SATA Installation question

[BruHawco]

Alright... here's the deal. I just bought a 80 GB Maxtor SATA HD, and I already had a 20GB IDE HD. I have a A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo which does have onboard SATA, but unlike most people having problems installing SATA, I'm using Win98SE. How would I go about installing my SATA HD as a slave to my IDE? I'm completely lost, and any help would be apprectiated.

 

[BruHawco]

An update on the situation
I installed the SATA drivers, and the SATA Raid utility that came with the CD for the mobo. When I install the utility, it causes windows to have a fatal error when I open windows explorer, loading a CD, or when I shut down. I'm confused

 

[MichaelD]

SATA and IDE channels are totally separate entities. You can't slave one to the other. You'll have to set each as Master on it's own channel, then tell the BIOS which one you want to boot from.

For now, uninstall the SATA software and driver. Uninstall/Remove the SATA drive (if it's shows up in ADD/REMOVE HARDWARE)
Shut down machine
Unplug SATA cable from drive
Reboot
Install software
Shutdown
Plug SATA drive back in
Reboot, go into BIOS set boot drive to whatever
Should be good to go.

 

[BruHawco]

I tried what you said, but the SATA HD is still not being detected, and a SATA boot option is not available in the bios.

 

[MichaelD]

Hmm. Do the SATA drivers say "98 Compatible?" Win98 and W2K/WXP are completely different OSes.

 

[BruHawco]

Yeah, the latest driver is 98 compatiable

 

[MDE]

Do you have the SATA controller enabled? (It's either a jumper or a BIOS setting)

 

[BruHawco]

Yes, the jumper is set to enable. When I try to enter the SATA bios, it says that the device isn't detected

 

[johnjkr1]

Is the serial ATA power cable plugged in?

 

[BruHawco]

Which cable should I conect? The 4 pin, or the sata like cable power cable? Does it make any difference?

 

[BruHawco]

Alright... I've might have found the problem. I've tried updating the driver, but it won't update. I've tried deleting the old driver,s but when I reboot, the old drivers redect themselves. What should I do?

 

[johnjkr1]

I dont think it makes a difference....i just thought that when you said it wasnt detected by the controller, you forgot the power cable

 

[ludwigvan968]

I believe there are drivers for the RAID and then Drivers for installing just an SATA drive, have you made sure you picked the right driver?

 

[BruHawco]

Would the SATA driver come with the HD?

 

[johnjkr1]

Did it finally get detected by the bios of the serial ata- controller? The driver doesnt make a world of difference if your controller isnt seeing the drive at the bios level

 

[BruHawco]

Negative, it still hasn't been detected in bios
I might have to give in and upgrade to XP if I can't get this figured out soon

 

[johnjkr1]

upgrading to XP won't detect it either...if its not seen at the BIOS level, its not going to be seen by windows...you need to solve that problem first

 

[nitromullet]

Did you follow the instructions for installing the SATA drivers in your manual on page 5-2? This might solve your problem.

 

[johnjkr1]

Ok, hold on.......lets clear one thing up..........If the drive is not seen by the controller.....then drivers wont help that...and i think he said it wasnt seen by the controller.....or bios....

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: BruHawco
Negative, it still hasn't been detected in bios
I might have to give in and upgrade to XP if I can't get this figured out soon

...missed your post about that before my previous reply.

BIOS detection is the first step. No operating system will use anything not found by the BIOS. If you have SATA enabled in the BIOS, it should detect the drive. You mentioned in a previous post that you weren't sure which power cable to use... Either is okay, but don't use both. Just figured I throw that out in case you had both plugged in.

 

[BruHawco]

If I go into the device manager, and click on SCSI controllers, "Silicon Image Sil 3112 SATARaid Controller". That would be what I hook the drive into. The driver's date for that controller is May 30th 2003, while there's a newer driver listed at October 29 2003, but it won't let me update to that for some weird reason. And Nitromullet, I don't have both power cables hooked up.

 

[johnjkr1]

well, back to the original question, why is it not seen or detected by the controller?

 

[BruHawco]

I have no idea... but I'm pretty strung out

 

[nitromullet]

I just flipped through an A7N8X-E Deluxe manual, and it sounds like BruHawco has everything hooked up right. Is there anything displayed at boot that indicates that the Promise controller is looking for a drive. When I have any additional controllers enabled on my mobo, I get a screen for each controller even if there are no drives attached.

 

[BruHawco]

Nope, nothing like that
I'm gone to bed guys
Thanks for the help
If you come up with any ideas, just leave em here and I'll check back in the morning
Thanks a lot for your help