SATA HDD Boot Issues

[SkyDiver]

Hi,

I built a new computer over the weekend. (Asus P5W DH Deluxe, X1950XTX, 7200.10 320GB) Tried to go with a new SATA HDD, but I could not get it to install WinXP. Tried a WinXP SP2 slipstreamed boot disk and all kinds of other options. (Tried to install SATA drivers from a floppy, but it said the file was corrupted.)

The drive is in the SATA1 Intel MB connector. I've tried two or three different SATA cables and two different power cords, one a conversion from molex and the other a line from the PSU with nothing else on that cable.

I tried a bunch of different settings in the BIOS. I finally kept the "SATA as Standard IDE" option. The BIOS would generally see the drive as "Primary Master IDE Hard Disk" and that its SMART status was OK, but then the BIOS screen would stay up for 20-30 seconds and I would get this error:

Primary Hard Disk Error. Press F1 to Resume.

I was able to install XP and boot from a standard ATA133 drive on the second IDE connector at the bottom of the MB. Once up with WinXP, I was able to see the drive in Partition Magic. I tried to copy the C: partition to the SATA drive, but it gave me an error message and told me to call Tech Support.

Another time, I tried to use Ghost 10 to copy the C: partition, but I also enabled the "Check Source and Target Disks for Errors." It never got past 2% in the process. (I think it hung in the "checking for errors" process. Now, WinXP doesn't see the drive at all.

In the week that I've had the drive, I don't believe I've successfully written to it once.

Question: Is the drive faulty?

 

[yiranhu]

Probably.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Try the drive on other SATA ports, but from your description it sounds like you may have a bad drive.

 

[SkyDiver]

Thanks ch33zw1z: That is really something I need to try before giving up.

 

[Bozo Galora]

ah, I see you are back - still no go

Well, by installing XP SP2 on an IDE drive here on your P5WDH that eliminates most malfunctioning HW
We know the RAM runs as is, the PSU is good etc.

So, in one sentence advice which is what is most sought after at AT.......

Make sure drive is jumpered as SATA Gen 1 NOT 2
Red SATA 1 molex
Make sure SATA cable >HDD side is not chipped (look inside) and is on fully, making contact with all 7 pins. Make sure 15 pin 12V power cable is on fully. It might even be worth it to buy a new data cable.

Download Seagate disc wizard for 2 floppy and partition/format drive again EVEN if it already has been done. Doing so will auto wipe drive first.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

Now that it is formatted, you dont have to RMA drive to see if its good. Just download seatools for floppy and run full check including file directory
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html

Next download Intel Drive Matrix manager and ALSO the install to floppy utility.
http://tinyurl.com/yxxqlk

^Intel SATA/RAID 11/06/06

http://tinyurl.com/y9sgjr

^floppy installer

Install drivers to floppy
Disconnect IDE drive power cable

In BIOS:
Set boot order - floppy/CD/HDD0
disable ALL USB (4 items)
disable JMicron controller (for now)
make sure ez backup raid is disabled in bios

Once you get all this done let me know, becuase the most important thing now is the settings on page 93 of your maual - the SATA settings, which I will walk you thru
Please do all, not "some"

 

[SkyDiver]

Bozo,

Since I subscribed to the thread, I got the instructions you posted earlier. I planned to do that tomorrow. Why did you remove them?

(I'm in Colorado--we just got probably 6-8 inches of snow with another 6-10 or more coming...so I've been busy getting to and from work and now doing some work from home.)

 

[Bozo Galora]

oh, how sneaky - didnt even know you can do that
I lose interest when peeps post a question then dont watch for answers - you gotta let folks know whats goin on.
O.K. I excuse you - LOL
When you have some time to stay in thread, let me know in advance, so we can go back and forth until BIOS settings work for Intel Matrix drivers. I think ASUS gave so many options to help, but they hurt instead.

 

[SkyDiver]

Bozo,
I'm preparing to do all that you posted before you edited it away. Regarding this:

Download Seagate disc wizard for 2 floppy and partition/format drive again EVEN if it already has been done.

I downloaded the Seagate ISO file and tried this by booting from CD Rom. Both times I tried it, it could not "see" my drive, so I was unable to do anything with it.

I'm still going to put all this stuff on the floppy and try it that way. I just wanted to update you on what I had done.

Also, I probably ought to mention that after I got the system running on the PATA drive, we played Call of Duty 2 for several hours with no crashes.

The next day, I ran Orthos for almost two hours. The two cores started at 45C and maxed out at 60C. And that was with the Q-Fan stuff active. So how much headroom will I have for overclocking based on this info? I would be happy with 25%.

 

[SkyDiver]

Another question, Bozo:

Once you get all this done let me know, becuase the most important thing now is the settings on page 93 of your maual - the SATA settings, which I will walk you thru

I don't have a Page 93. The pages are numbered within each chapter. 1-10 for instance is the 10th page in the first chapter. I'm guessing that you mean 4-15 and -16?

