SATA --- A setup nightmare? POLL EDITED

[awolkoff]

Originally posted by: Budman
yes I agree, most problems are just people not RTFM.

:beer:

 

[Gerbil333]

I'm a veteran builder, but I thought my first SATA hd was easy to install. I didn't have to set any jumpers...that was easy. The only difference was that I had to press F6 when installing XP. How hard is that? 😛

 

[NleahciM]

IMO - unless you're getting raptors - SATA is entirely not worth it yet. There are just too many problems associated with it right now. It is new and buggy - and to be avoided. It just adds to the overall complexity of things. Also - SATA plugs are flimsy and very easy to break. If you get a Western Digital SATA drive - I HIGHLY reccomend purchasing a Western Digital "Secure Connect" cable. They are a blessing to the SATA world. Not because they increase thoroughput - but just because they're so much stronger than the standard junk included with motherboards.

edit: forgot to mention that my main problems have been when using both SATA and PATA drives on the same motherboard. That has caused some nasty problems with various systems that I've worked on.

 

[yadda]

We do need some more choices on the poll. I won't vote but here is my take:

I have just built a new box with 2 - WD SATA drives on a Asus P4P800E deluxe motherboard and I purposely installed a floppy drive because I thought I would need for the SATA driver install. Installed with no additional drivers. Woohoo. No need for the floppy drive.

Y

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Fair enough. Back to the topic of the thread, are you saying consumer-level SATA is something you'd recommend for new and intermediate builders? Review the thread I linked above briefly, and if you need more to judge by, search for threads with "SATA" in the title and "mechBgon" as the author. There's plenty :evil:

My feeling after slogging through peoples' owners' manuals with them, is that it is not as transparent as it ought to be. If it were even as simple as just pressing the F6 key for drivers, and selecting "SCSI" in the BIOS as the boot device, that would be great. But there are some boards that are simply ridiculous, like the Abit i865/i875 ones... here's a blurb from one owner who got his going after referring to one of my previous efforts with this non-rogue chipset:

hi mechBgon

thanks for all your help.

first of all - i've built a few pcs before and never used memtest86 - its great - i'll be using it a lot from now on!

secondly, i found the problem thanks to your other thread. i'm not sure if it made any difference, but i aslo installed all the sata drivers during the windows installation - although i definitely installed an sata disk before on a different box without having to do this (but it wasnt win2003 - so maybe that needs it)

but where i think the main problem was - was in the bios settings - here are the settings that worked for me (this one is without raid - im waiting on a second disk to set up the raid):

note - these are from memory (and from your other thread) - i dont have the box in front of me atm:

Under Integrated Peripherals -> OnChip IDE Device:
IDE Bus Master - Enabled
OnChip Serial ATA - enhanced
OnChip Serial ATA Mode - ide
SATA RAID ROM - Enabled

Advanced BIOS Features:
Hard Disk Boot Priority - 1. Bootable Add-in Device
Bootable Add-in Device - Onboard sata
Boot Other Device - Enabled

Comments? Still think it's as easy as reading a manual? There's a whole heirarchy of settings here that have to be properly arranged to get the board to do what he wants it to do.

My position is that it should be as simple to boot from SATA as it is from PATA, or at least from an add-in SCSI card, no worse than that. Reality is quite different for some folks at the moment.

Sheesh. Sounds like the BIOS settings on an MSI 865PE Neo2 Platinum board. It has an Intel ICH5 on it, but the manual depicts different groups of BIOS settings for getting the SATA to boot, depending on whether you are running Win9x or NT-based OSes. Since I dual-boot between both (alibeit Win9x rarely anymore), that would be a MAJOR hassle for me, if I ever go the SATA route. Combine that with: 1) the increased power consumption of the "always on" SATA interface, 2) negligible to negative increase in performance over equivalent PATA drives, and most importantly 3) issues with noise on the non-shielded SATA cable causing data-corruption in many scenerios - I am loath to even consider implementing a system with SATA in it, until all of these first-gen teething-pains get worked out. To say nothing of the BIOS and driver issues, and DOS-based system utilities. (Does Ghost see SATA drives? Even if your mobo's SATA chipset is a "RAID" controller?) Even that guy that does the Linux ATA drivers, doesn't really seem to like first-gen SATA. He has big red warnings about it on his web site.

