XP Installation Not Detecting SATA Harddisk -- A8N-SLI Deluxe

[GarrettZx]

I am using an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard and 250GB Western Digital SATA 3.0Gb/s HD.

The HD is on SATA 1.
I've formatted it using the RAID Config utility that comes with the ASUS BIOS.

The problem:
The BIOS doesn't detect any SATA Masters and then when I boot up the XP installation CD, it can't detect the harddisk to install on.

Any help?


I've built another computer with two SATA drives and a different ASUS board and I didn't have to install any third party drivers, it was a normal XP installation.

 

[Bobthelost]

Why did you use the RAID config? Are you using RAID or am i missing something deeply spiritual about this config utility?

 

[QueZart]

hhm Pretty sure you need to disable RAID, Windows cant detect Sata HHD's in a raid configuration at all with out the third party drivers.

 

[GarrettZx]

It wasn't being detected by anything else and I figured if the XP installation couldn't detect it, then maybe it was formatted it would. It's connected as a single SATA drive

 

[Remy XO]

How do you turn off RAid Configs? I think I have the same problem where windows would either read SATA or IDE drives and not together.

 

[GarrettZx]

I'd like to know as well!

 

[GarrettZx]

RAID is disabled...still isn't finding the SATA drive!

 

[GarrettZx]

Also, it isn't detecting the IDE HD

 

[GarrettZx]

Ok it detects the IDE HardDrive now. But still won't detect the SATA. All RAID is disabled.

 

[gooseman]

I believe you still need hit F6 at the beginning of the install and install the raid drivers as a third party driver.

 

[Mogadon]

You shouldn't have to install any third party drivers.

Have you tried with only the SATA HDD connected? No reason why this should work but computers have been known to be quirky before .. .

 

[John]

If the bios doesn't see the SATA drive then you need to start there first.

1) reseat the SATA cable and power cable
2) connect the drive to the black SATA ports 1-4 (do not use the red Silicon Image SATA_RAID ports) to see if the drive will be detected by going into the BIOS and looking on the MAIN page
3) under ADVANCED > NVRAID Configuration in the bios make sure RAID ENABLED is set to Disabled
4) under BOOT > Boot device priority > select Hard Disk and make sure the SATA drive is listed first

If you connect the drive to the NVIDIA controller then you don't need to hit F6 during windows 2K/XP setup.

 

[Nocturnal]

Make sure it's on the nVidia SATA port. Otherwise you need to install the raid driver for it to see your drive during the text portion of the XP setup where you press F6.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Make sure it's on the nVidia SATA port. Otherwise you need to install the raid driver for it to see your drive during the text portion of the XP setup where you press F6.

Is there an echo in here?

 

[sandeep108]

Besides what John said, make sure it is the only drive connected at the time of xp install. Do not connect the IDE drive till after xp install is complete.

 

[QueZart]

Is the BIOS detecting the drive at all? Thats first step, check all the connections as said above, once you get the BIOS to 'see" the drive. Try your setup.

Also on a side Note. Your XP disc is it a XP SP2 disc? I dont think windows setup prior to SP2, can detect a SATA drive with out the Drivers. So if you dont have SP2 disc you will need to make a floppy and do the F6 thing to load them, or SlipStream your disc.

But if the BIOS doesn't see the drive in the first place Nothing else ever will.

 

[kwarkers]

I have the same problem with my ASUS A8V-E-Deluxe. You just need to put the mobo disk into another comp, go to create via raid disk, make one and then just do the F6 thing as advised about ^^^ (well thats how i solved the problem any way)