Serial ATA / Partition Setting ... i need some HELP HELP PLZ

[rainz]

Hi !

I just bought a ..

- Maxtor Serial ATA 120 GB 8M Hard Disk

and connected the 2 cables on it ( i was able to create a partition on it via the DOS ( Win ME Emergency Boot Disk ) ) I dont use WinME at all but i just like the boot disk on it for formating, fdisk, etc

I have 2 options in the BIOS ..

1 - Serial ATA Boot ROM thing .. ( what is that ? )
2 - Promise RAID blabla ( if i enabled this .. the HD is detected )
I have 2 sub choices ... RAID or IDE ..
I dont want to use RAID since i dont have 2 ..

But !!! i cant see it at all in my Windows XP !! this is freakin annoying .. and i tried to install a bunch of things that i'm not sure i need them ...

- IDE Raid
- Promise FastTrak
- Even a SCSII controller appeared ?!

This is my motherboard

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket754/k8v-d/overview.htm

And do i need something " special " at all in Windows XP to be able to see the sATA HD ?? ( or any sATA HD ... ? )

*** And there's any program for Windows able to see unpartitioned HD and being able to do any kind of tasks on them ( like creating new partition as well ! ) .. like the old Fdisk.

And i was able to format it ( booted in Dos ) ... formated in FAT32 ... it was 52GB ... but the partition made it a 117GB .. Oh well !

my ( C: ) is a 60GB IDE ATA133

my ( D: ) will be the new sATA ... i hope !

I'll buy another SATA soon .. btw for now i dont care i just want this one to be fully functionnal :?

HELP HELP !
Thx

RainZ

 

[Zaphod]

You should not partition it from DOS. Make sure you have the VIA S-ATA drivers installed.

EDIT: I see that this board actually have a Promise S-ATA controller on it along with the integrated VIA one, and that you have already installed drivers for this. Just skip the first part then. Don't worry about the SCSI driver thingy. It is like it should be. If it doesn't show up in Disk Manager you might want to try to connect it to the VIA controller instead and see if that works better for you.

Then go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management. You should be able to partition and format the drive from there.

 

[rainz]

Installed the driver ( it was already installed ) .. I can see the HD in the DOS but not in Windows ... and i cant see it in Partition Magic too !

WinXP Promise FastTrak 378 Controller .. I have an error at this ..
This device cannot start. (Code 10)

RainZ

 

[Zaphod]

WinXP Promise FastTrak 378 Controller This device cannot start. (Code 10)

That would be your problem then. The Promise SATA driver is not loading. Try reinstalling it, or - as I suggested in the edit - move the drive to the other controller.

 

[rainz]

I have the following options in my bios:

[ ... ] = Current options
( ... ) = The choices i have

#1 Onchip SATA Boot ROM [ Enabled ] ( Enabled / Disabled )
#2 Onboard Promise Controller [ Enabled ] ( Enabled / Disabled )
( If #2 Enabled)
[ Onboard IDE Operate Mode ] ( Raid / Onboard IDE Operate Mode )

And i tested all the possibilities with my Dos Boot Disk and the only way i was able to see the SATA HDD in my "Fdisk utility" it was when #1 & 2 were at enabled and with the submenu of #2 setted at Onboard IDE Operate Mode.

In the Dos .. if i'm able to delete the partition .. create a new one .. format etc .. it's cause the HD is correctly plugged ..

My drivers are installed in my Windows XP and no more Code 10 Error .. But i cant see it .. ?! I missed something out ?

I'm open to any ideas !

Help !

RainZ

 

[rainz]

Is it possible that my Serial ATA onboard works only with RAID ( 2 or 4 ) ??

RainZ

 

[rainz]

WOOT found how on another Forum ! i had to create an ARRAY ... ( no idea it's my first SATA ) i'm formating it right now in WinXP

i'll post later tonight the link if someone else need to know how !

RainZ

 

[rainz]

Kurt Gruell Jul 28, 2003, 03:58 PM Send Message - User Profile - Add Buddy



Re: Windows XP installation not detecting my new serial ATA Hard Disk!

IDE will not detect a SATA drive. When you boot you need to go into the Promise Fasttrack feature Ctrl - f (or something like that) when prompted and create an array RAID 0+1 0 being the RAID and 1 being the number of drives installed. If you have two drives it would be RAID 0+2 Once you create the array you can start installing your OS and then hit F6 to install your controller drivers from a floppy.

Kurt

source:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/9607

If it can helps anybody !

RainZ