WDC HDD Drivers? 1

[eskimosound]

Hello everyone

I've got three Western Digital Hard Drives that I am bleaching.
Once I've done that I am going to install three seperate OS's and I'm triple booting....
My Problem is I can't find the drivers I need for each HDD.
The Drives are as follows:
1x 80GB EIDE WDC WD800BB-00FJA0
1x 80GB SATA WDC WD800JD-60LSA5
1x 160GB SATA WDC WD1600AAJS-00PSA0

My Mobo is ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

In fact I cant find out much about them...I'd like to know speeds and caches as well...or even print out the manuals...

The Western Digital Site offers no drivers and Im at a loss.
All I know is I had the same problem over a year ago and I sorted it...but I can't remember where I got the drivers from...

Over to you guys

 

[wahnula]

I've built dozens of PCs and never needed to install HDD drivers. If you Google the part numbers you will have the info you seek. Example: first hit in Google search

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=254

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[eskimosound]

mmm well I've built 3 and needed drivers for Vista so I don't know how your so lucky!!!

Its OK I think I get them from my Mobo manufacuter..I certainly cant find them at the Wester Digital site...and thank you for find that HDD info for me...when I tried I put in too much information on the search and it didn't come up with anything...

So what I need are SATA drivers from Asus..

 

[eskimosound]

mmm those drivers don't exist... still none the wiser

 

[vacunita]

You should only need drivers for the SATA drives, and then only if you are installing them with XP. Vista should be able to recognize all of them without the need for drivers.




----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[eskimosound]

Not true, have a look at this, where is say Add Driver!!!

http://www.windowsvistamagazine.com/UK/4352741766073207674/twenty-minute-installation.html

Thats whats happening to me..
And my Mobo website doesn't have drivers for Vista (Or I can't find them!)

 

[Freestone]

Your motherboard has two SATA chipsets on it pertaining to SATA: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI and Silicon Image 3114R RAID Controller.

Which SATA drivers you need depends on which of these controllers your SATA drives are connected too.

Your IDE drive will need the nForce4 drivers from nVIDIA. For that matter, your motherboard chipset will need nVIDIA's driver anyway, so you should probably start there.

I am not familiar with Vista, but I agrree with vacunita, Vista should be aware of the nForce4 chipset, if not the SIL3114R.

How far into Vista's install are you getting?

 

[eskimosound]

Its not seeing the Hard drive..the 160GB SATA one...so it says load drivers..

I'm loading RAID Drivers but I know I haven't set it up on RAID..its just the normal SATA plug...
You cannot as you know load the Chipset drivers until he OS is installed...

The Drviver I am trying to instal is SIL3114 without the R and its not working...64bit Vista

Stumped

 

[Freestone]

Have you tried loading the OS on the IDE drive?

 

[eskimosound]

Im using XP at the moment to write this and I hvaent needed a driver but I havent bleached the Drive yet...im pretty sure when I do I will need drivers unless (and I think Im right here) Xp supplies EIDE Drivers on the disk.

I know when I bought my new 160gb SATA it needed drivers and I found them...I just cant rememebr where!!! Im so sorry but it was a good while ago 12 months or more and It was a nightmare trying to find them then andf this is proving the same.

So as soon as I belach them (and I've got three remember) they are going to be screaming out for drivers...if I aint got them its not going to inatl and its back to the public library to talk on forums and find them!!!

 

[Freestone]

I am confused as to why you think you need drivers for hard drives. I can understand the need of drivers for the nVIDIA chipset, and SIL RAID controller, but not for hard drives. I've never in over hundreds, if not over a thousand, installs of an OS from 98 to Vista, ever required a hard drive driver.

And before you bleach(?format?) the XP install, locate some good imaging software. I recommend Acronis True Image. Install that, create the bootable media, boot it and make an image of your XP install. If the Vista install doesn't go well, reload the saved XP image and forget the library routine.

 

[eskimosound]

It just asks me for drivers...I dont know...
Thes are the drivers I have found but non of them are working:

http://www.siimage.com/support/supportsearchresults.aspx?pid=28&cid=3&ctid=2&osid=10&

Now thers loads of them and your telling me you've never known of such things? There are Base IDE drivers!! I have no idea what i need for the standard SATA

 

[vacunita]

EIDE Hard drives as such do not require drivers. Operating system install discs already have all the necessary information to actually recognize EIDE hard drives.

SATA is a newer technology in hard drives which is why XP and Vista installs some times require drivers to pick up the hard drives.

The Page you linked to states this:

If you’re told Windows can’t find an installation volume, go to your PC or motherboard maker’s website to find a Windows Vista driver for RAID or SATA. If you don’t know what hardware your PC has, run Upgrade Advisor and click See Details.

It means that it might need them, but more often than not it will pick up the hard drives on its own. More so if your motherboard has native support for them.

What you haven't told us, is A. Does the BIOS of your machine recognize the hard drives, and B. how far into the Vista Installation you gotten. Does the actual installation ask you for drivers, or are you basing your need for drivers off of the page you linked to?




----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[eskimosound]

Sorry, yep I get you...
The BIOS Recognises it buit the installation askds for them!!

Does that help?

There are only RAID driver link on my MOBO site and they are made by silicon image and on the link I have already showed you.

The BIOS is as new as my Mobo will allo sometime in 2007

 

[Freestone]

You are confusing controller and chipset drivers with hard drive drivers. The drives themselves don't need drivers, but the hardware they attach to, whether IDE or SATA, does. Most IDE controllers are well known by XP and Vista so should not require a driver, which is why I asked if you were trying to install there. You may not be able to get SATA drivers installed until after your get Vista installed.

If you are installing to a SATA drive, have you tried attaching the drive to the nForce NVRAID SATA ports? Perhaps you would have better luck as it is apparent that the SIL3114 drivers are not working with your SIL3114R controller.