Cannot get BIOS to see SATA hdd

[GoStillers]

All of the hard drives are Seagate drives. I have an ASUS P4P800 mobo (w/whatever bios version came with it. No floppy to upgrade). I have a SATA hard drive (one small partition for XP, the rest for storage) and two IDE hard drives (both storage).

It ran fine (w/just the SATA) until I started messing with it. I could never get it to work properly unless I disable UPNP in the bios (I think?) and unplugged the IDE hard drives. I can get it to see both of the IDE drives, but it wont boot since XP is on the SATA.

If I have to format the XP thats fine as long as I don't lose the partition on there for storage.

I'm not a total n00b when it comes to hardware, but obviously I am missing something

 

[G0AOZ]

Not sure how much you've altered on the SATA drive, as you said "it wont boot since XP is on the SATA". This implies you've altered something on that drive since you tried adding the IDEs perhaps...?

I suspect the BIOS doesn't see the SATA as the first drive - probably sees it as the third HDD. If you can get into it, try altering the BOOT.INI on the SATA drive to reflect that fact that it's number three in the queue.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[wolluf]

Have you played with the bios settings which allow the SATA drive to be treated as IDE? (IDE configuration looking at the manual) - eg, changing the PATA+SATA option to PATA only?

 

[PRPhx]

You might want to reinstall your OS. Google has lots of indo if you look. XP with SP2 (actually SP1 or above) SHOULD fix your problem.

IF THAT doesn't work, then your going to have to get a bit more involved. AND it will require a floppy drive. Something that XP can see while installing. You will aslo need your SATA drivers from the mb cd.

When installing XP, you will be given the chance to press the F6 key to install additional SCSI drivers (even tho you need to install SATA drives, it's the same).

 

[wahnula]

I would write down the current BIOS settings, then reset the BIOS to "Optimum Default Settings", disconnect the IDE drives, reconnect the SATA drive and see if it's there and working. If so, add the IDE devices one at a time, paying attention to the master/slave jumper settings. If not, there may be a setting in BIOS to use SATA as IDE, not RAID. Hopefully the BIOS will see the SATA drive and boot to it.

Also, check your HDD boot options, you will quickly be able to determine if the SATA drive is available.

Be VERY VERY CAREFUL should you choose to reinstall the OS. Google "Slipstream SATA drivers XP" to learn how to make an OS CD with your SATA drivers included. Another option would be to buy a floppy drive, they're usually less than $10 and I have found them priceless for some situations.

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me