won't detect SATA...

[KuriousJorj]

Hey folks!

Well I've upgraded my system (gigabyte board, AMD64 3000, 1GB DDR, Ati Radeon 3600XT).

Also got a 250GB SATA to use as a storage drive for my video data... I use a regular IDE for my OS (Win2K). (NOTE: from other thread, I DID in fact have to reinstall the OS, though I didn't reformat anything... should have, though, as I had to reinstall everything anyhow)

But I can't detect my SATA drive...

Am currently upgrading the BIOS, just in case.

I'm new to using SATA... Does anyone know what sort of thing might cause this?

thanks!

BJ

 

[wolluf]

what's not detecting SATA drive? (are you saying its not appearing in disk management in 2k - run diskmgmt.msc). Have you installed SATA drivers for it in 2k?

 

[BaudKarma]

Also make sure the SATA controller is activated in BIOS.

I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[KuriousJorj]

No, it's not detected in BIOS, and of course, not the OS (dual-boot Win 2K, one for gaming, one for video editing)

Today I ran an update/flash BIOS off the internet, as well as service pack 4...

And spent at least an hour messing with the BIOS settings...

As well as swapping the cable between the different ports...

Still nothing.

This is a complicated mess; last night when I started, I wanted to just swap the system IDE HD (2 Win 2K partitions, "gaming" and "film making") into the new system.

Kept getting BlueScreenOD no matter what... So decided to RE-install the OS (into both partitions) and start over.

However, I have a small, spare IDE HD, so I quickly installed Win 2K on it, then set the system HD as a slave, booted into the new/temp Win2K spare HD, and pulled all important files (short films, etc), from the now slaved system dual-boot HD, to the SATA --yes, it was showing up at this point--but only at 160GB (it is 250GB drive).

So then, I unhooked the temp HD, as well as the SATA (which now has all the info on it), then hooked up the original dual-boot HD, and re-installed Win2K onto the old partitions.

I encountered no problems during installation with any drivers or resources, and device manager shows no problems.

However, ever since, I've not been able to "see" the SATA no matter what I do...

The drive itself IS running, generating heat, etc., but not even the BIOS is seeing it...

 

[KuriousJorj]

Actually, when I did the "temp install" of Win2K onto the spare HD, (and as I said, it was reading a "130GB" drive that had to be the SATA), then I pulled the data information from the then-slaved dual-boot OS drive, I never formally formatted and partitioned the 160GB drive!"

Yet it seemed to "Accept" the files while I was doing it; if not, then I've lost that data!

 

[wolluf]

more confused! - that 250GB SATA - was it showing as 160 or 130GB? (what service pack level is 2k?). If it was a new drive and you haven't partitioned/formatted it, you can't have copied anything to it!

My board has a separate bios for SATA - so it only appears there - not with the IDE drives on POST. Does yours work like that?

What appears in disk management in 2k?

I can't help thinking you've missed something out - could you check what you've told us and see if this is true?

 

[KuriousJorj]

I don't blame you for being confused --"I am, and this is my stinking thread, LOL!"

I'm going to START FRESH for my own sake, as well as yours... Besides, I no longer have to retrieve the data from the SATA...

please look at my thread on tek-tips about the Win 2K install... I just discovered something today, so I don't need to recover anything from the SATA...

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1044423&page=1

Though I'd obviously like to access it so as to store video footage!

As for the seperate POST BIOS, this new board has:

2IDE
2 IDE RAID (GigaRaid)
2 SATA RAID (nForce)
2 SATA RAID (Sil3512)

I think they show up on both the first, standard POST screen, as well as after, in a RAID POST screen...

Never did the "F6 install 3rd party drivers" thing, but didn't think I had too; the motherboard driver disk had drivers it installed from Win2K to cover all that, I thought...?

Speaking of which, I also messed in the BIOS by switching the SATA confroller between "RAID" and "BASE," (since I'm using an indiviual drive) and though that didn't make the drive appear, it did ask for the SATA driver again once in windows, from the motherboard driver disk (as though it somehow removed the controller driver when I did mess with the BIOS setting)

thanks for your patience with my ignorance!!!


(motherboard (Newegg number: N82E16813128241)
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS PRO" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard)

 

[paparazi]

As with so many threads of this type:
If only you had just read the first post properly you would have seen the answer:
Wolluf said:


Have you installed SATA drivers for it in 2k?


Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[ruffnredy]

Check the motherboard drivers.....may have to get off the CD and put on a floppy for use during O/S install. On 2k/XP install setup will as for raid drivers; use the floppy and Windows should do the rest.

 

[KuriousJorj]

(Just returned from several weeks of traveling); now then, the SATA drive is still not recognized by windows. Have tried installing/reinstalling both the SATA and the "base" drivers, but neither the BIOS nor the OS will see it.

If only you had just read the first post properly you would have seen the answer:
Wolluf said:

Have you installed SATA drivers for it in 2k?