 

[billyjak]

I have raid setup on my Gigabyte board with wd Raptors, it was very easy to setup loading windows xp and hitting the F6 key to load the drivers.
It was my first experience with sata and raid and it went real smooth.

Look in your bios first to make sure your booting from the proper raid or sata controller first.

 

[fsstrike]

SATA is not hard, it is just different. When I installed my new computer, i was like "WTF" when windows couldnt detect my HD. I spent over an hour not knowing wtf to do, then I called a buddy. My buddy told me all I had to do was put my SATA driver on a floppy and pop it into the computer. Within 5 minutes I had it up and running. So, SATA isnt hard, its just different. My advice would be familiarize yourself with the installation process (unlike me) before putting the drive in.

 

[mechBgon]

Personally, my SATA installation would be easy if I chose SATA, but I'm not naive enough to think that means that everyone, with every motherboard, is going to have a simple time of it. I know better.

Go help people with ten or twenty different mobos and their own unique SATA-installation convolutions, folks, and I think you'll be thinking twice about blanket recommendations for SATA 😉

 

[User5]

SATA is really easy to install. I was having problems because my floppy ribbon cable had half of the ribbons not connected to the other end lol..

Assuming everything is connected properly, I cant imagine whats hard about pressing F6, follwed by the S key, and then entering a floppy disk with the drivers on it 😉

Is there a speed advantage with SATA at all? All I know, is that I only have a 7200.7 Baracuda from Seagate, and this thing flys. I load maps rediculously fast. Quake III loads maps in 2 seconds literally, enemy territory loads in about 5 secs, and in EVERY game, every server I am always the first person there. Its pretty cool, 6-7 seconds later everyone else starts popping in after a map change 🙂

 

[CallMeJoe]

I set up SATA on Abit NF7-S with no problem at all, Win 98 and XP.

 

[Pollock]

SATA was easy enough for me, but I also chose a motherboard I know has no problems with SATA, the NF7-S v2. Choose your motherboard first and see how other people's luck has fared.

 

[melijak]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Yeah, SATA can be very easy. It was certainly easy enough on my first board and first build. However this last one has been anything but. I installed different drivers, did everything I could (I was trying to install Windows on the drive). I was able to get Windows on there fine, however the motherboard refused to boot to that drive, regardless of what I did (and yes I know how to set it up right in the BIOS). In the end, I'm not sure if the drive went bad (it caused me a problem in the past) or if the SATA just didn't want to work right. Of course this was on the Asus K8N-E Deluxe, a board that has been far from problem free for a lot of people.

I ordered the K8N-E board myself. After reading your post and others with all the SATA problems, I went and exchanged my two days old SEAGATE 160G sata for 80G IDE drive which cost me only 39$ at Best Buy. It wasnt worth the trouble, and this should do for now, I can always add big SATA drive later when ASUS resolve the issue.
Thanks.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: User5
Im having nothing but trouble installing a SATA hard drive on my Asus K8V Deluxe. Its almost as if Asus makes it so that the only times you can use SATA drives, is with a RAID configuration, not a single one. Even the manual just skips over setting up SATA hdds, and goes straight to SATA RAID

But maybe its just Asus.

It's the same with my Soltek... only goes over RAID and arrays and stuff... kinda dumb.

 

[stryker999]

SATA Was super easy for me. Plugged it in, it worked. Thats it. I have a WD 120GB on the new Gigabyte Socket 939 Motherboard.

 

[CraigRT]

aside from a review, anyone here have 10k RPM Raptors and notice a huge difference in overall system speed?
looking for an opinion on that. considering a 10k drive as my next upgrade.