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Trouble installing Windows XP on SATA HD

J

j1nx

Junior Member
Hi,
I just recently assembled a new computer (my first time) and to my amazement it passed POST flawlessly and it appears to have recognized all of my hardware just fine in the BIOS, so. Then I go to install Windows XP Home Edition on my Western Digital 74GB Serial ATA 'Raptor' HD (just 1 of them), which is on an ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard connected to the sata1 port (VIA Raid controller) and I hit F6 when it asks about SCSI or Raid, then it continues setup, then it comes to a screen where it says it didnt find a Hard Drive and I hit 'S' and insert the Driver Disk I made off the motherboard CD, but then it just keeps prompting me for MANUFACTURER HARDWARE SUPPORT DISK. Its not accepting the driver disk(s) ( I made 3 to try.. ) and I really am not sure why, the floppy drive appears to be working, the BIOS detects both it and the HD just fine and the disks should work, I have checked them numerous times and all the needed files appear to be there.

So.. Here I am, if anyone has some idea as to what may be wrong here I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks.
 
When i made my driver diskette, don't put the drivers in a folder, just copy the drivers to the diskette. (worked 4 me anyway)
 
No, there wasnt a choice for IDE or RAID, I talked to ASUS tech support and they wernt really much help but they did specify to use the RAID drivers even for a single drive. I used a makedisk.exe located in the VIA6420 driver folder, and I checked the disk after, it had all the files from in that folder, should be all I need.. (the manual says to use the makedisk.exe to make the driver disk)

I didn't see any jumper.. I'll have to check on that.

Ok there is a jumper, but western digital site just says its for power management features only and shouldnt matter, ill try taking it off anyway.
 
Ok, since we're running abit's here, guess we'll just have to throw stuff out there.

Is the sata jumper on the mobo to enable ? (if there is one)
Are you set to boot from SATA in the bios?
 
This is covered in section 5 of your owners' manual, see page 5-26 onwards. The question is, when you get into the VIA SATA controller's own mini-BIOS by pressing Tab at the POST screen, can you define your single drive as some sort of an array so Windows can be set up on it. Try the RAID Span, RAID1 and RAID0 options if it'll allow you to do anything at all.

Plan B: set the Promise SATA controller to "IDE mode" and run your drive off of that instead. Use the appropriate driver floppy, remembering that there are TWO types of drivers for the Promise, depending on whether it's in RAID mode or "IDE mode." The manual talks about that starting on page 5-20.

Good luck, and welcome to the Forums 🙂
 
Alright hopefully this doesnt come off stupid, cuz i found this advice doing a search and since i dont have that mobo, its all greek to me so to speak... 😉

If you are only running one hardrive then you have to use the promise 378 (non raid) driver. Make sure you enable the promise controller in the bios and select non raid (the next box under promise controller).

The box above the promise is onboard sata, which is the VIA sata controller.

make sure the Promise controller is enabled in the BIOS. At the beginning of the OS installation, you will be prompted to hit F6. Later, you will be asked to insert a floppy with the RAID/controller driver. You need to install this driver, even if you're not running RAID. The Promise driver can be found on the motherboard CD, or at the Asus website.
 
Ah, Okay, thanks guys, I hadn't thought to try the Promise controller in IDE mode, I'll give that a try 🙂
 
Just in case you need it, some links that may prove helpful.
(but hopefully they will get you in the right places to look for a solution at least.)
Link 1
Link 2
 
well, hell, it didnt work either. Starting to think maybe its the floppy drive or something?, though I dont really understand that, it sure as hell acts like its working, and it shows up in the BIOS just fine (as does the HD), is there some way to test it? It lights up and it sounds like it is accessing the disk when I try to do this, but then windows just keeps prompting me for Manufacturer supplied hardware support disk, ive made so many copies of these drivers that it cant be the disks themselves.. bleh 🙁
 
Originally posted by: j1nx
well, hell, it didnt work either. Starting to think maybe its the floppy drive or something?, though I dont really understand that, it sure as hell acts like its working, and it shows up in the BIOS just fine (as does the HD), is there some way to test it? It lights up and it sounds like it is accessing the disk when I try to do this, but then windows just keeps prompting me for Manufacturer supplied hardware support disk, ive made so many copies of these drivers that it cant be the disks themselves.. bleh 🙁
Click to expand...
It will keep asking for them in case you have several instead of just one. Did it let you pick a controller from a little menu? 'cause if it did, then you succeeded and can press the Enter key to proceed onwards.
 
no it didnt let me pick anything 🙁 it asks me to put the disk in Drive A: and hit enter, I do that and it says Please wait..... then it just asks for disk again, no menu or anything. I'm thinkin its the floppy drive, but I dunno why it would even be detected or light up/try to access the disks if it was defective.
 
Maybe you moved the files onto the floppy in a way it wasn't expecting. A disk-controller driver floppy should have its txtsetup.oem file in the root of the A: drive along with some other files, and then there may be some OS-specific folders too. If your files are one layer deeper, like you move the whole folder that contains them onto the A: drive, then Windows will go 😕 ~ huh, that ain't right and will ask again.
 
I used a makedisk.exe located in the folders and then checked the disks and they are as you say, oem file and another file and then some folders.
 
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