Installing XP on a SATA drive running via SATA PCI card

[dazzaboy]

Hi all,

I've recently added a PCI SATA card and Maxtor 80gb SATA drive to my system and I'm struggling to get an OS on to it.

I've installed the drivers ok and the SATA drive is recognised as drive (f I have one IDE HD (c and 2 optical drives (d: and e - [this is via normal booting from the IDE drive].

When I try to boot from SCSI in the BIOS I get NTLDR is missing. I've also booted from the XP master disk and used F6 and installed the SATA drivers from floppy, but when I carry on with the installation, all the system finds is my resident C: drive (the IDE HD).

I've tried to disable the IDE drive (via BIOS) but the system cannot find the SATA drive even tho the drivers are installed ok?

Can anyone shed any light on this or is there some sort of clash where i've used an expansion card for SATA instead of onboard SATA.

Cheers.

 

[LloydSev]

there must be some sort of RAID controller BIOS screen you can get into and setup.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[dazzaboy]

Yes, there is but it only seems to ask if you want to set up as RAID 0 or 1 and there is no other setting for single drive set ups?

 

[wolluf]

Does machine have floppy drive? Can you see the SATA drive booting from a win98 boot floppy? (via fdisk)

You are using the right drivers? (for the floppy after F6). Just thinking you've got 2 issues - the controller card and the SATA interface - for XP install to have to deal with.

 

[Krosus]

Usually get the NTLDIR message if you have a corrupted file system or.... you left the floppy disk in the machine...

 

[dazzaboy]

@Wolluf:

Yes I am using the correct drivers after pressing F6 and the SATA drivers load ok and show my correct device name.

@Krosus: The drive is formatted with NTFS. I've removed the floppy from the drive during boot.

Will try again and keep you posted.

Thanks guys.

 

[micker377]

With an "add-in" card, the computer will still see the IDE drive as Master. Have you tried disconnecting the IDE drive, set BIOS to boot SCSI first, and install the OS onto the SATA drive?

 

[dazzaboy]

Hey Micker,

This was going to be my next port of call.

I've tried disabling the first IDE channel, left the 2nd channel enabled for CD-rom access and booted from SCSI but I didn't have any joy. I haven't disconnected the IDE HD completely yet but it's my next step.

i have HDD-1, HDD-2 etc. boot settings in the BIOS but these will be for IDE drive only.

Get back to ya

 

[dazzaboy]

Hi all,

I've tried completely disconnecting the IDE drive from the board and trying to boot from the master disc (loading SATA drivers using F6) but the XP installation just doesnt find the SATA drive to install to.

I've decided to just use the SATA drive for storage instead and I'm pleased with the faster access time. I can always try and install an OS on it when I get a SATA based mobo in the future.

Thanks for the tips.