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Solve : SATA drive problems?

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Hello everybody!

I RECENTLY bought a 1tb Samsung HD103UJ for my PC and when I plug it in to install Windows XP on it. It always hangs at the SATA drive detection screen. I've been all over Google trying to find a solution. I've updated my BIOS but to no avail.

I've also read a little bit of what is going on. The Samsung HD103UJ is a SATA 3 Interface where as my ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe is a SATA 1 Interface. So that is why it hangs at the SATA Detection screen. Samsung also has a program called ES-TOOL that will allow you to change the HDD to the SATA 1 Interface. But that is my problem I can't get past the SATA Detection screen to change those settings. I've tryed everything from the anonymous jumpers on the back of the HDD to unpluging it then plugging it back in after the SATA Detection screen passes. Anyone else have anymore information would be great!!

-KentYou may have to feed the SATA controller drivers to the installation

You can do this one of two ways:

1) When asked to press F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID controller, do so. Put the SATA drivers on a FLOPPY (yes, a floppy), and put the floppy in when asked to do so.

2) Slipstream the drivers into your XP installation source and make a new disc:

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/index.htmlI don't want to offend you killerb255 but the problem is that I can't get past the SATA drive detection screen. If I could I would use the Samsung tool they provide to set the SATA drive to 1.5 instead of the factory 3.0. So I guess my question would be is how do I bypass the SATA detection screen (the one right after the BIOS) and still have the SATA drive present-or-detected on the system. So I could utilize the ES-TOOL that Samsung provides?No offense taken.

Ever since I've been here, I've seen many of us (myself included) misinterpret what people say all the time. Often times, it's because we're used to seeing the same problem over and over again and our minds get locked on one train of thought (at least mine does! ). Other times, it's because the person with the issue doesn't explain their problem clear enough...usually saying "It doesn't work," while expecting us to be psychic.

The reason I misinterpreted what you SAID:

Quote from: Kenter on December 27, 2008, 06:38:49 PM

Hello everybody!

I recently bought a 1tb Samsung HD103UJ for my PC and when I plug it in to install Windows XP on it. It always hangs at the SATA drive detection screen. I've been all over Google trying to find a solution. I've updated my BIOS but to no avail.

This could mean anything. Windows XP text mode tries to detect drives during installation after pressing F8 to accept the license agreement. Your BIOS also detects SATA drives on POST--now that you clarified that, I KNOW what you mean.

Anyway...

The problem in this case is that the SATA ports on that motherboard (as old as it is) are on a separate drive controller. This means two things:

1) The SATA controller has its own separate BIOS (not the main BIOS itself) that would need to be updated in order to see newer drives.

A little Googling myself came up with this:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?board_id=1&model=A7N8X+Deluxe&id=20081121051515015&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
It sounds to me like the SATA controller on that motherboard is just too old. It would have to recognize generations of SATA greater than SATA-I AND have 48-bit LBA addressing to get past the 137 GB barrier (according to the last post, it does have 48-bit LBA, but doesn't support SATA-II)

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/a7n8x-deluxe-rev-20-1008-bios-sata-4283-update-vt69362.html
Just be careful not to turn your PC into a boat anchor (as Broni would say). It's bad enough with official BIOSes--here, they are recommending a modded BIOS!!

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=437190
Same deal here, except you would use a program that would integrate an updated SATA BIOS into an existing BIOS and flash the merged mess SIMULTANEOUSLY. As Broni would say, "boat anchor, here we come!"

2) Even if we get past this problem, and you are able to use Samsung's utility to drop the speed to SATA 150/1.5, you WILL run into the problem I thought you were having (getting into XP setup text mode and seeing no drive at all). The solution I posted previously will get you past that.

EDIT: Having said all that, if I were in your situation, I would be torn:

The adventurous SIDE of me would go ahead and do the flash, knowing the above! Afterward, I would drop the speed to SATA 1.5, and then I would use my n-Lited Windows XP with SATA drivers to install.

The cautious and practical side of me would realize how old that board is and just save up for a new PC build.

The happy medium between the two sides would just go out and buy a cheap PCI SATA controller and avoid the whole mess (and you won't have to drop your SATA speed either). I would still have to use an n-Lited XP install so XP can see ITS SATA drivers in text mode, though...


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