 

[Bozo Galora]

overclocking is a separate subject - stay focused
and yes, your system works fine - so its either the HDD or config (I doubt the mobo), or cable

yeah, chap 4 pg 14-15 (i'm using pdf file download)
this stupid bios has cascading options in SATA PATA, enough to make you dizzy

basically I want to plug in a disk wizard PRE PARTITIONED FORMATTED SATA HDD that passes Seatools, by itself, jumpered as Gen 1, set IDE to "large", not LBA or auto in BIOS, turn off all RAID and other non native SATA, load Intel native Matrix ICH7R ICH8R drivers onto floppy to use at F6, and set correct bios options. I cant see where certain sub options are because I dont have the mobo, so I need you to tell me things while you wait for me. It will be simple to try several settings to see if install proceeds or not.

 

[Bozo Galora]

and Xmas and New Years weekends are not good times for me here -

 

[SkyDiver]

Thanks Bozo. I understand the process. I'll start on it tomorrow and let you know how it is going. Thanks a whole bunch!!

Update 12/30/06 4:17PM (Mountain): I installed the floppy drive (that involved removing the giant X1950XTX!) and I've got the floppies created. Getting ready to re-set the BIOS.

I might as well admit it: I wasn't paying too much attention to the floppy install...I installed it upside down. It still worked though. ;-0 (I'm going to fix it shortly.)

Also, even though I'm focused on this, I thought I'd update you on the C2D temps. I had my Zalman CNPS9500 installed backwards--fan was blowing INTO the case, so I flipped it around (removed thermal grease and re-applied). I noticed that I hadn't tightened the screws down very much, so I got them snugged up while I was at it.

Now my cores are both running at 34C vs. the 45C in my earlier post. What a difference! I'm sure it was just the tightening.

 

[SkyDiver]

Edits don't bump you up, do they?

 

[SkyDiver]

Bozo,

Another Update: I disabled USB, unplugged IDE and changed boot order to Floppy/CD/HD.

The IDE options were confusing. The LBA/Large option was Enable/Disable. I didn't know if Disable stopped both, or if Disable meant LBA Disable/Enable Large.

I booted with this option left to Enable. As usual, I got the "Primary Hard Disk Error. Press F1 to Resume." message. And I couldn't do anything in SeaDisk Wizard.

I rebooted and changed LBA/Large to disable. This time, when I booted, I DID NOT receive the Primary Hard Disk Error message.

However, I did not know what option to select when it asked if I wanted to load a special ASPI driver or something. It loaded whatever the default was. So when I tried to format, it will only let me format to 8GB or less. (By the way, it does appear to have copied the 60GB partition that I tried to do in Norton Ghost.)

So, I think I'm close, but I don't know what to do now. I'll have to research the options so that it will recognize partitions greater than 8GB. You probably know, but it looks like you are not available right now, so I'm going to press on by myself.

Will I be able to change to LBA after it gets formatted? How would that affect performance?

 

[Sphexi]

When I first started using SATA I know that XP had issues installing onto them, as it saw them as RAID setups or something funky like htat, but if you have the BIOS setup to show it as a standard IDE drive, Windows should just see it. If even the Seagate software wasn't able to see it, chances are it's simply a bad drive. I'd try getting ahold of another SATA and trying to install on that, they're pretty cheap now, might be nice to have a test drive around anyways.

 

[SkyDiver]

Another Update.

I was able to see the drive under the "Other Controllers" tab as I mentioned in a previous post. It saw the 60GB partition that was created when I tried to copy from Norton Ghost.

It would only let me install an 8GB partition, but I decided I could always re-size it. So I started the process to create and format an 8GB partition. It just got started and then gave me this message:

An error was encountered while partitioning your drive. This may be due to a hardware limitation or another physical problem. Your new drive has NOT been set up. Consider running diagnostic software on this drive or consulting your hardware documentation for possible solutions or limitations.

Knowing that SeaTools was on a bootable floppy, I decided to see if these diagnostics would work. I booted and this is what it said:

No Disc Drives Found!!!

This utility can only diagnose problems with hard drives that are recognized by your system.

Any other ideas? I'm thinking the drive is no good.

 

[SkyDiver]

It is all so clear afterwards. I'm sure the drive is defective. Here is a post about another seemingly unrelated problem I had with my build:

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk, Boing

Hi,

I've got a new build up and having some problems installing WinXP to a Sata drive, but that is another story.

The other "problem" I have is that there is a sound that sounds mechanical and almost like a clock. It'll sounds like, Clunk, Clunk, Clunk and then Boing. When it boings, the HDD light blinks a little bit.

At first I thought that maybe it was a HDD pushed to close to the front fan (CoolerMaster Centurion). I pulled them back and the issue is continuing. I disabled my two ATA drives leaving only the SATA drive, but it still continues.

It doesn't occur all the time. I can't quite find it. It sounds like it is coming from the lower front of the case.

Any ideas?

-------------------------
SkyDiver


Well, most of the time that I was troubleshooting, I left the power cable on the SATA drive. At this time, after I finally gave up trying to fix the drive, I removed the power cable. No more clunk, clunk, clunking!

