SATA makes system slower

[Drakkon]

Have a gigabyte 7n400 Pro2 motherboard for starters with a 2100+ and 512 mb of ram.
Recently went from a 40GB 5400RPM IDE drive to an 80GB 7200RPM SATA drive thinking i'd not only get an increase in space but in speed. So i've got the drive in and everything detecting but when i go to set windows up with it (using the whole f6 process) the system slows to a snails pace....it takes about 2 hours to format the drive and then another 4 to install windows It will install just fine and will continue on to boot but is still just slow as can be....were talking like p 100 speeds here...its crazy
So does this sound like a controller problem (bad mobo) or a drive problem (bad drive)? Or any ideas where i might be going wrong?

 

[Zepper]

Have you checked the mobo mfr's web site to see if there is a FAQ about it? Perhaps you need a BIOS and/or driver update... Also do a search in DejaGoo.
.bh.

 

[Drakkon]

did all the bios/driver updates availible for the board...i couldn't find any specific to the SATA controller....

 

[Zepper]

Here's a comment I picked up from DejaGoo:

> You need to have a floppy ready with the SATA drivers on it. Make sure
> you pick the correct set, there's one for SATA-Raid, and one for SATA-
> normal. I loaded Win2K Pro, and had to do this. During the start of the
> setup, when it display "Press F6 if you need to load drivers" hit F6. It
> won't look like it did anything, but some minutes into the text install,
> it will ask you to put in the floppy with the additional "mass storage
> device drivers" Pop in the disk, pick the correct driver from the list,
> and keep on going.
>
> Worked great for me, and now I am booting up from a shiny new Western
> Digital 36GB Raptor.
> One other note. Make sure you have *NO* other HDs connected to
> ANYTHING, or the SATA drive will not be drive C. This includes any USB
> external drives. Once setup has completed, you can plug the other drives
> in, and set them up.
>
> Jason A.

From Gigabyte FAQ:

Why can't I find related option in BIOS to enable onboard GIGA RAID controller's ATA mode?
Please kindly update MB BIOS to fix the problem.

.bh.

 

[Drakkon]

yep i tried that its even after that the problems occures though...
i might try picking up a PCI SATA card today and seeing if that helps...that way really find out if its the board thats bad or the drive...

 

[Chucko]

what kind of sata controller is it ? Brand and Model?

 

[Drakkon]

Its on the board itself...its a Silicon 3112a

 

[Zepper]

You might want to make sure the SATA drivers you installed were for the SiliconImage chipset and also check the SI web site for updated drivers, Win patches etc.
.bh.

 

[Drakkon]

well ended up grabbing a Promise PCI SATA controller card and testing out my drive...does the exact same thing on it...so im assuming at this point means the drive is bad so gunna RMA it
Thanks for ur help guys!