VIA motherboard and WD160GB problem

[SSJ]

I've just bought a 160GB Western Digital 8MB cache 7200rpm IDE Hard drive and when I installed it my VIA motherboard don't recognize it. I use it as a Secondary Slave, my OS (Windows XP) is on another Hard Drive.
When I boot my machine, my motherboard fails to recognize the HDD and keeps giving me an error saying the new drive is ATAPI Icompatible and asks me to press F1 to resume.
So after that I tried to boot from the Windows XP cd, and it detected my hard drive and I was able to create partitions and format it.

So now, even though my Windows XP recognizes my hard drive and I can use it apparently with no problems (I tried copying files to it to see if everything is fine) everytime I boot my machine I keep getting the error "ATAPI Icompatible, Press F1 To Resume". After pressing F1 and XP loading the disk is recognized by the OS with no problems. Isn't this weird? I mean if my motherboard doesn't detect the hard drive shouldn't XP fail in the same way?

Any ideas of what might be the problem and how can I fix it?
VIA motherboards are really a pain I only have problems with it, I'm sure I won't buy another one ever.

TIA

 

[wolluf]

XP tends to ignore the bios when it comes to hard drive detection. Is there a bios upgrade for your mobo? (eg, to enable access to drives > 128/137GB?).

Is XP seeing whole 160G?

Have you tried setting the bios to no drive for the new drive (primary slave?) - to prevent the error message (XP will still see it).

 

[SYAR2003]

Set the bios on the drive to NONE(not auto) and let xp handle it .

syar

 

[paparazi]

SSJ
Your XP will also need service pack 1 installing if it hasn't already got it, to recognise such a large drive properly.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[SSJ]

Thanks for the replies. I know I need SP1 otherwise XP will only see 128 GB, haven't installed it yet, but will later next week.
The problem is really only with the motherboard, as for your advice to set secondary master (the new drive) to none in the bios, I can't do it since when I enter the screen in the bios where I can do that the computer just stalls... so I'm with my hands tied :|
I've checked VIA for a BIOS firmware update (i also suspect it's a problem due to the drive being bigger than 120GB and probably the motherboard doesn't support it), but none seems to be available... motherboard is old (about 3+ years) so a patch should be necessary I guess...

But for what u say XP handles the drive properly even if it's not recognized by the motherboard? So I shouldn't be too worried about it right?

 

[paparazi]

SSJ
Sounds like the age of your motherboard and the problems boards from this era have recognising such large disks.
This is not unique to Via but all older chipsets.
You should be looking on the motherboard manufactures website for a later bios not on a Via website.
You need to find the board Manufacturer, plus the exact model and version of the mainboard.
Footnote*
Westerndigital hard drives have an unusual jumper configuration which needs to be set differantly IF another hard drive is present on the same channel.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[SkipCox]

Again, lots of good advice here. If your motherboard manufacturer wants you to upgrade via chipset drivers, they'll usually post them on their site.

Look for anything from your motherboard manufacturer that helps with XP.

Skip

http://home.comcast.net/~scox9/index.html