New Harddrive

M

MO!

New Member
Hi.

First of all, looks like a good forum :)

My question is about setting up a new harddrive which is on it's way to me as I type. I've had a breif search and can't see this anywhere, but I appologise if I'm repeating.....

My set up is a lowly P3 450MHz. 192MB Ram, and a dying 6GB Harddrive.

Win XP Pro.

Apart from the dying harddrive, performance is passable for what I use it (browsing and autoCAD), though obviously I'd prefer something better. So, I'll be upgrading the lot bit by bit along the line. But the dying harddrive is first port of call.

I've ordered THIS CONTROLLER and THIS DRIVE.

I'll be taking the current drive out as like I've said, it's on its last legs and at 6GB isn't big enough to compensate for my small penis or lack of a BMW :)
So the new drive will be my main drive.

So what I'm hoping for is a sort of Idiot/MO proof step by step guide to replacing the current IDE drive with the SATA controller and SATA drive and getting it up and running. I've got everything I need off the current drive backed up to CD already.

Despite what you may think from my highly technical lingo, I'm actualy not as clued up on these things as you may have thought :D So as simple and broke down as possible please.

Cheers

MO
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
You might want to reconsider SATA because
- Unless the controller comes with native boottime support for itself (i.e., does the controller support itself :p) then you will have to load boot-time drivers in order to install an OS onto the drive ... theoretically not a big deal but really... a pain in the arse sometimes
- You wont notice much in terms of perfomance difference compared to ATA100/133 for (a) an increased cost and (b) an increased hassle

Now if you're adamant on using SATA:
- Physically install everything
- Goto BIOS, set CDROM as first boot device
- Pop the Windows CD in, boot off it
- Withintn the first 30 seconds it should say something like "Press CTRL+F6 to load SCSI/RAID drivers". press CTRL+F6
- You will find the drivers for the SATA card hopefully on the CD or floppy that came with the controoler -- make sure you've got those drivers on both CD and floppy -- sometimes it dont like the CD much and you will have to load drivers from the floppy -- even if the manual says you dont
- Install as per usual :)
 
M

MO!

New Member
Thanks Preator.

I'd already ordered the Controller and Drive so no going back now :eek:

So, please, only replies about what a great choice I've made, and how best to go about getting it up and running from now! hehe!

I think what you're saying is similar to this which I was pointed to elsewhere...

How to configure a Serial ATA drive as a boot device.

Question

How can I configure my Serial ATA drive as a boot device?

Answer

If your Serial ATA (SATA) controller is a bootable controller (the vast majority are) you may boot from the SATA drive. You may need to enter Setup and change the boot sequence so that the SATA controller is the first boot device listed. In most cases, if the SATA controller is embedded (not an add-on controller card) on the motherboard, the BIOS Setup utility will have an option to choose the SATA drive as the first boot device. Look for Boot Sequence, Boot Options, Boot Order or a similar setting to make this change. If Setup does not allow this change, your system BIOS may not allow the SATA controller to be designated as a boot device at the BIOS level. In such cases, you still may be able to boot to the SATA drive as long as there is not a bootable EIDE drive installed in the system as well.
Click to expand...

Any idea if this controller I've ordered is bootable?

Also, where it says "may need to enter setup and change the boot sequence.....", well, would you think less of me if I said I didn't fully understand? Enter what setup? You mention BIOS...... I wouldn't know BIOS is it....... well........ did whatever BIOS does :eek:

Quite possibly out of my depth, but I've started so I'll finish :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Any idea if this controller I've ordered is bootable?
Click to expand...
No idea

Also, where it says "may need to enter setup and change the boot sequence.....", well, would you think less of me if I said I didn't fully understand? Enter what setup? You mention BIOS...... I wouldn't know BIOS is it....... well........ did whatever BIOS does
Click to expand...
You'll probably want to do some reading of the manual before messin with your BIOS but right when you boot up, it'll say something like "Press F1/Del/F2/whatever to Enter Setup" ... if you press whatever button it tells you to press, it takes you somewhere, THAT's the BIOS where you can do all your configuring. Look around for something about "Boot Sequence" and make sure you enable an option for "Boot off Other Device" or something.

Depending on the card you might even have second mini-BIOS to boot up on (usually something obscure like CTRL+F12 or something) and that allows you to setup card-specific features and RAID functionality etc :)
 
M

MO!

