Sata Drive

S

stuaz

New Member
Hi All,

This week i decieded to upgrade my final IDE drive to a Sata one. I had already replaced my second IDE drive with a 500GB sata a few months ago and had put the majority of documents i wanted to keep (Music/Photos/Work, etc)

This remaining IDE drive held the operating system (Windows XP). So i decided the best thing to do was just start a fresh with the Operating system on this new 160GB SATA drive.

So I plopped in it, unplugging the final IDE drive. I run up the Windows installer - first thing i notice is that it can't detect my 500GB. No worries i thought, i will just install the operating system now then figure out what is wrong with the drive later on.

Windows finished installing and then i notice that it had installed to drive "G" rahter than "C"???!!!!

Why would it do this??? I have also had no luck in getting this 500GB one to work now...is there a connection?

Thanks in advance!

BTW My motherboard is a Asus M2V-TVM
 
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Depending on how old the Install CD is, you might need to install drivers for it to recognize the new Drive. When you first boot to the Install CD, there will be a prompt at the bottom of the screen to press F6(?) to install third-party drivers. If you have a CD that came with the disk, press the corresponding F-key and follow the on-screen instructions.
 
imsati said:
Depending on how old the Install CD is, you might need to install drivers for it to recognize the new Drive. When you first boot to the Install CD, there will be a prompt at the bottom of the screen to press F6(?) to install third-party drivers. If you have a CD that came with the disk, press the corresponding F-key and follow the on-screen instructions.
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To give you an indication, the Windows XP setup disk is SP1 :)

The third-party software disk would be the Motherboard disk i presume?

Would this solve the drive being a G and not a C letter?
 
Third-party software would be either the CD that came with the Drive, or (if an OEM drive), a burned CD or floppy disk with the drivers from the manufacturer's website.

As far as the C --> G thing...depending on what is on the other Drives and how you opt to partition them, the Windows Installer might see (or think it sees) a C: Drive already there. The best way to ensure that doesn't happen is to unplug every Drive except the one you're Installing Windows to. During the Partition part of Setup, make it how you want it (or just go with one solid partition). After you create the partition(s), you'll see the Drive letters next to them. Move to C: and press Enter.

After Windows is Installed and the MoBo drivers are loaded up, re-plug in the Drives you disconnected and turn on your system. Windows will recognize them as new Hardware and install them, assigning a different Drive letter to each partition.
 
imsati said:
Third-party software would be either the CD that came with the Drive, or (if an OEM drive), a burned CD or floppy disk with the drivers from the manufacturer's website.

As far as the C --> G thing...depending on what is on the other Drives and how you opt to partition them, the Windows Installer might see (or think it sees) a C: Drive already there. The best way to ensure that doesn't happen is to unplug every Drive except the one you're Installing Windows to. During the Partition part of Setup, make it how you want it (or just go with one solid partition). After you create the partition(s), you'll see the Drive letters next to them. Move to C: and press Enter.

After Windows is Installed and the MoBo drivers are loaded up, re-plug in the Drives you disconnected and turn on your system. Windows will recognize them as new Hardware and install them, assigning a different Drive letter to each partition.
Click to expand...

Ahhh I think i understand you know. What your saying - if my understanding is correct - is to install on to the one sata drive, with the other one disconnected then once you are at a Windows level - install the third party software from the disk.

Thanks, i will give that a go now.
 
Just in the process of the install and it Windows is saying on the bit where you make partitions and such:

"Unknown Disk
(There is no disk in this drive.)
152587 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 in bus 0 on atapi [MBR]"

But it will let me continue.
 
Ahhh I think i understand you know. What your saying - if my understanding is correct - is to install on to the one sata drive, with the other one disconnected then once you are at a Windows level - install the third party software from the disk.
Click to expand...

About 50/50 :) One of the problems is that your Setup CD isn't recognizing the 500 GB Drive. Therefore, the Software needs to be installed beforehand - not able to see the Drive = not able to install Windows. However, it might just be a case of 'there's too much stuff going on' for the Installer. Try this below...

