it says).

However, it will not boot Windows. I get the message that I need to insert the Windows Vista Install DVD and run a repair install.

I put the DVD, and run the repair, and the Windows recovery DVD does not see the Vista partition! It doesn't show anything. So I am unable to run a repair install.

When you say "furnish the drivers", which drivers are you referring to?

Did the card come with a floppy disk? If so, this is what you need.

 

[Sulaco]

Unfortunately, no, the card only came with a CD-ROM.

Just to be clear, is this normal? I mean, if BIOS sees the drive as a SCSI, is it normal that the Windows Vista repair CD doesn't see it under the "repair" option?
I only ask because I want to make sure there isn't some deeper problem with the HDD or the boot sector in some way.

Any other ideas would be hugely appreciated. I suppose I'll hunt around for some controller card drivers that can fit on a floppy.

Thanks again!

 

[Ausm]

Will the machine boot up in safe mode?

 

[Sulaco]

Nope.

I've tried Safe Mode, Last Known Good Config, and Start Windows Normally. Each time it begins to load, the Vista "Loading" bar can be seen scrolling across the screen, and then, the system just reboots, no error message or otherwise.

The repair install REFUSES to see the SATA drive. I've even been able to put the driver CD that came with SATA controller card in and let it "search for drivers", and nothing. It still does not show the SATA drive to either repair or do a fresh install.

 

[Ausm]

Ouch Sounds like your South Bridge went "south" no pun intended

 

[KGB]

Sorry, been away for awhile.

Which SATA card do you have?

 

[bwatson283]

Sounds like Sata controller to me too.

 

[Sulaco]

Quick update:

I was able to get a brand new, OEM WD 640Gb SATA drive yesterday, and tried that out with the motherboard's SATA ports.
Sure enough, nothing. Tried all 4 ports, the drive is neither recognized in BIOS or when trying to do a fresh Windows install on it.
So now, it's pretty clear that the motherboard's onboard SATA ports or controller are just shot. I even was able to use my Motherboard driver CD as a bootable disc and load SATA drivers in BIOS, and still nothing.

On the plus side, the new drive is picked up instantly when plugged into my new PCI SATA Controller Card.
BIOS recognizes both the new HDD and the old HDD as "SCSI drives", and lists the correct disk size.

However, upon inserting the Windows Vista DVD, Windows sees NEITHER drive to either install, format, or repair.
I've tried inserting the driver CD for the controller card when Windows prompts to 'Load Drivers', and nothing. I've downloaded the latest drivers I can find for the controller card, put them on a USB, and loaded that from the Windows DVD repair/install screen, and still nothing.

I cannot for the life of me get Windows to see EITHER of these drives to either install or repair or format.
It's terribly frustrating since they're obviously seen in BIOS and read correctly (despite being labelled SCSI), but Windows won't do anything with them, and I can't get an install or a repair.

KGBMAN: Thanks for your help. The card is basically this:
http://microcenter.com/single_...tml?product_id=0301270

It uses a Silicon Image 3512 SATA controller chipset.
I've been to the Silicon Image website and tried 2 different drivers versions for SiL 3512 to load at the Windows prompts, and still nothing.

I'm really lost here. I seem to be just one step away from getting Windows to SEE these damn drives, since BIOS now sees them just fine, but it just won't take.

 

[KGB]

When you try to force the drivers, is the .inf file in the root of the drive/disk?

Have you tried slipstreaming the drivers into the Vista disk?