New Member
Thanks for the replies.

Update based on what I've read here and elsewhere...

I've been told that my BIOS will only let my MObo take harddrives up to about 8GB and needs updating. I'm assuming this is only if the Controller doesn't have it's own BIOS (Like you and others have mentioned is often the case). I'm not sure if it does or not...

So I need to know if the BIOS update is only necessary if the Controller doesn't have it onboard. And if I need to update the BIOS, well...... how?

Also. Having had a look at the current boot sequence. It's set as 1) Floppy. 2) CDROM and 3) is IDE0. I'm not sure what to set it to.

I've been told SCSI should work?

Thanks again.
 
Last edited:
M

MO!

New Member
I tried. I failed.

*Took the old drive out.
*Put the controller and new drive in and connected it all up.
*Power on and into BIOS to change the boot sequence to SCSI instead of IDE0.
*Saved settings and started up again with windows xp pro disc in.
*Pressed F6 when promopted - asks if I want to install drivers
*After a short while asked to insert the floppy into drive A for the controller drivers......

....I've not got the drivers on floppy though. And I don't know how I'm meant to fit a 117MB CD (which was what was supplied) onto a floppy.

So. Option two....

Thought, I'd try starting up with both drives in place, with the current IDE one as the boot one. Then see what happens. Imagine i'd be prompted to load drivers when new hardware was discovered? Then after loading the controller drivers. Remove the old drive and Set the SATA as the boot disc, and start up with windows again....

*Plugged the old IDE drive back in aswell as the Controller card and the SATA drive. And connected both to power supply. I wasn't sure about this, as it's only a 235W PSU.
*Set IDE0 back as the boot disc and (floppy, cdrom, and IDE0). then saved changes and started to load windows

The first time, it just about managed to reach the desktop. Then became very slow and unresponsive.

Tried a few MOre times, but couldn't even get it to load as far as the desktop.

It's been quite interesting learning some new stuff. But that's fast fading!

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again.

MO :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I've not got the drivers on floppy though. And I don't know how I'm meant to fit a 117MB CD (which was what was supplied) onto a floppy
Click to expand...
Ya thats what i meant about "hassle with SATA" ... the drivers are actually quite small and will fit on a floppy (odds are its just one or two files on that CD)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
You'll not be able to run scandisk until you sucessfully boot ... one problem at a time :)
 
M

MO!

New Member
Not sure where scandisk comes into this but anyhow...

Managed to find what I needed and was getting it ready to put onto floppy and......... my floopydrive died :D

Typical! Took me ages to try and get this figured out. Finaly get it sorted and the drive dies! Annoying, but kinda funny.

Next thread is "New Floppydrvie" :D

Think it's easy form now. Thanks for the help.
 
M

MO!

New Member
Still no joy :(

Borrowed a floppydrive and got the controller card onto a disk.

Pressed F6 when prompted then followed the prompts to install the drivers.

I've done this a few times, and sometimes this is where the problem occurs. It'll say something about the driivers causing conflict blah blah blah.... sometimes it goes ok.

Next problem is again just sometimes, it'll then say "No mass storage device detected".

Managed to get it to go past this point a few times and it continues to install XP.

However, it tells me software (relating to the controller card) doesn't pass MS logo testing or something and that I shouldn't use it. Obviously I have to tell it to try anyhow.

Seems to then load ok untill it gets down to about "2min's left" and it then just doesn't go any further. Left it for over an hour and still nothing so had to turn off!

Becoming a bit of a pain in the ass now really.

Ideas?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
kof2000 said:
just stick with ATA133 hdd then.
Click to expand...
MO! said:
I'd already ordered the Controller and Drive so no going back now
Click to expand...

However, it tells me software (relating to the controller card) doesn't pass MS logo testing or something and that I shouldn't use it. Obviously I have to tell it to try anyhow.
Click to expand...
Dont worry about that, 90% of stuff out there has that "problem" ... considering it costs $200,000/year/driver to get that "MS Logo certification" I dont blame them

Managed to get it to go past this point a few times and it continues to install XP.
Click to expand...
Its kinda interesting that sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt .... could it be a memory problem? Seems kinda unlikely but a possibility i guess
 
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