Installing Maxtor SATA on Gigabyte Mobo - help please!

[peterdoughty]

You're all going to think I'm dumb, but I'm about to take delivery of all the components for my new system (first time builder as well as SATA installer! eek!) and I've been reading the manuals and they're confusing me more than helping me, so I could really use some very specific help here.

The key components for this question are the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 mobo and the Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 200GB, SATA drive.

===Question 1:
Maxtor's documentation says that I should install a program called MaxBlast somewhere along the way. But do I really have to? Would it make life easier in the long run? Could I live without it? And if I could just discard it and use something else, what, exactly, would I have to do to make everything work?

===Question 2:
Gigabyte's documentation says that I should choose a SCSI/RAID/SATA driver to put on a floppy disk. But that will depend on which SATA port I plug the drive into, surely.

I don't have any idea what this means, but the ports available are:
S_ATA0_SB to S_ATA3_SB, controlled by the nVidia nForce4 Ultra, OR
SATA0_SiL - SATA3_SiL, controlled by the Silicon Image 3114.

Which should I use? I have one drive.
And here is a page with the drivers

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard...GA-K8NXP-9.htm

- which one do I have to download?

===Question 3:
Gigabyte's mobo manual says that I should set the "first boot device" to SCSI. Is that right? And then would I need to set the RAID Mode to "RAID" or "normal ATA"?

===Question 4:
Do I need to install Maxtor's "Big Drive Enabler" after installing XP?


Thanks in advance guys, I really REALLY appreciate all your help so far with my other questions!

Pete

[glc]

1. Do not install Maxblast. All you need is your WinXP CD and the SATA driver on a floppy.

2. Depends which port you put the drive on. If you put it on a Nvidia port, use the Nvidia driver, if you put it on a Sil port, use the Sil driver.

3. Normal ATA unless you are using multiple drives and build a RAID array.

4. Nope. Make sure your XP CD has SP1 or SP2 already incorporated, or you will only see 128gb on the drive.

[peterdoughty]

glc, you're a star. But I wouldn't be a newbie if I wasn't still a bit confused, so...

Originally Posted by glc 1. Do not install Maxblast. All you need is your WinXP CD and the SATA driver on a floppy.

So... can I partition after XP installation using Partition Magic or something like that?

Originally Posted by glc 2. Depends which port you put the drive on. If you put it on a Nvidia port, use the Nvidia driver, if you put it on a Sil port, use the Sil driver.

I'm confused here, and this is where I'm still scratching my head, because none of the Nvidia drivers are small enough to fit onto a floppy, they're all over 8MB, and there's an "ATA Driver" and a "SATA/RAID Driver" so... any hints? Also, I'd heard that nForce4 chipsets do things natively with no drivers needed... could that be true here? Is that why there's no small-sized Nvidia driver?

Originally Posted by glc 4. Nope. Make sure your XP CD has SP1 or SP2 already incorporated, or you will only see 128gb on the drive.

Does that mean that if I don't have an SP1 or 2 install CD, that I won't ever be able to see the extra capacity?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by peterdoughty So... can I partition after XP installation using Partition Magic or something like that?

You can either partition the drive during the WinXP installation or through Disk Management after Win XP is installed on the first partition (you make one partition for Windows and program...maybe 15 to 20GB...and leave the rest of the hard drive space unallocated until after WinXP is installed).

Originally Posted by peterdoughty I'm confused here, and this is where I'm still scratching my head, because none of the Nvidia drivers are small enough to fit onto a floppy, they're all over 8MB, and there's an "ATA Driver" and a "SATA/RAID Driver" so... any hints? Also, I'd heard that nForce4 chipsets do things natively with no drivers needed... could that be true here? Is that why there's no small-sized Nvidia driver?

Sorry, can't help you with this.

Originally Posted by peterdoughty Does that mean that if I don't have an SP1 or 2 install CD, that I won't ever be able to see the extra capacity?

If you have a working computer with a CD burner and the original MS WinXP installation CD, you can slipstream
SP2 with the WinXP setup file onto a CD-R. Instructions available here.

Cricket

[peterdoughty]

Thanks Cricket, that link was handy! I'll get burning.

Does anyone have any idea about how to cope with the "There are no damn Nvidia chipset drivers anywhere" problem? Of course, I *hope* that it means that I can just plug the SATA drive into one of the Nvidia chipset ports on the board and not have to worry about drivers.

But Gigabyte's support has nothing on this - and as if that wasn't frustrating enough, you have to have taken possession of a new board and know its serial number and everything, to ask a new question there!

