Solve : SATA HDD and motherboard issues!?

1.	Solve : SATA HDD and motherboard issues!?
Answer» Hi I have a hitachi 1Tb Sata Hdd and a ECS PT800CE-A motherboard with 1 Gb of ram and a Pentium 4--3.4 Ghz running Windows XP. I also have a Seagate 160 GB hard drive on IDE master channel 0 and a Memorex CD drive on IDE channel 1 as slave. The seagate drive is the boot drive. I have SATA controller enabled and set as IDE, not RAID, in BIOS. I do not want RAID. I only want the SATA drive for increased capacity. The problem is the motherboard doesn't recognize the SATA drive. It is installed on SATA1 socket on motherboard. When I don't have the SATA drive hooked up to the motherboard, the device manager shows the SATA/RAID controller as okay. When I hook up the SATA drive to the motherboard, the device manager shows a yellow sign and says there is a problem with the controller and it won't start. I have tried to install drivers but they will not install. I don't know what is going on. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.Try it in a different SATA slot... What's on this drive ? ? Does it have an OS installed ? ?i am akwad, according to your analysis guy, you don't need RAID setup, all you need to do is to go to the bios setup of the system and set sata controler as ATA. Quote from: varget on July 21, 2009, 11:49:50 AM Hi akwad. My BIOS has 2 choices for SATA. They are either RAID or IDE. I have it set on IDE. There is no ATA option. IDE and ATA are the same. <<When I hook up the SATA drive to the motherboard, the device manager shows a yellow sign and says there is a problem with the controller and it won't start. &GT;> This is what concerns me. This could indicate a conflict if SATA is also set to IDE-0 or to the Boot Drive. Search the BIOS for more SATA settings, they could be hidden almost anywhere.Quote from: varget on July 22, 2009, 11:31:58 AM I will check the BIOS for SATA settings. Maybe I can try disconneting the boot drive I have on IDE channel 0, master and see if it will recognize the SATA drive I am trying to install. I can boot from the windows XP disk. I think I tried that and the computer freezes. That's a good idea. Try it and get back to us. If the computer freezes, there is either something wrong with the BIOS settings, the SATA controller on the MB, or the 1T drive.I contacted the hard drive manufacturer and they said the problem is probably the SATA chipset I have won't handle the FASTER data transfer speed of the new drive. That is why the motherboard isn't recognizing it. They pointed me to a utility called "Drive Feature Tool" and it makes a bootable floppy to set the drive data transfer speed to 1.5 Gb/sec. instead of 3.0 Gb/sec. When I ran the bootable disk, the computer froze even when I disconnected the SATA drive. I don't know what to try. I am dead in the water. Any ideas? Drive tech SUPPORT says to buy a newer motherboard!Quote from: varget on July 25, 2009, 03:04:15 PM I contacted the hard drive manufacturer and they said the problem is probably the SATA chipset I have won't handle the faster data transfer speed of the new drive. That is why the motherboard isn't recognizing it. They pointed me to a utility called "Drive Feature Tool" and it makes a bootable floppy to set the drive data transfer speed to 1.5 Gb/sec. instead of 3.0 Gb/sec. When I ran the bootable disk, the computer froze even when I disconnected the SATA drive. I don't know what to try. I am dead in the water. Any ideas? Drive tech support says to buy a newer motherboard! That's nonsense! All SATA drives are backward compatible. 1.5Gb/sec chipsets will run 3.0 Gb/sec hard drives at 1.5 Gb/sec rate. It's possible that the BIOS just won't support a drive as large as 1 TB. It might be a good idea to try a different SATA drive, i.e. Western Digital or Seagate. You could get an IDE hard drive instead of the SATA. BTW, DFT has been around a long time, it should not freeze the computer, but the fact that it does, is not good. Are you running the latest BIOS (v 1.1e)? http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?detailid=423&DetailName=Bios&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=0 I'm looking at your manual (p.34). Check BIOS setting: VIA OnChip IDE Device OnChip SATA-Enable SATA Mode-NOT RAID I have the latest BIOS version. Thanks. I updated the VIA SATA driver to a newer version. The one I installed was 3-'07 I think. I have been changing some settings in the BIOS but it seems like everytime I plug in the SATA drive to the data line and power, the system does't like that. I have a hard time getting it to boot if at all. Is this motherboard known for PROBLEMS, I wonder? Any ideas? Thanks. Not saying its the board but ECS is 1 of the worst boards to choose.Try starting from scratch.Set the bios to best config. or de fault.Forget raid [my thoughts]Your symptoms are almost as if the motherboard were trying to initialize the SATA drive as RAID. The "yellow sign" in Windows Device Manager seems to indicate this, too. Are you connecting the SATA drive before you boot or after you boot? If before, try connecting SATA data line after computer has booted. Make sure RAID is OFF in the BIOS. BTW, WinXP might attempt to initialize a SATA drive even if it is turned off in the BIOS. I FOUND this out by accident, when I was trying to get mine to boot. Depends on the Mobo and the BIOS. Therefore, try turning the SATA drive OFF in the BIOS and see what happens. Your boot drive is still the Seagate 160 IDE.Hey I finally got the motherboard to recognize the hard drive! I had to hook up the drive to another computer and run the software program that hitachi has to change the setting on the drive to a slower data speed. After I did that, when I hooked it up to my motherboard, it was recognized and working okay. Wow, what a hassle. thanks to all for their help!

