SATA hard drive question

[tboy]

Ok, so like Kathleen I built a new computer system. Pentium Duo Core, Asus P5Q Mobo, sata drive, Gforce vid card with 512 GDDR3, 4 Gb memory Blu Ray/HD DVD drive 500 gb HDD etc.

So, as I power up for the first time, it won't boot from the new sata drive. The HDD or the Blue Ray CD ROM DVD combo.

I'm scratching my head so decide to read the manual (lol yeah, should have read it first lol).

there it was in Black and White: Sata drives won't work until you load Windows XP SP1 (at least). So I'm thinking: is this screwed up or what? You have to have windows XP SP1 on a hard drive before the mobo will recognize the drive. Talk about a catch 22.

Fortunately for me I had a 120 GB IDE drive on my old computer and was able to get it up and running (like a F22 raptor I might add)...

So, my query to the techno geeks out there: is there a way to boot a new system with a sata drive? I ask because most if not all the new drives are all sata......

One more question: is there a way to get windows XP to recognize the full 4 GB memory not just 3?

 

[Sexy_Dave]

As to the RAM question...

You must have the 64 bit version of Vista to be able to utilize more than 3Gb of RAM. I am not sure about the XP 64 bit.

 

[vavog]

Won't boot from any HDD without a OS on it. If you're trying to install WinXP (SP1 or later) from your DVD drive, the problem might be that your DVD drive is also SATA and you have SATA configured as RAID? Or possibly you haven't changed the bios to allow boot from the DVD? Look at sections 3.3.6 and 3.7.

I'm also assuming you're not getting any beep codes

 

[tboy]

Won't boot from any HDD without a OS on it. If you're trying to install WinXP (SP1 or later) from your DVD drive, the problem might be that your DVD drive is also SATA and you have SATA configured as RAID? Or possibly you haven't changed the bios to allow boot from the DVD? Look at sections 3.3.6 and 3.7.

I'm also assuming you're not getting any beep codes

Well, the computer won't start without an HDD "installed" and you can't "install" an HDD Sata without windows on it.

Yes, I was trying to install from a sata drive, luckily I had a spare IDE DVD ROM drive too.

No, the sata wasn't a RAID drive.

Yes, the bios was changed to allow to boot from the DVD but there was no recognized drive to load the OS onto because, it was a sata drive and you needed to install the windows SATA drivers before it would recognize the SATA drive that I was trying to install XP onto.

Which is my point: you need XP SP1 on a drive before XP will recognize the drive. If all you have is a SATA drive, you're screwed. (lol or so it seemed).

 

[vavog]

it was a sata drive and you needed to install the windows SATA drivers before it would recognize the SATA drive that I was trying to install XP onto.

The bios should recognize the drives no matter what.. its just windows doesn't have the right RAID drivers to boot from a raid configurred sata hard drive. Very odd indeed.

I assume you had the HDD and DVD plugged into the Red sata connectors (not P5Q's Orange / White special connectors)? I assume you had power to the drives too? Stupid questions I know.. but your first issue is to get the BIOS to see the drives which apparently is not the case right now.

 

[tboy]

Yeah I had power to both drives and I could hear them spool up upon powering up. But still, my bios still doesn't "see" the sata HDD, just windows.....I tell ya, it's weird

Andy: yeah, that's what I figured would/should happen but it didn't.....I mean, the MOBO manual even states that it won't recognize a sata drive until windows XP SP1 is installed.....

 

[Master_Bates]

the drives should definitely be detected... you shoul dbe able to see them when you go into the bios.

 

[Spinnerbait]

Hey tboy,

Go to Asus website to see if there is a Bios update. Assuming your Bios is current and set up is correct, you either have a faulty MB or Sata Drive/Cable. The manual is trying to tell you to install XP with SP1 or after, but not before.

 

[WoodPeckr]

As to the RAM question...

You must have the 64 bit version of Vista to be able to utilize more than 3Gb of RAM. I am not sure about the XP 64 bit.

I put 4GB of ram in my 32 bit Vista laptop and Vista shows it will utilize 3.5 of that ram.
It runs noticeably quicker from the original 2GB.

 

[Twister]

Yeah I had power to both drives and I could hear them spool up upon powering up. But still, my bios still doesn't "see" the sata HDD, just windows.....I tell ya, it's weird

Andy: yeah, that's what I figured would/should happen but it didn't.....I mean, the MOBO manual even states that it won't recognize a sata drive until windows XP SP1 is installed.....

I never heard that, you should be able to boot from the dvd drive and have the sata driver ready and insert it when windows asks for it after f6..

 

[fip]

I've never had problems

Here's the complicated order it needs to be done in.

1. Boot from CD / DVD
2. Install O/S on SATA drive

 

[ggaleazz]

Welcome to the complicated world of PC's. What has likely happened is that your motherboard would need a bios update/upgrade in order to recognize the SATA drive. That might explain why the mobo couldn't recognize the drive. The reason being is that Windows XP treats all SATA drives as RAID controllers (even if you're not using it in a raid config) and required an additional process to install an external SATA driver during installation, often supplied by the manufaturer. I don't remember at the moment when or if that was ever fixed with a Service Pack (perhaps SP1?).

Of course the problem you ran into is that you are installing the OS via a SATA drive which won't be recognized without windows installed first. Although SATA was intended for both Hard drives and Optical drives many, actually the majority of the early drives were hard drives as they had the most to gain from the speed advantage. Even today SATA optical drives are still somewhat of a minority compared to IDE drives.

So what likely happened is that the Mobo manufacturer cheaped out and assumed the user would not be using an all SATA configuration or that they'd have Windows preloaded on a hard drive. So they left it up to windows to recognize the drives rather than including it standard in the BIOS. Get a new Mobo.

 

[Master_Bates]

The P5Q is a fairly new mobo and based on one of intel's newest chipsets so I'm sure it's able.

 

[shakenbake]

Yeah I had power to both drives and I could hear them spool up upon powering up. But still, my bios still doesn't "see" the sata HDD, just windows.....I tell ya, it's weird

Andy: yeah, that's what I figured would/should happen but it didn't.....I mean, the MOBO manual even states that it won't recognize a sata drive until windows XP SP1 is installed.....

Not all necessary drivers are included with Windows. On one of my computers, I had to have the correct driver loaded while I installed Windows XP on my SATA drive. After that, it was a piece of cake. Sometimes, when you ar einstalling Windows, it wil lask you if yo want to install a specific driver while you are installing Windows to a hard drive.

You may want to get the driver on a floppy for your chipset and do a repair install on the SATA drive. This is what I have had to do on more than one occasion, and on one particular mobo that I have.

Hope that helped.