SATA problems

[catalyst1]

The exact same thing happened to me. I was really frustrated, so I went back to the only other place I could - the BIOS. I checked a few settings, and everything seemed normal, but I noticed that the SATA RAID was enabled. Even though I wasn't using RAID, I had figured it would still work, but I tried turning RAID off anyway. It did the trick, and I didn't need to install the SATA drivers at all. Windows detected it with no problem. Just check your BIOS to see if SATA is enabled and not RAIDed.

As for having Windows install drivers from CD - that's not an option for some reason. It has to be floppy. I'm guessing future versions of Windows (i.e. Vista) will allow CD drivers and will probably also come SATA enabled, but who knows.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

So you turned RAID off and it worked? Man this RAID stuff is screwing everything up. That is why when I get a new motherboard, I'm going to research first.

 

[catalyst1]

Yeah. I guess if you have RAID enabled, the Windows installer doesn't recognize the drive even if it really isn't RAIDed. Obviously, trying to install drivers from a floppy will not fix this. Man, I was so pissed. I worked on my computer for days trying to figure that out. I tried every set of drivers on the motherboard CD, every configuration I could think of, et cetera et cetera. Stupid RAID. Why can't people just get one big hard drive?!?!!

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I wish the technology can change so motherboards have built in SATA drivers in ROM to load when installing the SATA drive. Now wouldn't that be something. No more drivers unless you need to flash it for SATA driver updates. Kind of like a BIOS update.

 

[catalyst1]

Well, like I said, future versions of Windows will probably come SATA-ready (just like it's IDE-ready now).

 

[CrossCech]

speaking of which ... if you're interested in having an XP cd with SATA drivers on it specific for your machine ... try slipstreaming your own. Why wait for Microsoft when you can do it yourself. Here's a link which I googled "How to slipstream SATA drivers with XP":
http://www.maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html