Answer»

Hi I have a hitachi 1Tb Sata Hdd and a ECS PT800CE-A motherboard with 1 Gb of ram and a Pentium 4--3.4 Ghz running Windows XP. I also have a Seagate 160 GB hard drive on IDE master channel 0 and a Memorex CD drive on IDE channel 1 as slave. The seagate drive is the boot drive. I have SATA controller enabled and set as IDE, not RAID, in BIOS. I do not want RAID. I only want the SATA drive for increased capacity. The problem is the motherboard doesn't recognize the SATA drive. It is installed on SATA1 socket on motherboard. When I don't have the SATA drive hooked up to the motherboard, the device manager shows the SATA/RAID controller as okay. When I hook up the SATA drive to the motherboard, the device manager shows a yellow sign and says there is a problem with the controller and it won't start. I have tried to install drivers but they will not install. I don't know what is going on. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.Try it in a different SATA slot...
What's on this drive ? ?
Does it have an OS installed ? ?i am akwad, according to your analysis guy, you don't need RAID setup, all you need to do is to go to the bios setup of the system and set sata controler as ATA.
Quote from: varget on July 21, 2009, 11:49:50 AM

Hi akwad. My BIOS has 2 choices for SATA. They are either RAID or IDE. I have it set on IDE. There is no ATA option.

IDE and ATA are the same.
<<When I hook up the SATA drive to the motherboard, the device manager shows a yellow sign and says there is a problem with the controller and it won't start. &GT;>
This is what concerns me. This could indicate a conflict if SATA is also set to IDE-0 or to the Boot Drive. Search the BIOS for more SATA settings, they could be hidden almost anywhere.Quote from: varget on July 22, 2009, 11:31:58 AM

I will check the BIOS for SATA settings. Maybe I can try disconneting the boot drive I have on IDE channel 0, master and see if it will recognize the SATA drive I am trying to install. I can boot from the windows XP disk. I think I tried that and the computer freezes.

That's a good idea. Try it and get back to us. If the computer freezes, there is either something wrong with the BIOS settings, the SATA controller on the MB, or the 1T drive.I contacted the hard drive manufacturer and they said the problem is probably the SATA chipset I have won't handle the FASTER data transfer speed of the new drive. That is why the motherboard isn't recognizing it. They pointed me to a utility called "Drive Feature Tool" and it makes a bootable floppy to set the drive data transfer speed to 1.5 Gb/sec. instead of 3.0 Gb/sec. When I ran the bootable disk, the computer froze even when I disconnected the SATA drive. I don't know what to try. I am dead in the water. Any ideas? Drive tech SUPPORT says to buy a newer motherboard!Quote from: varget on July 25, 2009, 03:04:15 PM

I contacted the hard drive manufacturer and they said the problem is probably the SATA chipset I have won't handle the faster data transfer speed of the new drive. That is why the motherboard isn't recognizing it. They pointed me to a utility called "Drive Feature Tool" and it makes a bootable floppy to set the drive data transfer speed to 1.5 Gb/sec. instead of 3.0 Gb/sec. When I ran the bootable disk, the computer froze even when I disconnected the SATA drive. I don't know what to try. I am dead in the water. Any ideas? Drive tech support says to buy a newer motherboard!

That's nonsense! All SATA drives are backward compatible. 1.5Gb/sec chipsets will run 3.0 Gb/sec hard drives at 1.5 Gb/sec rate. It's possible that the BIOS just won't support a drive as large as 1 TB. It might be a good idea to try a different SATA drive, i.e. Western Digital or Seagate. You could get an IDE hard drive instead of the SATA.

BTW, DFT has been around a long time, it should not freeze the computer, but the fact that it does, is not good.

Are you running the latest BIOS (v 1.1e)?
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWebSite/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?detailid=423&DetailName=Bios&DetailDesc=&CategoryID=1&MenuID=6&LanID=0

I'm looking at your manual (p.34). Check BIOS setting: VIA OnChip IDE Device
OnChip SATA-Enable
SATA Mode-NOT RAID
I have the latest BIOS version. Thanks. I updated the VIA SATA driver to a newer version. The one I installed was 3-'07 I think. I have been changing some settings in the BIOS but it seems like everytime I plug in the SATA drive to the data line and power, the system does't like that. I have a hard time getting it to boot if at all. Is this motherboard known for PROBLEMS, I wonder? Any ideas? Thanks. Not saying its the board but ECS is 1 of the worst boards to choose.Try starting from scratch.Set the bios to best config. or de fault.Forget raid [my thoughts]Your symptoms are almost as if the motherboard were trying to initialize the SATA drive as RAID.
The "yellow sign" in Windows Device Manager seems to indicate this, too.
Are you connecting the SATA drive before you boot or after you boot? If before, try connecting SATA data line after computer has booted.
Make sure RAID is OFF in the BIOS.

BTW, WinXP might attempt to initialize a SATA drive even if it is turned off in the BIOS. I FOUND this out by accident, when I was trying to get mine to boot. Depends on the Mobo and the BIOS.

Therefore, try turning the SATA drive OFF in the BIOS and see what happens. Your boot drive is still the Seagate 160 IDE.Hey I finally got the motherboard to recognize the hard drive! I had to hook up the drive to another computer and run the software program that hitachi has to change the setting on the drive to a slower data speed. After I did that, when I hooked it up to my motherboard, it was recognized and working okay. Wow, what a hassle. thanks to all for their help!

Solve : SATA HDD and motherboard issues!?

Discussion

No Comment Found

Related InterviewSolutions

Reply to Comment