1 - Unplug your Drives
2 - Plug in ONLY the Drive you want Windows on (your 500GB?)
3 - Boot to your Setup CD (actually, with only the one Drive in, The CD might bypass whatever driver quirkiness that was happening before and not require the third-party drivers)

*If you can see the 500 GB Drive, then all is good, proceed to Step 4. If not, then you'll need to obtain the Drive's drivers, burn them to a CD or copy to a floppy, and start again at Step 2 (only next time, pressing F6 right after the Setup CD starts to load to install the drivers)

4 - Partition how you want (follow the on-screen instructions for how to do it - very easy) and select the C: Drive and press Enter to install Windows.
5 - Once Windows is installed, put in the CD that came with your Motherboard. When Windows is installed, it will use generic drivers to offer basic functionality. The CD will contain specific drivers for your system to ensure everything runs better.
6 - After all the drivers are installed, shut down your system and plug in the remaining Drives.
7 - Restart and once Windows is loaded, it will auto-detect the Drives you just added and install them.
 
stuaz said:
Just in the process of the install and it Windows is saying on the bit where you make partitions and such:

"Unknown Disk
(There is no disk in this drive.)
152587 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 in bus 0 on atapi [MBR]"

But it will let me continue.
Click to expand...

Continue how?

I'd just get the drivers from the website or CD (where did you buy the 500 GB Drive? and install them at the beginning.
 
imsati said:
Continue how?

I'd just get the drivers from the website or CD (where did you buy the 500 GB Drive? and install them at the beginning.
Click to expand...

By continue, i mean it will let me install onto the Hard drive however i just get that little warning before hand.

I'm not installing onto the 500GB but onto a smaller one (160gb). The500gb one is a Samsung drive but the 160GB is a Western Digital Caviar 160Gb.

With Sata drives, do they rely the Jumpers that IDE's have? Because bothe the 160GB and 500GB have no Jumpers.
 
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No - the corresponding SATA ports on the MoBo are used.

Install everything using the method I Posted above, but sub the 160 GB Drive for the 500 one. If it gives you the error message but still lets you install, I'd say run with it for now. Finish the Install, and see how much space is recognized in My Computer. If the full amount, then good, if not, install the MoBo drivers, then visit Windows Update to bring everything up to speed, then check the My Computer area again to see if the full amount is there.
 
stuaz said:
The Samsung was from www.dabs.co.uk
The the other one is from www.novatech.co.uk

It looks like is it working so far. Windows is now installed on Drive C and i am just downloading all the windows updates etc.
Click to expand...

Well, if they were OEM, then it would just be the Drive; if Retail then the Drive, CD, cables, box. Either or, if it's working out, it's working out! Were you able to see the full size of the 160 GB Drive after the Install?
 
Yeah it recognises the full size. However after installing some Windows Updates, it boots up to the desktop and then restarts itself. So i think i will have to boot up into safe mode when i get home from work to try and diagnose why it is getting stuck in a loop.
 
Things just keep getting worse!!!

The new 160GB has just decided not to work!! I had everything working wonderfully, now it just won't power on. I know its not the connectors because if i put the 500GB hard drive in the same connections that one powers up fine.

It doesn't even appear to whirl or make any attempt to power up.

I think i am going to send it back for a replacement....and who ever said computers were fun are fools!! Makes me sad to think that I make my living from computers ! lol.
 
HDDs are funny - some will last for years and some fail after a few weeks with no warning. Look at it this way - each little inconvenience that is happening you're learning from, so it's not a total loss. Try to keep thinking like that and it's not so bad:)

At least the entire Drive was recognized without the drivers, so one less thing to worry about with the replacement disk.
 
imsati said:
HDDs are funny - some will last for years and some fail after a few weeks with no warning. Look at it this way - each little inconvenience that is happening you're learning from, so it's not a total loss. Try to keep thinking like that and it's not so bad:)

At least the entire Drive was recognized without the drivers, so one less thing to worry about with the replacement disk.
Click to expand...


Yeah, this is the second PC i have built for myself from scratch, each time learning a bit more like you say, from the mistakes you make.

Thank you for the help you have given me btw, otherwise I might still be sat here pulling my hair out! :D
 
stuaz said:
Yeah, this is the second PC i have built for myself from scratch, each time learning a bit more like you say, from the mistakes you make.

Thank you for the help you have given me btw, otherwise I might still be sat here pulling my hair out! :D
Click to expand...


So, i have my new hard drive - a Samsung. However when running the Windows setup it does not see the drives, however on Boot up and in the Sata configuration screen it sees both hard drives.

So i am guessing i need to install some third party stuff at F6 during the login, except I am not quite sure where or how i get this.

Any help would be appricieated.

Also, i looked at the intruction manual that came with this Hard drive and it says that make sure you do not connect the cables in reverse....how do i know that it is in reverse when the cables do not show a right or wrong way?
 
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