need desperate help w/ SATA hard drive

[OOBradm]

*sigh* alright, i hope some of you can help me. Here my NEW rig:

Athlon 64 3500+
ASUS A8V deluxe
80gb WD SATA hdd


SO, i couldnt get windows to recognize the sata hdd right at install, and i didnt have a disk sent with my mobo with the drivers, so i installed windows on a 40gb PATA hard drive, which is what im running off of now. Ive installed everything that came on the mobo driver disk (via 4 in 1, lots of other raid drivers and stuff) but i just cant get windows to recognize the darn sata hard drive.

im about to give up, and jsut stay with this pata hdd and RMA my sata. Anyone have a step by step of what do?!

 

[mechBgon]

In your motherboard's manual, pages 5-19 onwards has the necessary instructions for using either the VIA or Promise SATA.

First, be aware that there are two different SATA controllers on there. You can use either one. I'd use the VIA one if I were using SATA.

Secondly, be aware that, depending on the controller, you may need to go into the controller's own little BIOS and define your hard drive as an "array" so that the controller can offer it to Windows Setup. If you plug in the drive but don't define it as an array, it may still end up invisible to Windows.

The exception to that would be if you set the Promise SATA controller to its basic "IDE mode" in your main motherboard BIOS. That makes the Promise controller forget about RAID and simply host the drive by itself (the way you were expecting it would work).

If you want to use the VIA SATA like I'd suggest, then follow the steps on page 5-26 through 5-32 to define it as an array. Next, follow the steps on page 5-33 to make the proper VIA SATA driver floppy diskette.

Now disconnect your old PATA drive. Leave it disconnected. Also disconnect your computer from the network cable so it can't get infected by worms when the network adapter comes online. Begin WinXP Setup from your WinXP CD again. Press the F6 key at that first blue screen as it prompts you to do, and give it your VIA SATA driver floppy when the time comes. You're on your way.

Don't get infected by worms... I've got some tips here for you: link to tips Good luck!