In the post above, I even mentioned that the HDD activity light blink a bit when the problem occurred!

Thanks for all the help. Especially you, Bozo Galora!

 

[Bozo Galora]

well, I am a bit disappointed that you didnt mention right at the start you had unusual noises after putting in drive. I mean, clunk clunk boing - wouldnt that raise a bit of concern woth mentioning?
At first blush, if I heard that, I would assume head separation from one of the wands - shipping damage. Was it new in the foam retail box? Or OEM? Where did you buy it?


Ghosting 60GB onto a drive not even cofigured is also very strange - if the drive doesnt work, how can it take data? And the Ghost image is an ISO - not the best thing to do on a drive not even formatted, on an invisible controller. Am I in the Twilight Zone?

A few thoughts - I told you you to put in BIOS Large not the normal LBA, because this has been a prob with XP non installs in the past......
http://whocares.de/archive/000682.php
Another stumbling block is someone using a USB KB or mouse or ext HDD that is V1.0 and bios is set to 2.0 so that also freezes up an install. Thats why they started putting legacy USB option in BIOS.

But I think it just made things worse - steered you in wrong direction.

I might mention that after looking at the EVGA 680i mobo manusl, I see it has exemplary options for it's SATA. All 8 are masters, individually off or on and configured. Great bios for true native SATA.

Your bios on the other hand is very tedious to figure out. However, I wanted to try the Intel Matrix driver set on floppy at F6 with you to eliminate legacy IDE emulate mode for your drive. To do this you have to set "Configure SATA AS" to RAID, then SATA only becomes avail.. It says so right in manual for using Intels matrix. And RAID can ALSO be only one drive.
And you MUST have SATA bootrom on (after selecting RAID) for using Intel drivers
(pge 4-16)

So as a last question, I am still trying to grasp what has transpired.
You say the drive is recognized in bios. (The controller chip on HDD PCB is working)
Set BIOS back to LBA (dont put large any more),
If you set BIOS to RAID (NOT STandard IDE - page 4-15) and SATA only.
And make sure Jmicron controller is disabled.

Now, can you or cant you get to F6 floppy option in setup, which comes BEFORE XP partition/format options
Are you using XP Pro with SP2 embedded in CD?
Please see if killdisk from floppy is able to wipe your drive
http://www.killdisk.com/

You are wasting a lot of time when new Seagate 120's are going for like $70. The only way to eliminate bad drive question, is to buy another.

Please do not ask other questions - deal with everything I indicated here - every little bit of it PLEASE!

 

[SkyDiver]

Hi Bozo,

It started out as an intermittent problem, so I thought it was a rubbing issue. It got progressively worse until it was doing it all the time. Also, I thought the issue was relating to the Q-Connect thing that connector that plugs all the Power Reset, Speaker, etc. at once.

I'm sorry I didn't mention it. I've never had a hard drive go bad. I've always kept them defragged and maintained. And I've always upgraded to bigger drives before the old ones gave out.

Are you a professional IT guy? It sounds like you know an awful lot about this stuff. In hindsight, I feel like a fool. But now the BIOS is not recognizing it at all. After I noticed that the noises had stopped when I disconnected the power, I figured that it was clearly a bad drive. I RMA'd it earlier this evening.

Thanks for all your help. I don't want to waste any more of your time.

 

[Bozo Galora]

you dont have to apologize, thats what we do here.

Remember - when you get your new drive
SATA 1 (red) by itself
Intel Matrix manager drivers on floppy for F6 December/06 version (I put the link back in - above)
Bios set to SATA as RAID, SATA only, SATA bootrom on, Jmicron off
Drive jumpered as SATA 1

 

[SkyDiver]

OK. Thanks again.

 

[SkyDiver]

You are wasting a lot of time when new Seagate 120's are going for like $70.

Are you talking about 120 GB capcity drives for $70? (or is this some line of drives I'm not familiar with?)

On NewEgg, 120GB drives are going for $55. This 320GB was $95. I didn't really need it, but it should be quite a bit faster than my other drives so I wanted to put it in this fast system.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Gee, thought this thread was finished.


Well, newegg sell only OEM for late model drives
Never buy anything seagate but retaiil (ends in "RK" retail kit)
Then you get a hard plastic bubble and 2 big chunks of foam in a box and seagate software
This way you dont hear clunk clunk clunk boing after install

secondly,
the 7200.8 is the worst drive seagate made, 7200.9 is only slightly better and the 7200.7 is the best.
Put a fan on the 7200.7, keep temps under 26 degrees and it will last forever
Never put a drive in a HDD "cooler" enclosure, because the fan vibration is transferred to the wands and platters. Buy cases that have 120mm front fans (or 2 80's)
The 7200.10 (perpendicular) is too new to know how reliable it is.
None of these drives is any faster than the others - just 16MB cache vs 8MB
SATA installed in IDE "mode" will revert to UDMA6 - 133MB/s sustained - which no single drive can reach.
Native SATA is 1-5% faster due to less steps in transfer vs PATA
SATA is basically a cabling solution, at least for now.