Problems with SATA HDD

[Lesley]

Hi, Have just got a second hard drive for my pc. It is ExcelStor J8160S (160gb) PC is Intel Celeron 2.20ghz - 736mb RAM. Want to use SATA hd as main one. Am having major problems. Changed BIOS settings to enanble SATA - windows recognized new hardware and I installed new drivers. Now whenever I switch on SATA drive powers up before my main drive and after the windows logo I just get a blank screen and nothing happens. If I disconnect SATA drive IDE drive operates fine. Have tried disconnecting IDE drive and installing windows setup on SATA drive, but as it is not formatted or partitioned the setup freezes at the point where it is going to load XP. It would appear that SATA drive takes precedence over IDE drive so I can't access it unless I connect it once I have IDE drive up and running, but then when I go into disk management it ends up not responding. What can I do?

[jholland1964]

This is not my area of expertise...if I have one...anyway...couple of questions here...
you said;

Want to use SATA hd as main one....Changed BIOS settings to enanble SATA - windows recognized new hardware and I installed new drivers. Now whenever I switch on SATA drive powers up before my main drive and after the windows logo I just get a blank screen and nothing happens

Am I missing something here? You said you wanted to use the SATA hd as your main drive...it is powering up first before the main drive...that is what I don't understand, if you have set it as your main drive then isn't it your main drive?

[Lesley]

Didn't set it to be main drive. I left all BIOS settings as was. SATA drive is overriding. Hope that makes sence. Can't set it as main drive until I have partitioned, etc, can I?

[jholland1964]

Honestly, I don't know. I was just asking as a "hardware dummy". I am certain one of our hardware "gurus" will be here and read this and be able to give you an answer.
Judy

[cauzomb]

There are a couple things that F1 has suggested in another post and it may help, but there's another problem with sata and XP's PNP "drive controller" drivers. XP will unload the chipset sata controller driver durring startup; "XP thinks the chipset controller/driver is UN-trusted" then XP either stops "to protect the data" or; re-installs it's own version of standard controller drivers. The standard drivers may not be compatible with the motherboard chipset.

I recommend going to your motherboard manufacturers website, looking through the support documents for issues installing sata drivers with windows xp... Mine was a real pain, had to make a custom windows xp install disc using 3rd party applications to erase the standard xp hd controller driver and supplant them with a compatible version of the chipset driver; in my case there were different versions of the chipset and HD controller drivers that did not work which means, alot of wasted time finding the driver that did work "after burning" and trying to install windows.

[Mathster]

It sounds like there is a boot partition on the SATA drive that is taking over and trying to boot from the SATA drive. Im not sure on this one.

[Lesley]

Since I enabled the SATA in BIOS when I boot up PC the procedure (can't think of a better word here) has changed. After the first screen (where I get option of entering BIOS) the computer pauses and a BIOS check disk runs after which it says:
Primary Master (SATA device not found)
Secondry Master (SATA device not found) (I have the SATA HD diconnected)
Then it loads windows as normal on my IDE HD. Does this mean anything?
Have two SATA connectors on MOBO)

[cauzomb]

Right, they want to boot from the sata drive "eventually" but havn't setup the sata drive, partition/format etc.. There should have been a disc that came with the drive, but if not, go to the drive MFG's website, download their drive setup utillity, boot to that, format the sata drive, "with the IDE drive disconnected" set the sata drive to active/boot drive.. then you want to install windows xp with a copy of your chipset drivers on a floppy, when windows xp prompts you to add drive controller/scsi drivers press f6.. You should have the floppy diskette in the drive and select 3rd party drivers from the list on "A" drive. or something..... For more information about sata controller driver issues and solutions:
Read this support article from support.microsoft.com

[Lesley]

Sorry, I have two SATA connectors on MOBO, but am only using one of them!

[cauzomb]

It's fine. one or both.. as long as the controller driver is installed durring setup using f6... if it doesn't work, you may have to create a slipstreamed disc http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/ar...XpInstall.aspx