setting up raptor

[docdino]

newbie question for you pros,

have just purchased an ASUS a8v deluxe rev 2.0 mobo and a 74G raptor HD, I have read that these can transfer info much faster by SATA rather than IDE. my question is this, I plan on using only one hard drive at this time (maybe RAID 0 in the future). So I hooked up the WD Raptor to the SATA cable and SATA power. only thing is on initial power on test there was no detected IDE hard drive.

No where in the manual does it tell me what to do. DO I just hook up both the primary IDE and the SATA to the HD or is there a way to make the SATA connection my primary IDE hard drive.

ALso once i change my config, do I change the CD-rom as now I have it on Master to the primary IDE not slave and not master to the secondary IDE.

HELLLLLPPPP!

 

[docdino]

df

 

[imported_Bunter]

I'm going to be of limited help since I have not set up an A8V. But here are the basics. The A8V has four SATA ports driven by two different controllers. The specifics of what you will need to do depends on where it is connected.

I have set up and used SATA drives in various setups on other ASUS boards, both in RAID configurations and as single drives. Those boards did not detect the drives when the BIOS attempts to detect IDE devices. What generally happens is that the system BIOS runs through the POST and IDE detection, then the SATA BIOS runs through a check of what is attached to it. You will probably need to enter the setup of the SATA BIOS to let it know what to look for and what to do with it (RAID0, RAID1, etc). So, after the IDE detection, there will probably be another detection of SATA devices and configurations. On some controllers, you have to tell them a single drive is a RAID0, but maybe not those on the A8V.

There are other particulars. The system BIOS may allow you to designate the SATA as IDE. But the main issue is the boot order in the system BIOS. If you can not designate SATA as IDE, then it will appear as SCSI. So, your boot order may look like 1) CD, 2) floppy (if you have one), 3) SCSI. In that case, the system looks to boot off the CD first, then the floppy, then the SATA drive.

When you install Windows, you will need to make a driver disk on a floppy. The stuff to do that came with the CD of your motherboard. Early in the Windows installation (like almost immediately), you will be told to hit F6 to install a third-party driver. Hit F6 at that point. The system will then run through some of the installation and prompt you for the floppy with the correct driver. It should identify the correct driver, see the hard drive and allow you to treat it as if it were an IDE drive from that point on within the installation.

There is no need to change your CD-ROM. The system will see it wherever it is.

Don't be surprised when you see some strange things in Windows, like a SCSI controller (again, the OS doesn't really know SCSI from SATA, either). But in general the differences are transparent.

This will open up World War 47 out here, but the main benefit from the Raptor has nothing to do with the SATA connection, but rather the fact that it spins at 10k RPM and has a seek time of about 5 ms. Differences in speed between SATA and IDE are slight at best and really theoretical. Down the road that will probably change.

 

[mqj]

I just did this last night (on my first build no less, so I'm not an expert). I had the same difficulties getting my SATA drive to work properly, but ended up with success.

I used these threads as references:
Here

And here

I was also completely UNable to get it to work when the drive was plugged into one of the Promise SATA ports. I was eventually able to get it to work from one of the VIA ports however. No idea why

 

[docdino]

thanks alot mqj and Bunter I'm gonna try this out tonight and pray!!!!!! I'll let you know how it goes

 

[imported_Bunter]

Good luck. By the way, since you are fairly new on here, if mechBgon says the next step is to throw the system out the window, then gather up and reassemble the pieces, believe him. He knows his stuff.

 

[docdino]

well the installation went fine once I loaded the 378 ide drivers . windows XP pro went through its 45 minute install, however when it went to reboot it gives me an error and says cant start windows. I tried starting in safe mode, from last known good configuration, i even went back to the bios and had the boot order go to the hard SATA drive first. nothing. i see a snap shot of the windows logo and then back to the black and white error that "windows didnt start successfully".
any help how to start up or where i went wrong

 

[WadeD]

I have the same drive. Here's what I would do:

1. Format drive
2. Clear CMOS (You should have jumpers for this. This will set your BIOS to default and clear out any changes made. RFR to owners manual.)
3. In your bios you should have somewhere to change boot order. I set mind for Floppy, CD, Harddrive.
3. Also in your bios you should have somewhere to set IDE, SATA, IDE first SATA, SATA first IDE. You should use SATA first IDE. If you just use SATA your CD rom will not work.
4. Then reload Windows. It will display at the bottom of the screen press F6 if running raid. If not running raid just load window normal.

Hope this helps

Wade