SATA - CD ROM - Motherboard - how to connect

[mrkan]

I've just put together my first PC and I have several issues...
My motherboard is P5N E SLI. It has 4 SATA connectors, 2 reds and 2 blacks.

1. Does it matter in which connector I plug my SATA HD (seagate 320mb)? My HD is on SATA1 as of now.

2. I have 1 CD-ROM and it exists on secondary IDE as slave. Is that OK, or I should change that?

3. I can't install Vista because it doesn't see my HD. I used flash drive, to install sata drivers. After I would install driver, still vista wouldn't find anything. So I wouldn't be able to proceed. The interesting thing is, that yesterday Vista would see my sata drive, but it would freeze on "Completing Installation". (with all do respect, I think vista is just low grade junk)

4. I can't install XP, because I don't have floppy unit to install sata drivers. Tomorrow I'll get some and I will try. But, I onestly expect zero result.

I am sort of desperate. I am chasing SATA information over the web for last few days. It seems to me that everybody have this problem, but yet, there is no effort for this to be properly explained/solved.

I am tempted to grab some of my old IDE HD and use sata as storage, but... why they invented something that doesn't work. I am reading stories around, people are installing OS on old HDs, then they clone it to sata drives... I mean... this is stupid... If that is the only way, then, it's not my way.

Thanks....

 

[Doctarain]

First off I would make absolutely positive that your MB has been set to support both IDE and SATA drives running side by side. Not too long ago they didn't work together at all very well. a good clue is if the POST shows all the devices.

Nevertheless setting your cdrom to 'Cable Select' will avoid any possible master/slave conflicts

also look for the MB's latest BIOS update. If you simply don't have a floppy drive i suggest borrowing one at least to get it flashed and maybe some sata drivers.

hope it helps

 

[ibmtech65]

I have Sata drives and installed XP with a IDE cdrom installed no problem. But I think the issue might be that the OS defaults to the IDE. I know it does that if you have SCSI and IDE.

Go into your bios and make your SATA drive the primary drive so the OS will default to that when it installs.

 

[kmcferrin]

Check the manual and see what the difference is between the red and the black connectors. Most mainboard chipsets will have integrated SATA controllers, but on some mainboards a secondary SATA controller chip from another manufacturer will be installed to allow either a) more SATA devices or b) SATA RAID functionality. If that is the case then the SATA ports for the secondary controller are usually a different color, and the secondary controller needs to be enabled in the system BIOS.

Also, if you are connected to a RAID controller you may need to enable the RAID BIOS and make sure that the drive is identified in that RAID controller's setup program. For a single drive you would probably configure the disk as JBOD.

 

[mrkan]

Thanks all...

I called ASUS support today and I found out few things:
- they assured me that I connected everything properly (my CD ROM and my sata hd)
- during vista installation I was actually installing jmicron sata controller which is for external sata hd to be connected on the back of the PC. Since I don't have anything connected there, no wonder nothing showed up. I am still puzzled why Vista was able to see my hd 2 days ago, but not yesterday.
- I am supposed to install nvidia sata controller (on asus website all sata controllers are referred as raid controllers, that's their naming convention). It can be downloaded here:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

When I get home, I am going to try this.

And, ibmTech65:
In BIOS, I don't see how I can make my sata hd primary. I actually think that is not possible.
My bios looks something like this:

Primary IDE Master: none
Secondary IDE Master: none
Primary IDE Slave: none
Secondary IDE Slave: CD ROM
SATA1: mySATA hd
SATA2: none
SATA3: none
SATA4: none

There is no way provided to say that SATA1 is primary hd. The only thing I can do is to set boot sequence so system is booted from SATA1 hd.

 

[wahnula]

I agree, look in the BIOS for SATA settings, there should be an option for "SATA as IDE" or the like. Turning AHCI off might help too. I feel your pain, I have six SATA ports on my P5W-DH and, since I am using RAID 1 and another SATA HD for dual booting, the remaining connectors are useless orange "EZ-RAID" or part of the nForce RAID controller so I don't get to use a SATA optical drive.

I did have to load my RAID drivers (two controllers, Nvidia & JMicron)at F6 for XP, but Vista found the array and its JMicron-port HD without them, so it must have had the drivers built-in.

A good option for having a floppy (better to have one, even if it's just for this task) is a combo floppy/card reader:

http://www.directron.com/fa402a.html

I put one on my last build and it's nice to have the multiple features in the same amount of space.

Tony

"...an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind" - M.L. King

 

[Doctarain]

There may not be an option to make Sata a primary, but it should be able to be set as the first boot device. that would 'kinda' make it primary.

My board only allows for a sata2 or ide when it comes to hd's and i am not a fan or raid on my own machines so i am in the dark with that one.

Good Luck

 

[mrkan]

Thanks for Good Luck... I need it, but I definitely don't have it.

I tried to install Vista or XP last night. Nothing worked.

Vista can't even see it. It would just ignore sata controller (drivers) that would install.

XP did the same, after I pushed F6, and installed sata controller, installation would continue to the first reboot point. After that everything would start all over again. Controller ignored again....

I am pissed... this is 5th day I am wasting on this crap...
reward to those who invented sata....

 

[BadBigBen]

These are the correct drivers for the SATA controller:

nVidia 32bit SATA RAID for Win2k/WinXP/Win2003/WinXP 64bit/Win2003 64bit

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket775/P5N-E SLI/MakeDisk.zip

Download and run the MAKEDISK.EXE from another PC that has a FLOPPY DRIVE...

In the BIOS check these settings:

Under Advanced -> IDE Function Setup
SATA Port 1,2 set to ENABLED
SATA DMA Transfer set to ENABLED

Under Advanced -> NVRAID Configuration
make sure ALL are set to DISABLED!

Under Advanced -> JMicron SATA Controller set it to DISABLED until you get an external SATA drive to hook up to...

Under MAIN -> check that SMART MONITORING is set to DISABLED for now... can be re-enabled after install of OS...

Under EXIT -> EXIT & SAVE


Now you should be able to boot the install CD and as soon as you have the F6 displayed hit F6... then pop in the FLOPPY created above... As you have done before...

now XP should be able to load the driver from the install floppy when it is needed...

Post back if this helped or not...


PS: the supplied DRIVER CD that comes with any ASUS mainboard also has the correct SATA drivers on them, just run the CD from any PC with a FLOPPY drive (Described on page 3-5 and 3-16 of the manual).

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Amos43]

And you're confident the SATA drive is not dead/DOA?

The drive is compatible with Windows Vista, but they don't guerantee that drivers for the HDD will be compatible with Vista.

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...5ea7-4ad3-be3f-af29f7b48dde1033.mspx?mfr=true

Seagate troubleshooting page for this drive:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=e4644a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

 

[Kofy]

I am going to try the steps you mentioned above also Ben, I've got the same motherboard and having the same problems as mrkan, I'll let you know if it worked for me.

 

[tf1]

In BIOS, there may be a separate setting to select Boot priority. This should show both the SATA and IDE drives so that you can select which is to be the 'boot priority'. This is definitely so on my ASUS P5E-VM.

Regards: tf1