SATA drive not being found?

[DyslexicHobo]

I just reinstalled windows on my main drive. It's been about three years or so since I've done it before on this computer, and I can't remember how I got my SATA drive to be recognized in Windows. Also, in my BIOS while things are loading, it says something to the extent of "Serial CH0: Samsung SP1614C", but does not show up as an option in the Hard Disk menu in the BIOS options (yet an odd option does, there is something on the drive list that's called "VIAK8. . . 1st drive").

I have an ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard, and the drive is a Samsung SP1614C.

I looked on the ASUS site to possibly find driver downloads for the drive, and all I found was a "SATA Promise controller". From what I understand, this is some sort of raid utility. Is this still required in order for my drive to be recognized correctly? The only way to install it is through floppy, and I don't have a floppy drive available. I'd rather not buy a floppy drive just for this single install.

Thanks for any help, and sorry for being so ignorant on the matter.

 

[Nick5324]

This motherboard uses the VIA K8T800 chip set, which likely explains the "odd" option in the HDD menu. You have four SATA connectors on your motherboard. If you use one of the two SATA connectors that are in between the south bridge and the floppy connector, you should be ok without loading a special driver. The "lower" two connectors are run off of the promise controller, and may require a driver to be loaded (F6 at the beginning of WinXP setup when it prompts for this). Your manual also states that you need to be loading WinXP Service Pack 1 to use SATA drives.

I'm sure you've looked at the manual already, but just in case, here is a link.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Thanks Nick.

However, the drive is still not being recognized. I am not using either of the two Promise SATA connections (but I tried the other set just to be sure I wasn't using them). I also have WinXP SP2 installed.

Is there anything else that could be causing this problem?

 

[fireandicefuel]

I thought the sata hd power came through the power cable. I forgot and the reason my drive wasn't being seen was because there was no power to it. Check to see if you plugged in the other cable besides the sata. Pretty simple but as this was my first sata drive in a long time I had a brain fart.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Thanks for the idea, but it does indeed have power. The BIOS knows it's there, to an extent... and it spins.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

I got a hold of a floppy drive and installed the Promise controller. It still does not work. I did some research and apparently other people have similar problems. I'm going to try to make a single-drive array and see what happens.

My guess is that it still won't work, so if anyone has other suggestions, let me know.

 

[DyslexicHobo]

Bump. I re-installed again with the driver.

However, there is an unrecognized "Raid controller" and "SCSI and SATA raid interface" (or something similar, I'm not at that computer atm).

Still not having much luck solving my problem after messing with it all day. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm almost ready to buy a new motherboard, this is extremely frustrating.

 

[Bozo Galora]

O.K. you have a samsung 160GB SATA drive - prob an older one (several years) with the PATA to SATA bridge chip.
You have VIA chipset K8T800Pro, which has an AGP 8X port
You have 2 native SATA ports and 2 promise raid SATA ports
The confusing part is that native SATA can ALSO be configured as RAID (single or dual drive) or in conjuntion with Promise.
SATA 1 and 2 are next to VIA chip (to the left of floppy) and SATA 1 is LOWER port
You MUST use SATA 1 for boot drive - if its the boot drive - but its good practice to put first SATA drive there anyway.

What wxactly is your current and type of drive - O/S "MAIN"?
Are you just ADDING the samsung to an IDE situation?
Your drive is recognized in the bootup AND in the BIOS as K8V 1st (SATA) drive.
It SHOULD show as samsung after config.
>>>It cant see the drive on the controller if the controller is invisible.<<<

"Installing" Promise(?) RAID drivers was a mistake at this point - delete any and all RAID drivers you have just installed - dev manager or add/remove
Very important! DISABLE Promise RAID controller in BIOS - page 90 manual

You have XP with SP2 embedded - thats good for recognition of entire drive.

All VIA drivers are on their what used to be known as 4 in 1 set - now are called hyperion
The drivers are all backwards compatible (sort of)
At the time of this mobo, the version of hyperion was 4.51v - all driver package
Latest is 5.10a
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1070
The hyperion should be on your mobo driver CD
However they are avail separately (your SATA chip is VT8237)
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2&OSID=1&CatID=1180
(the above is for install to floppy for F6 add scsi (SATA) driver thing during XP install, or to use for update in device manager

You gave very little info about what your situation is, so its hard to help......
Did the samsung have data or prev O/S on it? Or was it wiped?
How old is samsung?

Some things to do:
Start by using samsung DISK Manager from floppy to partition format it as you wish, which will wipe it clean
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
Some caveats:

You can also use Promise controller as single SATA, by disabling (VIA) onchip sata bootrom, setting promise to IDE and installing promise drivers

Auto AI overclocking is default in bios - TURN IT OFF - manual (pge 93)

Edit: I just checked on ASUS site
4 in 1 that came with mobo was 4.49 (2003 OCT)
VIA SATA RAID was 2.20 (Mar 04) (I gave much later 5.30c above)
VIA VT6420 (VT8237) SATA RAID Driver Package Version 2.20D WHQL.
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
(interactive - put in mobo then click on drivers)

 

[AznVenom]

I think I ihad the same problem last nite with an Asus A8V-VM installing a SATA drive for my friend last nite. I went into BIOS and looked for SOUTHBRIDGE, SATA, and changed the RAID to IDE ... they had other options such as ACPI and APCH? I can't remember but that tricked windows into thinking it was an IDE. I hope that solves your question even tho it sounded pretty vague.


Veno(V)