I was told that there is something you need to do with WinXP and SATA

[REDtoLINE]

Hello, my friend recently built his own computer...and he used SATA for his hard drives...well, he told me that he had to make some kind of floppy backup disc, or something...or that it wouldnt work with windows...

 

[shock311]

during install, you need to install the drivers for your sata ports otherwise they wont be detected. normally it'll say press f6 to install a third party SCSI/RAID driver or something like that.

 

[Ausm]

What he means (I think) is that you need a floppy with your SATA drivers on it for a clean install just like you would with a SCSi drive. If you just adding the hard drive then you should be able to suck the drivers off from your motherboard CD.

Oh also make sure your SATA controller is enabled in your BIOS too.

Ausm

 

[rivethead]

"Oh also make sure your SATA controller is enabled in your BIOS too. "

Noob question but.....can you be more specific? I'm in the process of building a AMD 3000+ 939 system witha a SATA HD and I don't remember seeing that option (or anything related to SATA) in the Phonix Award BIOS.

Thanks!

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: rivethead
"Oh also make sure your SATA controller is enabled in your BIOS too. "

Noob question but.....can you be more specific? I'm in the process of building a AMD 3000+ 939 system witha a SATA HD and I don't remember seeing that option (or anything related to SATA) in the Phonix Award BIOS.

Thanks!

I need to know what motherboard you are looking at so I can d/load the manual.

Ausm

 

[imported_Kensai]

F6 drivers.

 

[Melchior]

Everythign is usually enabled in the BIOS @ default unless you mess with it. Well, not overclocking and I booting off network, but yea, most everything. Don't worry about it.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I am using the MSI Neo4 Diamond SLI mobo & don't remember setting a SATA controller for it. Could you help me with that as well please? I revised my own thread when I realized my format wouldn't even start.

Also, do I need to install the motherboard drivers & such before installing Windows? I thought you did that after installing Windows?

 

[rivethead]

It's the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra.

I put in all the hardware this weekend and it booted right up. I was able to format the HD without doing the F6/floppy procedure. I'm running only one HD, so I believe that RAID is automatically disabled.

I read on another thread that this is because the NForce4 IDE controller will communicate just fine with a SATA drive. I don't fully understand this.

I just want to make sure I have the HD drivers installed correctly and set up in BIOS correctly. That way, I'll be more confident that the HD is being controlled correctly and that the NCQ and other SATA benefits (if any) are working.

Thanks!

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I was told that we need the SATA driver disk that comes with the retail version of our hard drives...naturally, just keep making it worse. BTW hit f6 or whatever when it asks if you have RAID/SATA drivers to install.

 

[stevty2889]

You won't even neccesarily need drivers to install windows on a SATA drive. It depends. If it's an intergrated controler..part of the chipset, rather than a stand alone chip, and you aren't using raid, then you probably won't even need the drivers. A lot of motherboards will have both SATA integrated and an onboard chip, so depending on what port you use, you may need to have the drivers. If windows install will see the hard drive without the drivers, you don't need them. And Pr0d1gy...the drivers have nothing to do with the hard drive itself, they won't come with a retail hard drive, the drivers are for the SATA controler on the motherboard..

 

[Pr0d1gy]

So maybe if I try another port the drive will be recognized & automatically be accepted? Oh well, that's my last hope so I'm off to try it.

Well I formatted using quick & it formatted the drive in about 30 seconds...wow. I am formatting it with regular format now to see if it works this way too.

And then there were none...damnit. Why does it work on quick format but not regular? I have never seen these kinds of problems before. Could someone tell me what the heck is going on?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

ttt, looking for an answer...is it just the driver disk or is something wrong?

 

[DrCrap]

I installed A64 (not that it matters...) system with windows xp and SATA drive - no RAID, and I didn't need to install any drivers... just plain win-xp install.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Did you do a quick format or a full format?

 

[Promethply]

It depends on your motherboard's chipset.

With the current chipset such as the NVidia NF4s, you don't need to press f6 to install SATA drivers during the installation, unless you are using a RAID setup.

 

[andy nowotny]

yes, install sata in xo need a floppy driver