booting after install of new SATA I/O card

[InterlinkModule]

First, some info: I just bought a Seagate serial ATA 150 hard drive. My ASUS P4S800 motherboard does not natively support serial ATA 150 so I bought a SATA I/O card from Adaptec. The card works great, however does not support NCQ (my hard drive does) and there are also no LED leads for the hdd activity. I saw a SATA 150 I/O card with full NCQ support and the LED leads on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16816102038

Now the questions, will this work in my system enabling full NCQ support for the hard drive? And if I take out the Adaptec card, and pop in the Promise Tech one linked above, will I be able to boot? I don't want to put it in and then not be able to boot because the drivers have not yet been installed....any help or comments would be greatly appreciated!

 

[rvnguy]

InterlinkModule,

will this work in my system enabling full NCQ support for the hard drive?

The Card will operate on this board and should support the Seagate drive but I would check the Seagate & Promise sites for compatibility.

will I be able to boot?

You have not stated what OS you are using?
Also, where is the OS installed? On this drive? or another drive?
The solution will depend greatly on the OS and the location of same.
There are BIOS settings to enable the Boot device in addition to the OS drivers required.
If you are using XP, When set in BIOS as the Boot device you should be able to boot to SafeMode to install the drivers.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[InterlinkModule]

I've already checked for compatiblity on the Promise Tech site and my motherboard is not specifically listed but there are a lot of ASUS boards listed both older and new than mine (I also dropped them an e-mail). I've already confirmed that the hard drive will work as it is listed on the Promise Tech site. My apologies, I'm running Windows XP Pro sp2. It is the only drive in my system, with a 30 gig C: partition where the OS resides and a 270 gig parition with all my archived stuff. So I just do an Alt-F2 during boot and do a safe mode? Then install the drivers off the CD? And the system will recognize the drive?

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[rvnguy]

InterlinkModule,

So I just do an Alt-F2 during boot

Check your docs; I am fairly positive that the Alt+F2 is to access the card BIOS and is for RAID setup.. You will not be using this with a single drive.

What I am referring to is the ASUS mobo bios. Check to see if the card/drive is recognized by the mobo BIOS, and if so, set this device to be the 1st boot device. If this is documented as requiring Alt+F2 then perform this setup. As this is after POST I doubt that this is where you will have to establish the card/drive as a bootable device. Once you have done the required items to setup this card/drive as the boot device at the BIOS level, SAFE Mode should excecute (as most all drivers are skipped) and if XP compliant "New Hardware" might be found???
If not, go to ControlPanel>System>Devices and look for the card and select properties>update the driver and point to the location of the card drivers and install. Reboot and this should cover the establishment of this as the Boot Drive.

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[PRPhx]

You will probably need to reinstall your OS and use the SATA driver, if there is one, from either the SATA card or mb (if you can find one for the mb). You hit the F6 key when asked if you want to install an SCSI drivers.

As far as I know, NO your system will not support NCQ unless both the HD and controller supports NCQ.

 

[InterlinkModule]

As far as I know, NO your system will not support NCQ unless both the HD and controller supports NCQ.

They do which is why I am posting the question because I want to install the newer controller card. I was thinking of installing the controller card with the other one still in my system, installing the new drivers, then turning off the system and switching the SATA cable to the new card, remove the old one, then uninstall the old drivers once I boot back up. What do you think?

You will probably need to reinstall your OS and use the SATA driver, if there is one, from either the SATA card or mb (if you can find one for the mb). You hit the F6 key when asked if you want to install an SCSI drivers.

I've already re-installed my system multiple times the past few months (got a new computer in June and then bought Windows XP Pro) and really don't feel like doing it again

-=<>=-

 

[InterlinkModule]

What I am referring to is the ASUS mobo bios. Check to see if the card/drive is recognized by the mobo BIOS, and if so, set this device to be the 1st boot device. If this is documented as requiring Alt+F2 then perform this setup. As this is after POST I doubt that this is where you will have to establish the card/drive as a bootable device. Once you have done the required items to setup this card/drive as the boot device at the BIOS level, SAFE Mode should excecute (as most all drivers are skipped) and if XP compliant "New Hardware" might be found???
If not, go to ControlPanel>System>Devices and look for the card and select properties>update the driver and point to the location of the card drivers and install. Reboot and this should cover the establishment of this as the Boot Drive.

Your suggestion might work as long as my motherboard natively supports the controller card otherwise it might not recognize the drive....as I mentioned in my other reply I was thinking about installing the new controller card, but keep the hard drive hooked up to the old one. Then boot up, install the new drivers, shut down, swap the cables and remove the old card, then boot back up making sure to change the needed settings in the motherboard bios then remove the old drivers....

-=<>=-

 

[rvnguy]

InterlinkModule,

I would try what I suggested first. If this fails, you should be able to run a "Repair Install" and your files will remain intact (you will lose some settings) and during the repair you can run the "F6" for other drive type driver installation.

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[InterlinkModule]

I would try what I suggested first. If this fails, you should be able to run a "Repair Install" and your files will remain intact (you will lose some settings) and during the repair you can run the "F6" for other drive type driver installation.

I just ordered the SATA300 model which says can run with another controller in the system. So I can put them both in hopefully, install the new drivers, then shut down and switch the cables...

-=<>=-

 

[InterlinkModule]

Well the Promise Tech SATAII300 card is in and the old one is out and everything's working great. Also snagged a 10,000 rpm Raptor hard drive. Thanks for everyone's replies!

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