windows not recognizing sata drive

[imported_bushman]

hey im trying to install xp home onto my new oem seagate baracuda. after loading drivers and stuff in beginning and pressing enter to start setup i get message saying windows could not detect hard drive. im pretty sure i hooked everthing up right data cable is same on both ends, power hooked up. theres one more place where something could be plugged in it doesn't look like jumpers would go there. tried both sata1 and sata2 port on mobo. no others that i can see. pretty sure i tried everything. went to seagate site and they don't seem to have drivers. thanks in advance

asus a7v880

 

[LiLithTecH]

Do you have the SATA set as the first boot device in the BIOS?

 

[imported_bushman]

yes, tried as first in boot order. its seen as st______ the model number. i just get a message "invalid boot disk" or something like that. dvd drive is 2nd. after reinsert i get press any key to boot from cd...
after boot screen i can go into raid utility which shows satach_0 occupied by a disk.

 

[chr6]

hmm. its seen in the bios, but not during windows setup? it sounds like you have it setup correctly (physically). it may be that you are loading the incorrect sata drivers during windows installation. just a thought. gl

 

[imported_bushman]

thnx

 

[boomerang]

What OS are you trying to get installed?

Are you using drivers that came with the motherboard? It's a common misconception that SATA drivers are HD specific. They are specific to the chip on the motherboard that controls them.

 

[imported_bushman]

xp home

 

[oldman420]

Welcome to anandtech bushman!
What you need to do is go into the sata bios and create a raid array first. I usualy do a low level format on both drives for a new raid.
as for stripe size it depends on the size of files you will use, if you use mostly small files make it smaller, and if you have lots of big files make it bigger.
Default is safe though and gets it about in the middle as most systems have large and small files in balance.
once you see both drives in the sata bios followed by a raid drive then you have a raid.
install windows with the sata driver diskette and you are good to go.
good luck sir

 

[boomerang]

He's got a single drive. He's not trying to create an array.

I have downloaded the drivers you need from the Asus site. Link for drivers.

Download them and navigate to VIARAID/DRIVERDISK/SATA. There are files there named TXTSETUP.OEM and VT8237 that you need to copy to a floppy.

Double click the WINXP folder and copy the three files there to that same floppy. They are;
VIAsraid.inf
VIAsraid.sys
VIAsraid.cat

Edit: You should just be able to just copy that WINXP folder with those files in it.

So you would have;

TXTSETUP.OEM
VT8237
WINXP (containing the three files above)

It sounds as if you are doing everything right but have the wrong drivers. At the F6 prompt you will want this floppy in there.

These should be the correct drivers. But these motherboard manufacturers couldn't make these driver packages any more confusing if they tried. Couple that with zero documentation, and it's a wonder anyone is gettting SATA drives working.

In the VIARAID folder there is a file called README.TXT that is about one confusing mother. It tells you what files you need for what you want to do. I hope I have interpreted it correctly. If not, it will do no harm, it just won't work. We'll do more if we need to.

Let us know how you make out.

 

[imported_bushman]

sorry Oldman420, but i thought i needed 2 drives to raid. how do i get into the sata bios? i can press tab after boot screen when raid utility bootrom(whatever) loads, but i don't have any options besides "esc" since i have only 1 drive. lastly, my drive came with no driver diskette. do you mean 1 that came w/windows? my xp home is oem, just that disk nothing else. im just trying to install xp to the solo sata drive of my system. sorry to sound negative and annoying.

 

[boomerang]

Check above I keep editing my post.

 

[imported_bushman]

beautiful

 

[oldman420]

The boomer comes to the rescue

 

[imported_bushman]

k thanks a lot boomerang ill try that out. im at school so ill post tomorrow once ive tried that

 

[boomerang]

I'm editing again. Check above post for additional files. Ummm, in a minute or so.

 

[imported_bushman]

made the disk. saw something called "makedisk" could that possibly do the same thing as you mentioned?
whatever. tomorrow.

 

[boomerang]

I've never had any luck with it. Another one of the confusing roadblocks they put up. Just copy those two files and that folder to the floppy.

So, put XP CD in drive and boot off that. Press F6 at the prompt. Insert the above mentioned floppy when prompted. You will need to insert that floppy later in the process also.

Your drive is being recognized, so the above should work for you.

Here's a cut and paste from the README.TXT. I have edited out anything not pertaining to XP. The last line I find to be interesting. Looks like you'll have to burn the entire driver package onto a CD and run setup.exe after XP is up and running. But, this driver package should be on the CD that came with the board. It should get installed automatically when you use it to install your mobo drivers. Hope I'm not confusing you. All spelling errors are theirs.

7) Insatll Operating System into SATA HDD of VT8237


2. Install Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, or Server 2003

* Copy all files and directories of DriverDisk\SATA folder to a floppy disk. Make sure
following directories and files are copied into floppy disk.

A:

\WinXP
VIAsraid.inf
VIAsraid.sys
VIAsraid.cat
Txtsetup.oem
VT8237


* Boot system from OS installing CD-ROM.

* Make sure VT6420 BIOS is executed by the system BIOS when POST.

* Press "F6" when OS installer starts running.

* Insert floppy disk.

* Choose the OS device driver wanted for loading.

* Install OS.

* Run setup.exe after OS is installed.

 

[imported_bushman]

i got it to work! i mentioned an app called makedisk before after putting the inf sys cat oem and vt8237 files on floppy. i got an error after f6 said error on line 18. decided to try makedisk. app asks for blank floppy. it was pretty much like making a windows floppy boot disk. it worked. was seen as manufacturers disk, or something. after f6, got screen "please insert manufacturers disk". did that and everything worked just dandy. thank you for the help i actually went to asus downloads before to get the usb2 drivers, 4-1 drivers soundmax and ethernet. didn't know that that was there. thanks again gotta go

 

[boomerang]

Hey, glad you got it working! Glad the makedisk utility worked also. Good deal.

 

[imported_bushman]

shoots