[pam123]

Read this sticky : http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=120379

The other thing you have to do, and do it first, is read through the motherboard manual carefully. All the info is there and it will save you a lot of giref if you don't just skim it.

[peterdoughty]

OK - I took delivery of the motherboard today, but have been reading its manual over the past few days. Nothing in the manual about the lack of Nvidia drivers small enough to fit on a floppy, and nothing in the manual either about whether or not I can just plug the drive straight into one of the ports served by the nForce4 and not worry about drivers.

So, back to square one there.

Even more confusingly, the manual tells me about a program which can be used in Windows XP *after* installation, which holds the Nvidia and Silicon Image drivers and can install them. But what, I ask myself, is the use of having the Nvidia drivers in an 8MB file?? Obviously it can't be used during XP installation, which is what needs to happen!

So, guys, help me here with all your experience and skillz. I have none so I need yours. I'm going to just plug the drive into one of the nForce4 ports and NOT press F6 first of all. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that the nForce4 will save me. What do I need to do in the BIOS?

And if it doesn't work that way, what's my next step?

[pam123]

Did you read the sticky?
It covers your questions and a bit more.


edit: If you are doing a plain install that board has native support.
"So, go into the BIOS, make sure that the chipset SATA is enabled, disable RAID for chipset controller, disable any third party controller that you wont use."

[peterdoughty]

pam123, thanks very much. That's one more problem out of the way!

"So, go into the BIOS, make sure that the chipset SATA is enabled, disable RAID for chipset controller, disable any third party controller that you wont use."

Looking at the manual, this is what I think I'd do - please criticise / let me know if I've got it right.

- Boot from the CD drive first, SATA drive 2nd.

- SATA drive plugs into the first SATA port of the nForce4 chipset

- An HDD and a DVD-ROM sitting on the first IDE channel, both jumpered to cable select. (Or could I make these into IDE primary master and slave manually? Would that conflict with the SATA boot?)

- A CD-RW sitting on the 2nd IDE channel, jumpered to cable select.

The BIOS fields as quoted in the manual (plus my uneducated choices of how to set them! this is where I get a bit wary, never having done it before!):

- IDE/SATA RAID Function [Disabled]
- IDE Primary Master RAID [Disabled]
- IDE Primary Slave RAID [Disabled]
- IDE Secndry Master RAID [Disabled]
- IDE Secndry Slave RAID [Disabled]
- Serial-ATA1 [Enabled]
- SATA1 Primary RAID [Disabled]
- SATA1 Secndry RAID [Disabled]
- Serial-ATA2 [Disabled]
- SATA2 Primary RAID [Disabled]
- SATA2 Secndry RAID [Disabled]

Does that look like it would work OK?

(Seriously, guys, I know it's frustrating talking to a complete n00b like me who probably doesn't know enough to listen properly, but really, you've been great, and if you're not already making heaps of cash from your expertise, why not?! )

[pam123]

That looks about right but why don't you just put the DVD/CD-R on one IDE cable, as master/slave, and the PATA HDD on the other as cable select, which maxtor drives seem to prefer nowadays.
Optical drives seem to do better when jumpered master/slave.

[pam123]

I thought I'd add this note of warning.
You can not plug the drives into just any connector.
Use the ports (connectors) closest to the south bridge on the motherboard.
A look at the board layout in the manual should show which ones you should be using.
Generally the raid ones, that you won't be using, are closest to the raid chips.

[peterdoughty]

pam123, thanks for the replies.

I looked at the mobo layout on the diagram (and now on the board since it's sitting in its bag in my house, waiting for other stuff to arrive ) and referred to the manual for advice on where to plug the SATA drive into - there are 2 chipsets, and therefore 2 groups of 4 ports on the board.

Since I wanted to use the nForce4 chipset-based ports, I thought they would be the ones closest to the nForce4 on the board. Looking at the manuals actually confirmed that. Is that what you mean?

If it is, let me just run one more thing by you. There are 4 SATA ports on that chipset - 0 to 3. Will plugging the drive into port 0 will be fine, and will it match the BIOS configuration I gave above?

[pam123]

Going by the descriptions of that board you've got the right SATA ports and the '0' should do it.
Just take your time and go get a cup of coffe (tea?) or just take a break if you start getting frustrated.


edit : I don't know if this will happen to you but check that your bios recognises the drive. If it doesn't use the auto-detect in the bios, usually on the main page but check the manual, to enable the drive

[peterdoughty]

Oh, I'm a coffee man. But I guess it'd be wise not to have too much beforehand... I don't want shaky hands when I'm hovering near capacitors and things.