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WinXP not seeing SATA HDD's

2

21stHermit

Senior member
Had a recent system crash, had to reload WinXP. When I POST, I can see the SATA HDD's but they are not visible in WinXP's Disk Mgr.

Any chance I need SP1 or SP2 to see SATA HD's?

Thanks
Hermit
 
Well, it'd be a great idea to slipstream your XP Install CD to SP2, since your version of XP (not SP1 or SP2 according to your post) won't properly handle a hard drive larger than 130GB. If you need special drivers for your SATA controller, you can add those to the new slipstreamed XP install CD.

MaximumPC: How to slipstream your XP installation.

Most motherboards have an option for the SATA controller to appear as an IDE controller, which Windows XP can handle without extra drivers. It'd help if you mention what motherboard or PC you're using.
 
If you don't want to perform another reload, go to "Disk Management" and you'll see the rest of your hdd. You can create a partition utilizing the rest of your disk there and format it to your liking.
 
You'll need to get the sata drivers for that board onto a floppy disk to use during the Windows install. Then XP will be able to recognize the drive.
 
Thanks RebateMonger,

While you answered many questions, my root question is still do I need SP1 or SP2 for SATA to be recognized? BTW, My OS is on an IDE HD and is working. It's just that I can't "see" the SATA(s).

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Well, it'd be a great idea to slipstream your XP Install CD to SP2, since your version of XP (not SP1 or SP2 according to your post) won't properly handle a hard drive larger than 130GB. If you need special drivers for your SATA controller, you can add those to the new slipstreamed XP install CD.

MaximumPC: How to slipstream your XP installation.
Click to expand...
Does this not require another clean XP install? I believe I have what they speak of here. I have a DVD that came with my laptop that has WinXP MCE + SP2. I wasn't planning on using it unless I needed SP1 or SP2. I still don't know.

Most motherboards have an option for the SATA controller to appear as an IDE controller, which Windows XP can handle without extra drivers. It'd help if you mention what motherboard or PC you're using.
Click to expand...
I have a MSI K8T Neo2 MB. But I'm not using the onboard SATA controller, I'm using a BusLink PCI SATA. The onboard VIA? controller would not recognize my 500GB SATA, the BusLink will or did before the crash.

If you have the patience, I'll do my best to answer additional questions.

Thanks
Hermit

 
Originally posted by: jlbenedict
If you don't want to perform another reload, go to "Disk Management" and you'll see the rest of your hdd. You can create a partition utilizing the rest of your disk there and format it to your liking.
Click to expand...
If you look at my original post you'll see that the SATA drives were/are not visible is Disk Mgr. I do not have the OS on a SATA, its on an IDE HD. The SATA's I use for data so I can move them from the desktop to my laptop JBOD array.

Thanks
Hermit
 
Did you assign them a Drive Letter in Disk Management ? ?
As to SP1 or SP2 .... best is with SP2 ... anything pre SP1
can not see a drive Larger than 130GB in size
 
Originally posted by: cubby1223
You'll need to get the sata drivers for that board onto a floppy disk to use during the Windows install. Then XP will be able to recognize the drive.
Click to expand...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this only necessary if you plan to boot from the SATA drive? I'm booting from an IDE HD, not the SATA. Once upon a time, I did the floppy F6 routine, so I could boot from the SATA, but for whatever reason couldn't get the DVD burner to work reliably. Installing the OS on the IDE HD made the DVD burner work well.

So back to my original question: Is SP1 or SP2 required for SATA's?

Thanks
Hermit

 
Originally posted by: bruceb
Did you assign them a Drive Letter in Disk Management ? ?
As to SP1 or SP2 .... best is with SP2 ... anything pre SP1
can not see a drive Larger than 130GB in size
Click to expand...
Poppycock!!! 😛

I just inserted my biggest IDE HD, 200GB, it's formatted as a single NTFS volume and WinXP ver 2002, has no problem seeing it, changing the drive letter, or browsing the folders.

Perhaps you're thinking of the old FAT32 130GB limit?

Hermit

 
Originally posted by: 21stHermit
Originally posted by: cubby1223
You'll need to get the sata drivers for that board onto a floppy disk to use during the Windows install. Then XP will be able to recognize the drive.
Click to expand...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this only necessary if you plan to boot from the SATA drive? I'm booting from an IDE HD, not the SATA. Once upon a time, I did the floppy F6 routine, so I could boot from the SATA, but for whatever reason couldn't get the DVD burner to work reliably. Installing the OS on the IDE HD made the DVD burner work well.

So back to my original question: Is SP1 or SP2 required for SATA's?

Thanks
Hermit
Click to expand...

I must not have understood the original topic. XP without any service packs can see sata drives only if the drivers are loaded. SP1 & SP2 just have many of the common sata drivers built into the install cd.

And XP with no service packs can see hard drives bigger than 128gb, but they only recognize 128gb of them. So a 160gb drive, for instance, would show up in XP as a 128bg drive.

But to answer the original question, no, SP1 is not a requirement to work with sata hard drives. You should see some items in the device manager under the "other" column. One of them is for the sata controller. Grab the drivers from either the motherboard cd or off their website. Load them.
 
Bingo!!!

Originally posted by: bruceb
Did you forget to load the SATA Controller Drivers ? ?
Have a look at device manager for any yellow ? ? marks
and fix anything you find ....
Click to expand...
While I had loaded the BusLink driver, I failed to check the status in Device Mgr. Sure enough, a yellow !. So I inserted the BusLink CD, and Bingo, SATA works.

Sees 2 SATA HDs, 250GB and 500GB, no problems in Win Explorer seeing the files. 😀

You might want to also check your options in the BIOS for SATA Controllers
Click to expand...
Since I had a HD crash, the BIOS should not have been affected. But I went into the BIOS and could not find a way to disable the onboard controller. The Silicon Image [BusLink] RAID controller shows up after you exit the BIOS.

If I did all this more often, checking Device Mgr would be second nature, but I don't and need reminders.

MANY THANKS :beer: :beer:
Hermit

 
Originally posted by: bruceb
No .. I was not ... Pre SP1 Did not have built in LBA addressing which is needed
for any hard drive over 130GB ... only if your XP version was made by MS
after January 2003 .. since it included SP1 at that time, can you see Large Drives
without any extra patches

You can see this link:

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/137_winxp.html
Click to expand...
I have to assume here that my ~2005 MSI MB and my BusLink SATA card both have the updated controller referred to in your linked article. How else would my pre SP1 WinXP see the larger drives?

Appreciate your sticking with me, Poppycock or Not!!! 😱

Thanks
Hermit

 
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