SATA Installation Problems

[david14259]

Hey guys, just got my new WD Raptor in the mail....trying to get the darn thing to work.

It's plugged in to my MB, it powers up when I turn the computer on (the HD is spinning)....but the MB doesn't seem to see it? I'm trying to install windows on it.....no luck, says it can't find a HD. When I go into the RAID setup, it lists the drive in there.... In the BIOS, I don't see any options (or anything) about SATA...

Its an ASUS P4G8X Deluxe MB and a WD Raptor 74GB.

Any ideas? Thanks 😀

(the BIOS is updated to the latest version)

 

[AristoV300]

You need to load the drivers for whatever controller the SATA is hooked up to on the Mobo. You should be able to get off the Asus website. You need to hit F6 at the windows install and load them with a floppy.

 

[mechBgon]

Your motherboard has a PCI-based Silicon Image SATA controller soldered to it. The motherboard itself shouldn't see the drive, it's the SI SATA controller that should be seeing it. After the motherboard's POST screens, does the SI controller's own BIOS show it scanning its buses for the SATA drive? If not, then maybe your SATA controller is disabled.

To enable the Silicon Image SATA controller, enter your motherboard's BIOS and go to the Advanced > PCI Configuration menu and ensure that the Onboard ATA Device is enabled. If you want the system to try to boot from it, such as to set up Windows on it, then also enable Onboard ATA Device First. The manual for your P4G8X shows this stuff on page 4-26.

Once the SI SATA controller is enabled, it should pick up the new SATA drive when it's scanning its buses. If you have the system boot from CD-ROM to set up Windows, then press the F6 key at the very start when Setup prompts you to do so. You'll need the SI SATA controller drivers on a floppy diskette in a couple minutes (download them from Asus and extract them onto a floppy diskette).

You will probably also need to define your single drive as an array in the SI SATA BIOS, which you do using the procedure that your P4G8X manual shows on pages 5-23 and following. If you know the drive got detected and you fed Windows Setup the drivers on floppy and it still didn't see anything to install onto, then that's your clue that this is going to be necessary.

Hope that helps 🙂

 

[david14259]

I downloaded this driver:
http://www.asus.com/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=15&l3_id=17&m_id=2&f_name=silicon_v10022.zip~zaqwedc

There are 2 folders in there, Disk 1 and Disk 2 (and theres other stuff). I put the contents of each Disk folder on a floppy and did the windows setup thing, F6'd it, hit 'S' put the disk in, but it says it can't find.....somefilename.oem (sorry, i'm at work now and I don't remember the exact file name).

Did I download the wrong thing? Am I just doing it wrong?

All that stuff in the BIOS posted above is configured correctly.

Thanks!

 

[david14259]

uhhh, bump 🙂

 

[alexquick]

what are the connectors labelled on your motherboard? SATA0, SATA1? or RAID0 RAID1?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: david14259
I downloaded this driver:
http://www.asus.com/support/download/selectftp.aspx?l1_id=1&l2_id=15&l3_id=17&m_id=2&f_name=silicon_v10022.zip~zaqwedc

There are 2 folders in there, Disk 1 and Disk 2 (and theres other stuff). I put the contents of each Disk folder on a floppy and did the windows setup thing, F6'd it, hit 'S' put the disk in, but it says it can't find.....somefilename.oem (sorry, i'm at work now and I don't remember the exact file name).

Did I download the wrong thing? Am I just doing it wrong?

All that stuff in the BIOS posted above is configured correctly.

Thanks!

I downloaded the file and opened it into WinZip, then extracted the contents to a folder (note: extracted the contents, not ran Setup.exe). I see the Txtsetup.oem file and the other files in there. Put them onto a floppy and try that. You don't need the .PDF file or the GUI folder.

 

[david14259]

Originally posted by: alexquick
what are the connectors labelled on your motherboard? SATA0, SATA1? or RAID0 RAID1?

SATA1 and SATA2

I downloaded the file and opened it into WinZip, then extracted the contents to a folder (note: extracted the contents, not ran Setup.exe). I see the Txtsetup.oem file and the other files in there. Put them onto a floppy and try that. You don't need the .PDF file or the GUI folder.

Very strange, my download doesn't have a Txtsetup.oem.....i'll try downloading it again.

 

[david14259]

Ok, my new download has the .OEM file (and several others). Don't know what was up with the first one.

Thanks for the help, wish me luck....