I thought I'd posted somewhere, that I'd already tried this... My board driver-CD supposedly installed all necessary drivers, including SATA drivers...(from the OS; none of that F6 crap) Though do I want the "SATA" drivers? It is a single SATA drive I have installed, and want to use. (I assume this is what the "base" setting in the BIOS refers to?)


I've tried installing the driver under the "base" setting instead of RAID, but my system STILL will not recognize the drive. There's no excuse for this being so annoyingly difficult.

I guess I'll do some sort of repair and try to find the right driver to put on a floppy and do this round-about F6 hassle...

 

[KuriousJorj]

I removed the normal system dual-boot HD, took an old, spare IDE hard drive and reintalled Win2K on the spare drive, doing the "F6 install 3rd party drivers for SCSI/SATA", making sure to have the "base" SATA drivers (instead of RAID SATA drivers) on the floppy...

The spare drive (with brand new OS installed w 3rd party option follwed) still doesn't detect the SATA drive (which is running and generating heat).

Last option (which doesn't involve a shotgun): find the impossible-to-find motherboard information and email giga-byte tech support

 

[caffeinated]

KuriousJorj,

It sounds like you had it right before you did the re-install the second time. You DO need the SATA controller drivers for W2K. You will then right click "My Computer" and select "Manage" from the pop-up menu. This will open the "Computer Management" console. In the left pane select "Disk management". Do you see the drive listed in the management window? If so, you need to "Install" or add it to Windows (Format, assign drive letter, etc.)

That should do it.

Caffeinated

 

[KuriousJorj]

Actually, I've tried installing both the SATA RAID drivers, and the SATA "base" drivers...

On both occasions, neither the BIOS nor the OS (including disk managemnet via MMC) would recognize any drive...

This seems impossible... Either I'm making a blatent mistake, or there is something wrong with the brand new hardware.

 

[LloydSev]

your first BIOS screen which lists the IDE drives will NOT list the SATA drives. That's why it doesn't "Recognize" it.

as far as this goes, maybe you should download the hard drive's utility from it's manufacturer's website to ensure it is running and working.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[KuriousJorj]

The only utility WD seems to offer is just a spruced-up version of disk management... I tried it, but it won't see the SATA either.

I'm guessing this is just a situation where we see the limits of current computer technology... In reality, alot of this stuff does NOT work perfectly together.

Too bad I'm to start a video next week... Where the hell am I going to store the data?

Maybe I can get an "IDE to SATA" adapter... Oh, wouldn't that be disgustingly ironic? What a wonderful time we live in.

 

[vdumatol]

I have a gigabyte that i recently put an SATA Seagate drive in. I had to actually configure a RAID setup (yes 1 drive)in the configuration before the OS. Once I had that i could use the drivers in XP and fdisk and format the drive. It still wasn't finished. I also had to use Seagate's software to tell it to use more than the 170G for 1 partition. I didn't bother doing this as i figured i was lucky to just get the drive to show by this time.

Try doing Raid 0 with the one drive to see if the OS sees it.

My new MSI motherboard (maybe your Gigabyte mb is as old as mine and different manufacturers has nothing to do with it) went very smooth...i just installed and all went fine.

 

[BaudKarma]

Something just clicked for me... I bought an Asus K8N mobo a couple of months ago, and had a batch of a time getting the RAID up and running. I'm assuming both our boards have the same chipset.

The first problem was activating the RAID/SATA controller, which was buried two or three levels down in the "onboard devices" menu. When it's working, you should see some message about testing the RAID array pop up for a couple of seconds during boot.

There was also a problem with installing the drivers on Win2K, and I eventually had to switch over to XP to get everything working properly. I'll do some checking and see if I can remember what I did.


I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[BaudKarma]

Okay, I checked the nVidia website. The download page for the latest nforce drivers for 2000 says that

"Service Pack 3 (or later) is required to create a bootable RAID volume for a Windows 2000 environment. A combination installation CD must be obtained/created before attempting to install the operating system onto the bootable RAID volume."

That's why I wound up going over to XP. Check the nVidia website, download the latest nforce drivers and utilities from there, and see what happens.

I try not to let my ignorance prevent me from offering a strong opinion.

 

[KuriousJorj]

Thanks to all of you for trying to help me resolve this!!!

(btw, the SATA drive I'm trying to recognize and use would be a dedicated "video storage drive," and not a boot or OS drive)


As of now, all I can think is this:

1. my motherboard is bad
2. the SATA Western Digital is bad
3. they're simply not compatible

Everything is brand new; I would've returned the SATA to Newegg, but I was traveling and my 30 days ran out. I wished I'd never even bothered with it.

I've tried ALL of the advice everyone here, as well as the gigabyte and western digital tech help advised, but nothing has worked...

I'm now going to try and find someone who has a working SATA system, and hooking my drive up to it and see if it even works (even though I can feel/hear it spinning)...

thanks again

 

[LloydSev]

just because your newegg warranty ran out, doesn't mean western digital's 2 year warranty has too...

you can still return it to western digital.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA