sata not seen by xp

[Underworld2086]

I started up my new computer and loaded windows xp professional, however it says there is no drive detected.

Here is the system specs:
CPU: AMD Althon 2500+
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Kingston HyperX Series Dual Kits 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-2700
WD 80GB 7200RPM SATA
Lite-On 52x32x52
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Lian-Li PC-61

BTW, When I try to install the cd that came with the motherboard, nothing happens. Am I suppose to install that after I install xp or before?

[Underworld2086]

is this a common problem? I tried doing a search but, i didn't find anything quite like this. Please help:(

[Billz]

Did you use a floppy with the sata/raid drivers on it during installation?

[Underworld2086]

my hard drive didn't come with sata drives, however i think there are drivers on the cd that came with the motherboard.

[Confused]

You need to open the CD that came with the mobo, open the drivers folder, open the SATA folderand copy the drivers to a floppy. I copied everything except the readme, GUI and PDF files.

Put the floppy in the drive and boot up with the CD. Hit F6 when prompted for third party drivers. Leave the floppy in until finished as it will access it again near the end.

After XP is loaded, change the boot order to boot from SCSI.
Chas

[Underworld2086]

Thank you confused, that did the trick.

[Turkman]

This sounds really similar to the problem I'm having. I'm setting up a RAID 1 with two SATA drives and during XP setup, windows won't recognize the drives.

I have a thread posted to this effect today.

[Confused]

You have to load the SATA drivers if loading XP to a SATA drive, whether in a RAID configuration or not.
Chas

[Turkman]

Thanks, Confused. Aren't the SATA drivers on the XP disk? I was able to load XP completely while not in a RAID configuration. But, that's not the configuration I want.

I have followed the RAID procedure to the tee and can not get XP to recognize the drives in RAID 1 mode. I've enabled the BIOS for RAID, created a RAID volume, and used the RAID floppy to load the driver. It all goes smooth, then XP tells me it can't detect the drives and terminates setup. Any thoughts??

[Confused]

I don't know what mobo you are using, but my copy of XP (2 years old) would not load to a Asus A7N8X without me putting the SATA drivers on a floppy and hitting F6 when prompted. Later versions of XP may have native support for SATA but mine doesn't and judging from post on this forum it is a real issue getting XP to load to SATA. Some have built a PC without a floppy only to have to go and get one in order to get XP loaded.

You say XP loads when not in RAID configuration. Does it boot up and is it usable?
Chas

[Turkman]

It loads flawlessly and boots fine from SATA 0. I did not populate it with anything but it seemed to be working OK. I only did this to eliminate the possibility that there was something wrong with my drives.

I'm using an Intel D865PERLL mobo that has SATA interface and comes RAID-ready.

[Confused]

Then I would suspect a BIOS setting or RAID setup problem.

I haven't ran RAID so I can only offer some suggestions until someone with experience using that board and RAID replies.

1) From what I have read on this forum, RAID array works best when drives are a matched pair.

2) Since XP has been loaded on one of the drive they are no longer identical. You might try doing a zero fill on the drive that had XP loaded to it. Load could be getting confused since when it tries to write (either mirrow or stripe) and it sees a load already there.

What type of RAID are you trying to set up, stripe or mirrow?
Chas

[Turkman]

I'm setting up a RAID 1 config. (mirroring) for two Seagate 120G SATA drives. I know what your saying about the drives but my initial setup was to set up RAID 1 and it didn't work then. That's why I tried loading a non-RAID to see what would happen.

Is it possible I need some XP RAID-specific drivers for my drives to be loaded at the time I load the RAID driver itself? Maybe then XP will recognize the drives.

Could you suggest where else I can find some information? I don't think it should be this difficult!

Thanks for your help, Confused. I appreciate it.

[glc]

Some of the D865PERL boards shipped with a flaky bios - try updating it to the latest (P14). You can get it on the support page for the board, get the IFlash version, not the Express. While you are there, also get the SATA RAID F6 Driver Disk download and use that instead of the one that came with the board, that's the latest, version 3.5.

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Implementation of Serial ATA RAID 1 requires the following items.

* Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Edition version 3.5 or later, and can be found on the Latest Driver Updates page.
* The Intel® Desktop Board D865PERL BIOS must be updated to version P09 or later, and can be found on the Latest BIOS Updates page.

Complete instructions on RAID 0 or 1 installation can be found in the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition User's Manual.

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/D875PBZ/sb/CS-008370.htm

[Turkman]

glc...that did it! many thanks...