Serial ATA HDD question...PLEASE HELP

lee42lee

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I am building a new system and am having problems getting windows to load. My system:

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI mainboard
AMD 3800 cpu
Twin BFG GeForceâ„¢ 6600 GT OC PCI express graphics cards
500W Aspire Super UV Reactive Computer Power Supply
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 120GB SATA150 HDD


I have never built a system and used a serial ata hard drive I always use the IDE cables. I can get Windows to start installing ( it will setup the partition then start installing the files) but after the first reboot it will start the installation all over from the beginning. Also when it reboots it will say "boot from cd rom". Shouldn't it boot from hard drive after the first reboot during installation? To me it acts like the system isn't detecting the hard drive correctly. Do I need to install something before I start installing windows with the Serial ATA hard drive? Please help.

Lee Harrell
 
It should work just like you used wo with IDE. Check your cables and make sure you have them plugged in to the proper spot on the Motherboard.
 
you aint leaving the disc in the drive are ya?
and booting from the cdrom instead of the hdd?
you need to change boot priority in the bios to hdd as 1st.
dont know if this helps .
woz
 
definately check what woz said because that seems like the only software problem...the only other thing that i can think of that is your hard drive isn't loading the boot section.
 
Are you installing the SATA drivers at the beginning of your installation of XP?
Sorry ... but after the first re-boot it will ask you to "boot from cd" ... just ignore it and it will continue on to the hard drive to continue it's installation. It's because in your BIOS you have the cd rom set in the boot order before the hard drive. Which it should be when doing a clean install of an OS. Just let the "boot from cd" ticker go and it will go the hard drive next to continue its installation. After the installation is complete, go back into BIOS and change the boot order and list the hard drive as first in line.
 
yes I installed the SATA drivers at the begining of XP. If I let the cd ticker run out it will say "verifying DMI pool" then when it is going to boot from the HDD the screen will go black and do nothing.

One other question. Is the SATA HDD a lot better than the IDE ones I used in the past? If not I may just go get another hard drive. Thanks for any help.

Lee
 
Sounds like you have a qwuirky motherboard. The SATA drive works at 150 mhz compared to 100/133 of IDE drives. Seems like it's only faster in mhz, but I notice a big difference in response time compared to my old IDE drives. Have a little more patience in figuring out why you're having this problem, before throwing in the towel. :)
Check with support at Gigabyte (giga-byte.com) and see if there has been any mention of others having the same issues with SATA drives and your exact motherboard.
Do you have the most current BIOS flashed? I've heard of other SATA drive compatible motherboards needing the BIOS updated in order for them to actually work. Or maybe you did flash it with a new update before your started installing the SATA drive? If so, roll back to an earlier BIOS version.

Also, look in BIOS ... some motherboards boot order lists IDE hard drives before SATA drives. Maybe it's looking for an IDE drive and doesnt know to look for the SATA drive. Some motherboards list their SATA drives as IDE 3 & 4, which I know is odd since they're not IDE. But just some things to look for in your troubleshooting.
 
I have looked in the bios and haven't saw anything in the boot order that says SATA so maby it is the IDE3 and 4. I have not updated the bios for this board. You think that may be what it is?
 
its possible. Check for the IDE 3 & 4 option. In the boot order, does it list your hard drive there? i.e Maxtor 150gb sata drive ... or something similar? If not, then I would contact giga-byte.com and check with their support. They made the motherboard, they should know how to resolve the issues you're having. :) It could be that a BIOS update is needed. I looked on their site for your specific motherboard and they do have a fairly recent BIOS update listed as of 4/29/05. Here's the link: http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/BIOS/BIOS_GA-K8NXP-SLI.htm
 
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