Can't Install Windows to SATA Raptor Drive

[kingoftowns]

Hey Everyone i am having a big Problem, I just put together a pc and am trying to install windows to a 36gb Western Digital SATA raptor drive but when while windows setup is about to begin the Raptor drive doesn't show up as an available HD to install windows on only my ATA HD so shut down unplugged the UATA drive rebooted and went into the bios and the system is recognizing the raptor but again when i run windows setup it says no hard drive available

i have an athlon 64 3200+ on an ASUS K8v SE Deluxe mobo is there anything i am doing wrong i read the mobo manual and it syas nothing about any extra steps that have to be taken to install windows on a sata drive

PLEASE HELP

thanks in advance
-Mike

[Loser1769]

Did you check the jumpers? Make sure the drive you want to install windows on is the master (or single in case of 1hd).

[kingoftowns]

jumpers aren't necessary for SATA drives.

[Colonel Sanders]

I'm going to bet Windows ia not loading SATA drivers during setup. In that case, I know for Windows 2000 you have to download a version of the drivers on the floppy with an OEM.txt file. I don't know about XP.

L J

[RedKangaroo]

Here's how I did it:

My setup is a little different than yours because I loaded windows on two 36GB WD Raptors in a RAID 0. The only extra step there is loading some extra RAID drivers and making the RAID volume. Ok, so if you're just working with one drive with SATA, you need a SATA driver. If your motherboard has an onboard SATA controller (basically if you can plug it in ok using the SATA cable, NOT the IDE ribbon cable) then it should have come with some drivers on a floppy (or maybe a CD.) The disk should say "SATA Driver Disk" or something like that. Now, once the drive is plugged in, when Windows is setting up, you'll notice at the bottom of the screen something like "If you need to install drivers, press F whatever." Hold that button down, and when it asks you to select a drive, pop in the floppy and select the Floppy drive (usually A:\). I think I remember it asking for a driver one other time, so you may have to load something off of the disk again later. Oh, and there might be a few different drivers to choose from, so just try one and see if it works. If not, start over and choose a different one.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more problems.

[QuickSilver]

You need to have your RAID/SATA enabled in your BIOS. During the Windows install, one of the screens will say to press F3 (if I remember correctly) if you need to install third party drivers. These third party drivers come with the motherboard on the CD. Some motherboards are kind enough to ship with a floppy disk as well, others don't. If you have the floppy, then you are set. If you don't, then you need to copy the SATA/RAID controller drivers for WinXP from the CD to a floppy disk. Once you have your floppy ready, tell the computer that you want to install third party drivers, and then just follow the insructions that it gives you from there.

[glc]

press F3

It's F6. This prompt comes up right at the beginning of setup - you have to watch for it.

[QuickSilver]

Thanks GLC, I had a brain cramp.

[demandred55]

Even on today's systems where you can boot from CD you still need to copy drivers to floppy?

[RedKangaroo]

No... it might be more realistic though. I wouldn't want to waste a CD just to put some drivers on it when a floppy can do the job. But if you don't want to put a floppy drive in your machine, I think you could still get it to work on a CD... maybe. You might be a little ahead of XP for drivers on a CD... *whew* ... a thing of the future.

[QuickSilver]

A floppy disk would be the simplest way to go.

[glc]

Originally Posted by demandred55 Even on today's systems where you can boot from CD you still need to copy drivers to floppy?

Yes. The XP install, when you need to install 3rd party storage drivers by pressing F6, will only load them from a floppy. There is no way around this, the install routine will only recognize an "A" drive.

[MaxRat]

you forgot to mention to get the sata drivers off the motherboard cd you need access to another pc.....

pop in the cd click sata drivers, copy and paste them to a formatted floppy.and walla..